At least one class-action law firm is stepping quickly to mine gold from the leveraged ETF kerfuffle. The legal team at Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, said Wednesday that they are "investigating claims involving investment losses in leveraged and short exchange traded funds."

They are looking specifically at ETFs sold through Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Advisors, Smith Barney, LPL Financial, Ameriprise, Edwards Jones, UBS, and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Products in their sites include ETFs from Rydex Investments, Direxion Funds, and ProShares Advisors.

The investigations by class-action specialists is typically the first step to find potential plaintiffs to bring a formal suit. The law firm's press release encourages shareholders who believe they were harmed to contact Jeffrey Kaplan at the Miami-based law firm.

The most likely target of a suit would be the distributors of the funds. One potential claim is that the brokerage firm failed to inform shareholders of the "true risks" of the ETFs. That could lead to the theory that the investments were not suitable for the shareholders who sought "both safe investments and longer-term investing." 

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