ETF Securities, a leading provider of exchange-traded products (ETPs), saw increased levels of interest from investors in its short and leveraged ETPs range in 2013, registering $42 million of net inflows across its alternative equities, commodities, and foreign exchange products.
Net inflows across all European providers of short and leveraged products came in at $249 million, driven primarily by positive flows in fixed income and currency products.
ETF Securities’ triple leveraged currency products saw record inflows, with approximately $130 million of new assets invested. Investors showed particular interest in leveraged exposure to the long US/short EUR pair.
The provider’s short and leveraged equity products also saw positive inflows of $4m, driven primarily by pair trading in the DAX products, with $38m of new funds into the 2x short product offset by $18 million of outflows from the 2x long product.
Apart from strong inflows into its leveraged silver ($82mm) and short gold ($71m) products, the provider’s short and leveraged commodity products saw net negative outflows of $92 million. The largest outflows were from the leveraged WTI crude oil ($109 million), short copper ($50 million), leveraged natural gas products ($95 million).
Commenting on the flows, Townsend Lansing, head of short and leveraged products at ETF Securities, said: “Our short and leveraged ETPs are popular in the UK, Italy, Germany and Austria. Last year, our products on commodities, equities and FX saw significant volume and flows, which we believe reflects how investors are increasingly looking to trade short term trends in these markets and take advantage of a transparent and fully-collateralised structure with independent pricing.”
The short and leveraged industry is now worth over $50 billion globally and is expected to continue to grow.
ETF Securities plans to bring new short and leveraged products to market in the second quarter of 2014.