Inverse and leveraged ETF provider Direxion has announced its decision to close and liquidate twelve funds, each providing investors with a targeted sector play. All but one of the funds scheduled for closure offer inverse exposure to their underlying index, indicating the effect the ongoing equities bull market has had on demand for bearish products.

Inverse and leveraged ETF provider Direxion has launched the Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bond Bull 3X Shares (NYSE Arca: EMBU), providing triple-leveraged exposure to the performance of US dollar-denominated bonds issued by 55 emerging market countries. Sylvia Jablonski, managing director at Direxion, commented: “Emerging market bonds can offer the opportunity to gain higher yield and return, which has been the case recently.”

Direxion has launched the Direxion Daily Euro Stoxx 50 Bull 3X Shares (EUXL) which provides 300% of the daily performance of the Euro Stoxx 50 Index. Sylvia Jablonski, managing director at Direxion, said: “As political risks dissipate following the results of the French elections, the eurozone economy strengthens and prospects for earnings improve, this ETF may offer active traders exposure to a highly reputable index tracking 50 of the largest and most liquid blue-chip European stocks.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a request to list quadruple-leveraged exchange-traded funds in the US.

Inverse & leveraged exchange-traded fund provider Direxion has rolled out five leveraged ETFs, providing triple long exposure to various sector plays as well as Mexico’s broad equity market performance. Sylvia Jablonski, managing director at Direxion, commented: “With the new administration in Washington comes new policies that have the potential to affect the capital markets landscape. We aim to provide traders with ways to capitalize on opportunities created by those new policies.”

Direxion has lifted the temporary suspension on creation units for the Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares ETF (NYSE: JNUG) that had been in place since 13 April.

Direxion has launched the Direxion Auspice Broad Commodity Strategy ETF (NYSE: COM) which seeks to provide total return that exceeds that of the Auspice Broad Commodity Index over a complete market cycle. The index utilizes a rules-based process to capture trends in 12 diversified commodity markets using a quantitative methodology. Positions in each of the 12 commodities can be either long or flat, based on risk reduction where the allocation of individual components is reduced if volatility exceeds certain predetermined risk levels.

Direxion has launched the Direxion Daily Consumer Staples Bear 1X Shares (NYSE: SPLZ) and the Direxion Daily Utilities Bear 1X Shares (NYSE: UTLZ), providing single inverse exposure to the performance of US firms operating in the consumer staples and utilities sectors respectively. The firm is building out its suite of inverse US sector ETFs having previously launched funds targeting companies within the energy, technology and financial sectors.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced its intention to crackdown on firms selling contracts for difference (CFDs), highly speculative financial products with margin requirements as low as 2%. The proposal for stricter rules for firms offering CFDs saw the share price of firms offering these products plunge, in one case as much as 40%. The tougher regulation may provide a boon for the leveraged ETF market however as the funds are considered a less aggressive alternative to CFDs.

The ETF industry has a revenue-generating potential of around $6bn per year in the US alone, according to data from FactSet Research Systems. The figure, approximated by summing the “annual revenue potential” of each US-listed ETF, is mainly derived from low-cost, “plain vanilla” ETFs which generate roughly $3.8bn in revenue. More exotic and specialised products, although making up just 28% of US ETF assets, generate a healthy $2.2bn in revenue due to their ability to command higher fees.