Bond market fears appears to be fueling interest in a particular kind of ETF, according to Barron's.

The newspaper quotes an executive from ProShares [profile] who often hears the following the question: “How can we use your inverse fixed-income ETFs to manage our duration risk?”

That is what Joanne Hill, the company’s head of investment strategy, told attendees at an ETF conference Tuesday, according to Barron's. ProShares is the $22 billion firm behind inverse and leveraged ETFs such as ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 (SDS) and ProShares Short S&P 500 (SH). The firm’s most popular product by assets is a bearish bet on bonds: the $3.3 billion UltraShort Barclays 20+ Years Treasury (TBT).

A rising stock market has kept a lid on leveraged and inverse ETFs’ assets, which have plateaued around $30 billion the last few years. But trouble in bonds could change that — it could be the thing that pushes fresh investor interest in this arcane niche.

Read more on the subject in Barron's. 

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE