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ETF Update: Short and leveraged ETFs

The markets did well yesterday, up 379 points. Impressive breadth across the board. The Wall Street Journal has a great data center for Etfs. The ETF Gainers, Decliners and Most Actives data column is pretty good, its updated throughout the day and you do not need a subscription to get the information.

Yesterday's big market day had ETF funds lit up with huge market moves especially in leveraged ETFs. ProShares funds had a huge day yesterday on the leveraged side. ProShares, if you are unfamiliar with this fund group, is one of the largest short and leveraged ETF family of funds in the world. Of course, many of their short funds were down but the leveraged funds (finally) did better. The Proshares Ultra Financials (UYG), 52 week % change - 92.61% and ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (SSO), 52 week % change -73.21% finally got a break and is up 4.23% and 2.03% respectively today. Now, I am not advocating that now is the time to buy into these two funds. I still think a wait and see approach is still necessary. Yesterday's rally could be a bear market rally.

What should you be buying? I still like ProShares UltraShort Financials (SKF), current asking price is $178.43. Going short may still be a good idea even though financials have been beaten down unmercilessly; $5k of a 100k portfolio (5%) may be a good investment at this time in this fund. Be careful though, like yesterday, the markets can reverse quickly and wipe out any gains you may have gained. Don't forget to set stops on your purchases.
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