Topic: How To Invest

Q: What do you think of the ProShares Ultra Gold ETF as a way to profit in gold? Cheers.

Article Excerpt

A: ProShares Ultra Gold ETF, $35.25, symbol UGL on New York (Units outstanding: 2.8 million; Market cap: $98.7 million; www.proshares.com), aims to move 200% in the same direction as the price of gold. The fund relies on futures contracts and other derivatives to try to boost its returns on gold. Its hoped-for result is that when the price of gold is up 2% on a particular day, the ProShares Ultra Gold ETF should be up about 4%; if gold falls 2%, the ProShares Ultra Gold ETF should fall 4%. Inevitably, leveraged ETFs like this one lose value more readily than they gain it, due to the costs associated with buying and selling, and the 0.95% MER. These costs continually whittle away at the asset values of these investments, regardless of whether gold is rising or falling. You can only profit from investments like these if you get in and out at just the right time. But if you had that superhuman sense of…