New ProFunds ETFs: Awaiting the Leveraged Short Ones

Roger Nusbaum submits: Regarding the new ProFunds ETFs (listed here at bottom)-- most people will use them to make short term bets. They will also come in handy to help hedge for longer periods of time even if they struggle to meet their exact objectives.

The proposed double short funds are more appealing to me. If you are interested in hedging with these, you can protect more of your portfolio with fewer dollars or taken another way you don't have to sell as much stock to make room for the double short ETF of your choice.

Another thing to keep in mind is if you own one of these and the market starts to go up the one you own will become less and less of a drag on the portfolio. An initial position that hedges 20%, so putting 10% of your portfolio into a double short fund, would drop in value when the market goes up. At the same time the other 90% of your portfolio would be going up. So the more the market goes up the less you are hedged.