List of Inverse ETFs (Short ETFs / Bear ETFs)

UPDATE – View this page in our brand new ETFs directory.

After some research I thought recently that I may want to place some bearish bets in my online broker account. Inverse ETFs (exchange traded funds) are a good way to do that so I wanted to make sure I had a list of short ETFs at my fingertips when and if the need ever arose. So the following etf list is just for my possible future reference. Please let me know if I’ve missed any ETFs (you can also find a list of Ultra Long ETFs (Bullish ETFs)):

Short (1x), UltraShort (2x), UltraPro (3x) MarketCap ETFs:

ETF Name	Ticker	Benchmark Index
Short QQQ	PSQ	Nasdaq-100
Short Dow 30	DOG	DJIA
Short S&P 500	SH	S&P 500
Short Mid Cap 400	MYY	S&P Mid Cap 400
Short Small Cap 600	SBB	S&P Small Cap 600
Short Russell 2000	RWM	Russell 2000
UltraShort QQQ	QID	Nasdaq-100
UltraShort Dow 30	DXD	DJIA
UltraShort S&P 500	SDS	S&P 500
UltraShort Mid Cap 400	MZZ	S&P Mid Cap 400
UltraShort Small Cap 600	SDD	S&P Small Cap 600
UltraShort Russell 2000	TWM	Russell 2000
UltraPro Short QQQ	SQQQ	Nasdaq-100
UltraPro Short Dow 30	SDOW	DJIA
UltraPro Short S&P 500	SPXU	S&P 500
UltraPro Short Mid Cap 400	SMDD	S&P Mid Cap 400
UltraPro Short Russell 2000	SRTY	Russell 2000

UltraShort (2x) Style:

ETF Name	Ticker	Benchmark Index
UltraShort Russell1000 Value	SJF	Russell 1000 Value
UltraShort Russell1000 Growth	SFK	Russell 1000 Growth
UltraShort Russell Mid Cap Value	SJL	Russell Mid Cap Value
UltraShort Russell Mid Cap Growth	SDK	Russell Mid Cap Growth
UltraShort Russell 2000 Value	SJH	Russell 2000 Value
UltraShort Russell 2000 Growth	SKK	Russell 2000 Growth

UltraShort (2x) Sector:

ETF Name	Ticker	Benchmark Index
UltraShort Basic Materials	SMN	Dow Jones U.S. Basic Materials
UltraShort Consumer Goods	SZK	Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Goods
UltraShort Consumer Services	SCC	Dow Jones U.S. Consumer Services
UltraShort Financials	SKF	Dow Jones U.S. Financials
UltraShort Health Care	RXD	Dow Jones U.S. Health Care
UltraShort Industrials	SIJ	Dow Jones U.S. Industrials
UltraShort Real Estate	SRS	Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate
UltraShort Semiconductors	SSG	Dow Jones U.S. Semiconductors
UltraShort Oil & Gas	DUG	Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas
UltraShort Technology	REW	Dow Jones U.S. Technology
UltraShort Utilities	SDP	Dow Jones U.S. Utilities

Short (1x) & UltraShort (2x) International:

ETF Name	Ticker	Benchmark Index
Short MSCI Emerging Markets	EUM	MSCI Emerging Markets Index
Short MSCI EAFE	EFZ	MSCI EAFE Index
UltraShort MSCI EAFE	EFU	MSCI EAFE Index
UltraShort MSCI Emerging Markets	EEV	MSCI Emerging Markets index
UltraShort MSCI Japan	EWV	MSCI Japan Index
UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua China 25	FXP	FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index

Gold and Silver ETFs / ETNs:

ETF Name	Ticker
ProShares Ultra Silver	AGQ
ProShares UltraShort Silver	ZSL
ProShares Ultra Gold	UGL
ProShares UltraShort Gold	GLL
DB Gold Short ETN	DGZ
DB Gold Double Short ETN	DZZ

Direxion 3x Inverse ETFs:

