December 20, 2018
I support approving the proposed funds.
It is important to note that investors today already have access to products that provide far greater leverage or exhibit far more volatility than these proposed products would. For example:
1. Listed securities options. These are products that millions of US investors trade each day. Many options provide far more leverage, and exhibit price changes that are far more volatile, than 4X SP500. Also, many thousands of options expire worthless each month, yet investors have easy access to them.
2. Listed futures. These are products that have far greater leverage than the proposed 4X SP 500 ETF, and obligate investors to continue posting variation margin each day. Meaning, you can lose far more money than you initially invest. In essence, the proposed 4X ETFs are watered down (ie, safer) substitutes to futures contracts because your losses are capped with any ETF whereas you have potential unknown losses with futures.
3. 4X leveraged ETNs. These already exist, so who decided that its OK to have 4X products on FX but its not OK to have 4X products on the SP500?