Leveraged ETFs have aroused the curiosity and concern of a regulator, but it's not the SEC. Reuters' Herbert Lash reports that last month Finra asked advisors and brokers questions about sales of leveraged ETFs to investors with less than $10 million in their accounts.

A Finra spokesman told Reuters that such ETFs, from specialists like Direxion and ProFunds, are "exotic" and "extremely complicated and confusing."

"The marketing and sale of these products to unsophisticated retail investors is very much on Finra's radar screen," the spokesman told Reuters.

Of course, both Direxion and ProFunds distribute their products through advisors, and they discourage casual use.

"Don't buy it unless you understand it," ProFunds CEO and chair Michael Sapir told Reuters. 

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