With Japanese equity linked ETFs such as EWJ (iShares MSCI Japan, Expense Ratio 0.51%) and DXJ (WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity, Expense Ratio 0.48%) seeing renewed life in recent sessions and taking in fresh assets via creation (EWJ +$341 million, DXJ +$311 million) we note that the best performing currency related ETF year to date is also linked to Japan, YCS (ProShares UltraShort Yen, Expense Ratio 0.95%).
YCS is designed to provide two times the daily inverse return of the Japanese Yen, and has been used by aggressive speculators and hedgers alike whom are concerned with additional potential downside in the currency.
This product has grown to north of $500 million in assets under management, which is quite interesting given the unleveraged “long” Yen ETF that is most notable to ETF investors, FXY (CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust, Expense Ratio 0.40%), only has $132 million in AUM. [Yen ETF Rally May be Flash in the Pan After Elections]
There does not exist an unlevered “inverse” Yen ETF at the moment despite investor appetite and demand, but perhaps like in the case of the Euro where finally an unlevered “Short Euro” product was developed and launched in EUFX (ProShares Short Euro, Expense Ratio 0.95%) a little over a year ago, at some point a similar product in the Yen space may be in the cards.