Direxion, the second-largest issuer of inverse and leveraged exchange traded funds, will introduce two triple-leveraged plays on European equities Wednesday with the debuts of the Direxion Daily FTSE Europe Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: EURL) and the Direxion Daily FTSE Europe Bear 3x Shares (NYSEArca: EURZ).
EURL will seek to deliver three times the daily performance of the FTSE Developed Europe Index while EURZ will attempt to deliver three times the daily inverse performance of that index. Both new ETFs feature expense ratios of 0.99% per year.
The FTSE Developed Europe Index is the same index the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSEArca: VGK), the largest Europe ETF, benchmarks to. The index was home to 502 stocks with a median market cap of $55.2 billion at the end of last year, according to Vanguard data.
The U.K., France, Germany and Switzerland combined for 65% of VGK’s country weight at the end of 2013.
The new Direxion ETFs will compete with the ProShares UltraShort FTSE Euro (NYSEArca: EPV) and the ProShares Ultra FTSE Europe (NYSEArca: UPV), the double-leveraged spins on the FTSE Developed Europe Index.
Inverse and leveraged ETFs finished 2013 with $54.8 billion in combined assets under management, up 22% from 2012, according to Boost ETP. [Inverse, Leveraged ETFs See Assets Surge]
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