Today we point out some institutional nibbling in iShares MSCI Brazil (NYSEArca: EWZ) puts, which is likely hedging activity if not outright bearish speculation on the country specific ETF. EWZ launched in the year 2000 and remains the largest Brazil specific ETF in the marketplace having accumulated more than $8.6 billion in assets over time.
Since 2000, there has been a great deal of innovation in the evolution of Brazil specific ETF products, notably with the emergence of small cap oriented and even infrastructure related products. [Brazil ETFs Gear Up for World Cup, Olympics]
Market Vectors Brazil Small Cap (NYSEArca: BRF) and iShares MSCI Brazil Small Cap (NYSEArca: EWZS) both hone in on small cap listed names in Brazil, giving investors exposure to more growth oriented names as EWZ itself is large cap slanted.
EG Shares INDXX Brazil Infrastructure (NYSEArca: BRXX) targets 30 companies that are specifically involved in Brazilian sectors that are linked to infrastructure build out. Global X Brazil Consumer (NYSEArca: BRAQ) and Global X Brazil Financials (NYSEArca: BRAF) offer specific sector exposures as their names suggest while Global X Brazil Mid Cap (NYSEArca: BRAZ) delivers the ability to track mid cap names.
First Trust Brazil AlphaDEX (NYSEArca: FBZ) is a relative newcomer in the space and takes the fundamental/quantitative AlphaDEX approach and applies it to listed equities in the country.
Finally, for those looking to leverage short term trading opportunities in the country and/or hedge aggressively, ProShares UltraShort MSCI Brazil (NYSEArca: BZQ) and ProShares Ultra MSCI Brazil (NYSEArca: UBR) are two alternatives from the bull and bear side that offer daily two times leverage to returns to the same MSCI Brazil index that EWZ for instance, tracks.
iShares MSCI Brazil Small Cap
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