ETF Securities to launch short and leveraged ETCs

The company says it is the first time investors have been offered listed access to an entire platform of Short and Leveraged commodity indices via ETCs.

"The Short and Leveraged ETCs will complement ETF Securities' existing 51 Classic and Forward ETCs, which already provide investors long exposure to different parts of the futures curve," the firm said in a statement.

The 66 new ETCs are all priced off indices and sub-indices of the Dow Jones - AIG Commodities IndexSM. As with the existing Classic and Forward ETCs, these new ETCs will comprise 19 individual commodities and 9 sub-indices.

Four new commodities will also be added: cocoa, lead, tin and platinum. With the new ETCs, ETF Securities will have created more than 110 ETCs providing long, short and leveraged exposure to the world's major commodity markets, ETF Securities said.

The new ETCs are expected to be listed on the London Stock Exchange in the next few weeks and will provide investors access to a wide range of investment and trading strategies. Short ETCs will enable investors to gain from falls in commodity prices. Leveraged ETCs will enable investors to gain from rising commodity prices, providing exposure with 50% less capital.

The ETC platform offered by ETF Securities has experienced massive growth in the past eight weeks, with assets growing by 50% to over $3.2 billion, ETF Securities said. Daily trading volumes have doubled to almost $80 million per day across five European exchanges.

The increase in assets has occurred as a result of increased awareness of commodities and ETCs, volatile equity markets creating demand for non-correlated assets, positive commodity fundamentals, inflation fears and annual portfolio rebalancings made at the start of the new year.