Another Leveraged ETN Scam Blows Up?

Angela Moon and Doris Frankel of Reuters report, Plunge in volatility product a warning to investors:

After losing more than half of its value in the past two days, the plunge in the TVIX volatility-linked exchange-traded product should serve as a warning to investors before jumping into these high risk, esoteric products.

The VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short-Term exchange-traded note fell nearly 30 percent on Friday, following a 30 percent decline on Thursday . New share issuance of this ETN was halted a month ago as investors scrambled into this and other volatility-linked securities to bet on an increase in more market gyrations down the road.

The decline started on Wednesday, when speculation began that Credit Suisse, the issuer, would reopen issuance of the ETN on a limited basis. Credit Suisse announced a few hours after Thursday's close of trading that it would resume issuing new shares.

The price decline is not a surprise - the ETN's price had diverged from its underlying net asset value as a result of the halt in share issuance, so the move could have been predicted.

But the swiftness of the move caught investors by surprise, and analysts had warned that this product - as well as others - are not designed for long-term holding.

"Buyers of TVIX were uninformed. There was no reason to buy TVIX when it was trading at such a premium... They were all caught off-guard when it started dropping in price later in the week," said TABB Group analyst Henry Chien.

More than 30 million shares in TVIX traded on Thursday and more than 27 million on Friday, making it about as active as liquid stocks like Citigroup and Microsoft.

"For end-users of volatility products in general, they should be careful and educate themselves on the mechanics of the product, because something like this could happen again."

Investors had flocked to products that bet on or hedge against volatility in recent months on concerns that the market rally - which has continued nearly unabated since December - would not be sustained. However, some investors started to hold the products - intended for short-term hedges - for long periods, exposing themselves to losses due to the product's structure.

"I assure you that there are a lot of people who owned TVIX and lost a lot of money without understanding why," said Larry McMillan, president of McMillan Analysis Corp., in a report to clients issued Friday, referring to Thursday's action.

Whether the new shares were actually issued on Friday were unknown as Credit Suisse declined to comment. The company also declined to comment on what "limited basis" meant.

Credit Suisse stopped issuing shares in the product in February when investors, betting on volatility, started trading the fund more heavily. The halt caused the price of the fund to diverge from its net asset value, which would only correct after new shares were issued.

RAISES EYEBROWS

Volatility traders have been noticing big swings in TVIX all week. At the start of the week, the ETN, which aims to double the daily move in an index tracking short-term VIX futures, rallied about 7 percent when VIX futures were actually down about 3 percent due to what some traders called a short squeeze.

On average, on a daily basis, the TVIX moves about up and down in percentage terms as the VIX does and twice as quickly as front-month and second-month VIX futures.

The ETN gave back most of its premium to its indicative value on Thursday when it plunged in its heaviest day of trading since mid-February. It had been trading to a huge premium to its net asset value.

"The timing of the collapse of the Net Asset Value of the fund was certainly suspicious," said Chris McKhann, analyst at optionMonster.com.

McKhann noted the TVIX's price was 89 percent greater than the net asset value of the note on Wednesday, and that difference has since collapsed as investors scrambled to dump their holdings.

"Most of the people who owned the TVIX did not understand that it was trading at a huge premium to its NAV, let alone understanding the product itself. But this does not help to restore retail investors and traders faith in a fair market," McKhann said.

Volumes in the ETN surged in mid-February as investors increasingly turned to exchange-traded products as a way to bet on or hedge against volatility, especially in the prolonged complacency in the market.

"The price action in this ETN became purely speculative driven by no fundamental valuation whatsoever," said Scott Maidel, senior portfolio manager, equity derivatives at Russell Investments in Seattle.

Due to the carry cost associated with these types of volatility ETNs, they are typically used as trading instruments rather than buy-and-hold investments.

Carry costs occur when the VIX futures term structure is upward sloping - where the front month futures contract is priced at a lower cost than the back-month contract, which the ETN is buying. The price difference in these contracts has been rising, a greater cost for investors who thought they could buy and hold the note.

The rise in volume was a concern to Credit Suisse, which stopped issuing shares, citing "internal limits" for the size of the ETN. There were concerns that demand for the security would start to have an undue influence on the volatility futures market, rather than tracking those contracts.

The VIX - the CBOE Volatility Index - is the market's favored gauge of investor anxiety. It is not a traded index, but futures contracts trade on the CBOE, and a handful of exchange-traded products track those futures contracts.