ETF Name	Ticker	Benchmark Index
Daily S&P 500 Bear 3x Shares	SPXS	S&P 500 Index
Daily Mid Cap Bear 3x	MIDZ	S&P Mid Cap 400 Index
Daily Small Cap Bear 3x	TZA	Russell 2000
Daily Energy Bear 3x	ERY	Energy Select Sector Index
Daily Financial Bear 3x	FAZ	Russell 1000 Financial Services
Daily Gold Miners Bear 3x	DUST	NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index
Daily Junior Gold Miners Bear 3x	JDST	Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners Index
Daily Natural Gas Related Bear 3x	GASX	ISE Revere Natural Gas Index
Daily Real Estate Bear 3x	DRV	MSCI US REIT Index
Daily Semiconductor Bear 3x	SOXS	PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index
Daily Technology Bear 3x	TECS	Technology Select Sector Index
Daily Brazil Bear 3x	BRZS	MSCI Brazil 25-50 Index
Daily FTSE China Bear 3x	YANG	FTSE China 25 Index
Daily FTSE Europe Bear 3x	EURZ	FTSE Developed Europe Index
Daily Developed Markets Bear 3x	DPK	MSCI EAFE Index
Daily Emerging Markets Bear 3x	EDZ	MSCI Emerging Markets Index
Daily Russia Bear 3x	RUSS	Market Vectors Russia Index
Daily Japan Bear 3x	JPNS	MSCI Daily TR Net Japan USD Index
Daily South Korea Bear 3x	KORZ	MSCI Korea 25-50 Index
Daily 7-10 Year Treasury Bear 3x	TYO	NYSE 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Index
Daily 20 year Plus Treasury Bear 3x	TMV	NYSE 20 Year Plus Treasury Bond Index

Trading and Researching ETFs

To compare online brokers for trading ETFs, read our online broker guide and use the StockBrokers.com comparison tool. I recommend Fidelity which has the best research tools (think screeners, charting, third-party reports, etc) and overall experience for ETFs.

Know What’s in Your ETF and How the ETF is Calculated

One of the Fast Money guys mentioned the UltraShort Oil & Gas ProShares ETF (DUG) on yesterday’s show. He questioned how that ETF, which is the double inverse of oil & gas could be up for the day while oil was also up. A quick look at what DUG actually is gives the answer:

UltraShort Oil & Gas ProShares seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to twice (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index^SM

That “daily” part adds one complication to the picture. From the article ‘Understanding ProShares’ Long-Term Performance’ on ProShares’ site:

ProShares are designed to provide either 200%, -200% or -100% of index performance on a daily basis (before fees and expenses).

A common misconception is that ProShares should also provide 200%, -200% or -100% of index performance over longer periods, such as a week, month or year. However, ProShares’ returns may be greater than or less than what you’d expect over longer periods.

The article goes on to explain how & why this happens. But the question about how DUG could be up while the price of oil was also up is answered by looking at what comprises DUG — the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index. That index “measures the performance of the energy sector of the U.S. equity market. Component companies include oil drilling equipment and services, coal, oil companies-major, oil companies-secondary, pipelines, liquid, solid or gaseous fossil fuel producers and service companies.”

Note that the actual price of oil is not mentioned. When you look at how that index is constructed you’ll see that ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) makes up 28%, Chevron Corp. is 11% and ConocoPhillips is 7%. So at least 46% of the index is big oil companies (major integrated oil & gas). Then the question is how does the price of oil relate to movements in those oil companies? Or more broadly, how do ETFs compare against the underlying over longer periods of time?

Below I’ve plotted oil ($WTIC) vs. the ETF tracking oil (USO) over the last 10 years.

This shows that the price of oil has seriously outperformed the ETF, USO. Bottom line, be careful with which ETFs you are holding long.

On any given day, ETFs and the underlying asset can trade opposite each other. And that means that DUG, on any given day, could trade with oil instead of opposite oil. I think many people would assume that if oil was down 5% DUG would be up 10%. That’s clearly not a good assumption to make I’m seeing a lot of people talking about buying DUG to profit from a drop in oil prices. Given the performance data above I think they’d be better off shorting USO. (That is, if they can find shares of it to borrow — I’ve had problems with that in the past.) Puts on USO may do the trick too.

Hopefully those who are trading DUG know that they’re not playing the price of oil directly and won’t be surprised on days like today when DUG and oil trade in the same direction. You’ve always got to know what comprises any ETF. I know that Google directs a lot of people to my list of inverse ETFs who are specifically searching for a way to short oil. Hopefully they do more research than just look at the name of the ETF and really find out what they’re getting.

For more on this topic, ETFDB has a good post, 7 Risks of Trading Leveraged ETFs and How to Avoid Them.