Short ETFs: A Top 10

Want to find the best or biggest short ETFs for you?

As you know, Exchange-traded funds or ETFs, offer an investor the possibility to put his money in a bunch of companies, and at the same time benefitting from stock-like price fluctuations. Usually, ETFs track the performance of a commodity or an index. Unlike other investment funds that try to outperform indices or the market in general, ETFs just track their activity, so in this way, ETFs have benchmarks represented by the aforementioned indices or commodities.

So, ETFs behave the same way as the indices or groups of securities they track, which means that as the price of the benchmark increases, so does the price of an ETF, which means that speculative investors can profit from price fluctuations. However, there are also ETFs that can be used to obtain profit from a decline of a benchmark. These type of ETFs are called “Short ETFs” “Bear ETFs,” or “Inverse ETFs.”

Basically, short ETFs work by using short selling, which means that the seller of an inverse ETF sells it before owning it, hoping to purchase this ETF later at a price that is lower that the price at which he sold his shares in an ETF. The similarity between a stock and an ETF comes also in form of short ETFs.

Insider Monkey has compiled a list of ten largest short ETFs in terms of assets under management, similar to our explanation of what are ETFs. We have also included the year-to-date return of the short ETFs on our countdown, as well as their average trading volume per day. Read on to see the list of short ETFs and find out which one is on the first position.

Continue reading for a look at some of the biggest short ETFs:

No. 10 Proshares Trust II (NYSEARCA:YCS)

YCS data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $492,100
Year-to-date return: 21%
Average Trading Volume: $618,500
The Index the ETF Tracks: Japanese Yen (-200%)

No. 9 ProShares Short Russell2000(ETF) (NYSEARCA:RWM)

RWM data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $501,800
Year-to-date return: -19%
Average Trading Volume: $1.2 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: Russell 2000 Index (-100%)

No. 8 Direxion Daily 20 Year Plus Treasury Br (NYSEARCA:TMV)

TMV data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $559,400
Year-to-date return: 43.4%
Average Trading Volume: $539,500
The Index the ETF Tracks: NYSE 20 Year Plus Treasury Bond Index (-300%)

No. 7 Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSEARCA:FAZ)

FAZ data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $596,800
Year-to-date return: -47.2%
Average Trading Volume: $6.9 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: Russell 1000 Financial Services Index (-300%)

No. 6 ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500 (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SPXU)

SPXU data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $602,600
Year-to-date return: -41.6%
Average Trading Volume: $7 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: S&P 500 Index (-300%)

No. 5 Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (NYSEARCA:TZA)

TZA data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $885,100
Year-to-date return: -48.6%
Average Trading Volume: $13.6 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: Russell 2000 Index (-300%)

No. 4 ProShares Short 20+ Year Treasury ETF (NYSEARCA:TBF)

TBF data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $1.4 million
Year-to-date return: 14.2%
Average Trading Volume: $1.2 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: Barclays Capital U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Index (-100%)

No. 3 ProShares Short S&P500 (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SH)

SH data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $1.9 million
Year-to-date return: -15.6%
Average Trading Volume: $4 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: S&P 500 Index (-100%)

No. 2 ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SDS)

SDS data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $2 million
Year-to-date return: -28.8%
Average Trading Volume: $11.7 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: S&P 500 Index (-200%)

No. 1 ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Trea (ETF) (NYSEARCA:TBT)

TBT data by YCharts

Assets Under Management: $4.1 million
Year-to-date return: 29.7%
Average Trading Volume: $5.2 million
The Index the ETF Tracks: Barclays Capital U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Index (-200%)