Ron DeLegge, editor of ETF Guide, also reports, TVIX Blowup Shows What ETNs Are Capable of:

The historic collapse of a leveraged ETN linked to the VIX index has captured the fancy of adults and schoolchildren everywhere.

The VelocityShares Daily 2X VIX Short-Term ETN (NYSEArca: TVIX - News) lost around 60% in value over the past 2 days, wiping out traders who were making bullish bets on the VIX. Another one bites the dust, as the rock bad Queen would say.

This latest episode brings back bad memories for people that invested in Lehman Brothers ETNs, known as Opta ETNs which became worthless when the company declared bankruptcy in 2008.

The VIX is a forward looking tool that measures the expected future volatility of the S&P 500 stock index (NYSEArca: SPY - News) for the next 30 days. The VIX is quoted in percentage points and it was first introduced in a research paper by Professor Robert E. Whaley at Duke University.

Here's what went wrong with TVIX:

1) Declining stock market volatility has taken the VIX index to 5-year lows, which has crushed ETN products like TVIX that are long the VIX with 2x daily leverage.

2) The issuer of TVIX, Credit Suisse, stopped creation of the notes on February 21st - causing further instability in the share price of TVIX. What Credit Suisse did is akin to a captain abandoning ship and leaving the passengers to fend for themselves.

3) Wall Streets mad scientists (product developers) have been pushing through new ETNs at a rapid pace, because the timetable to market is much shorter compared to traditional ETFs. This has led to an overpopulation of exotic investment strategies wrapped in even more exotic financial burritos.

4) The SEC (once again) comes up short in protecting investors. Could the TVIX ETN blowup have been prevented? Even the ever inept Inspector Clouseau wouldve seen red flags.

I have been warning investors and traders at ETFguide.com and on my weekly radio program to absolutely avoid ALL ETNs.

On September 13, 2011, I wrote 'ETN Market Primed for Disaster.' The article was published at ETFguide.com and Yahoo Finance.

That piece was followed up by another controversial article I wrote on November 30, 2011 titled 'Are you ready for the Great ETN Meltdown?' Then again, on February 13, 2012, I followed up with 'Credit exposure for ETNs not going away.'

In each case, both myself and ETFguide was ridiculed for its forceful recommendations against ETNs. While industry types within the ETP market were being bribed by the ETN industry with advertising money, we were warning people. But thats not all.

In the December 2011 edition of the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter, we asked Which ETNs Will Blow Up First? In this research piece, I provided a list of the top 15 ETNs by assets and 15 alternatives. We gave our subscribers three-months of advanced warning, which shows that fiercely independent research and going against the Wall Street consensus is a winning formula. (Incidentally, TVIX was one of the very ETNs we advised against!)

Today, theres roughly $17 billion parked in U.S. listed ETNs, which is almost double the amount that was invested in ETNs in 2010. People have piled into ETNs linked to master-limited partnerships (NYSEArca: AMJ - News), Indian stocks (NYSEArca: INP - News), and gold (NYSEArca: DGP - News).

After the sudden meltdown of major financial institutions during the 2008-09 financial crisis, one would logically think that people learned about the danger of credit backed products, but apparently not.

No, people have not learned. They're addicted to leverage. These double and triple leveraged ETNs have decimated most investors who don't have a clue how they work. Most experienced traders steer clear of these products precisely because they're a grenade waiting to blow up. Even if you trade them short-term, you can get badly burned.

Below, a snapshot of the VIX and ETNs related to volatility after Friday's close (click on image to enlarge):

The Velocity Shares Daily Inverse VIX (XIV) has been steadily gaining after volatility collapsed in October. This ETN isn't as leveraged as the others, but it's still not a buy and hold product.

The TVIX and UVXY have basically blown up. Will be interesting to see if a class action lawsuit is brought against Credit Suisse, the issuer of TVIX. Some hedge funds were trading these levergaged ETNs for a quick buck, but it's retail investors who bought and held these products who got annihilated. These leveraged ETNs are a scam and the SEC dropped the ball regulating these products.

Below, Jeff Macke of Yahoo Breakout reports, Don’t Get TVIX’ed!, where he warns investors: "There is no free lunch on Wall Street or anywhere else. Don't trust anything you're being told or sold with your own money. Don't wait for the SEC to come in and do your homework; protect yourself by doing the research before you get TVIX'ed."