Aussie ETFs Make Debut

By Ron DeLegge

August 23, 2012 at 08:00 PM

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The ProShares Ultra Australian Dollar (GDAY) and ProShares UltraShort Australian Dollar (CROC) made their trading debut. Both U.S.-listed ETFs provide magnified or inverse exposure to the Australian dollar.

GDAY aims for 2x or 200% the daily performance of the U.S. dollar price of the Australian dollar, before fees and expenses.

CROC aims for minus 2x or 200 percent inverse the daily performance of the U.S. dollar price of the Australian dollar, before fees and expenses.

"The Australian dollar is one of the world's most actively traded currencies," said Michael L. Sapir, chairman and CEO of ProShare Capital Management, the sponsor of the funds. "We are pleased to offer investors additional ways to manage risk or potentially take advantage of moves in this widely followed currency market."

Since the beginning of the year, the Australian dollar or "Aussie" (FXA) has gained around 2.3% versus the U.S. dollar (DX-Y.NYB).

The introduction of GDAY and CROC brings ProShares' lineup of currency ETFs to seven. The firm's existing geared currency ETFs on the euro and the yen have garnered more than $1 billion of assets since launching less than four years ago.

As a result of the compounding of daily returns, ProShares' returns over periods other than one day will likely differ in amount and possibly direction from the target return for the same period. These effects may be more pronounced in funds with larger or inverse multiples or with volatile benchmarks. Both GDAY and CROC charge annual fees of 0.95%.

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