Barring a nice rally over the last several trading days of 2014, the Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSEArca: RSX) is likely to end the year as one of the worst performing non-leveraged ETFs.
Currently, only two non-leveraged ETFs, both oil funds, have lagged RSX to this point in the year and RSX is not the only Russia fund on the 10 worst list. RSX, the largest Russia ETF, is joined on that list of worst offenders by the iShares MSCI Russia Capped ETF (NYSEArca: ERUS).
Despite a year-to-date loss of nearly 45%, RSX has remained a prolific and surprising asset gatherer. That much was on display earlier this week despite another spate of concerning headlines pertaining to the Russian economy.
On Tuesday, money managers added $126.2 million to RSX, “the most in one day since May 2013,” reports Elena Popina for Bloomberg.
Those inflows to RSX arrived a day after bearish options activity was spotted in the fund. [Options Traders Bet on Declines for Russia ETF]
“Taking a quick step back, puts traded at 1.3 times the average daily pace on Monday. The vast majority of the day’s action centered on RSX’s January 2015 11-strike put, where two large blocks totaling 30,150 contracts were bought to open for $753,750 (number of contracts * $0.25 premium paid * 100 shares per contract),” reports Karee Venema for Schaeffer’s Options Center.