Leveraged Gold Mining ETFs Down Over 44% in 2014

Gold prices were volatile throughout 2014, but only down slightly on the year. Gold miners, however, were not as fortunate as the Market Vectors Global Junior Gold Miners and the NYSE Arca Gold Miners indexes were down 22.31% and 12.42%, respectively. Several leveraged gold miner investment funds actively trade in the US in the form of exchange traded funds (ETFs), which were down significantly for 2014.

Leveraged ETFs are set up to track the daily performance of an underlying index or strategy, usually by two or three times in the same (bull) direction or inverse (bear) direction, by purchasing or selling complex option and derivative contracts in addition to the underlying securities.

The following leveraged funds that track gold miners were down over 44% each in 2014:

Leveraged funds are specifically structured for traders looking to time the market and realize short-term profits based on the underlying index making single-day moves. Leveraged funds are generally not suitable for long-term investors, as the investment will ultimately lose value or significantly underperform, over a longer term, compared to its stated objective. In fact, Direxion Funds, a leader in leveraged ETFs, puts this disclosure in bold print on its web-page for each of its leveraged funds: “The fund should not be expected to provide [the multiple] times the return of the benchmark’s cumulative return for greater than a day.” Therefore, these leveraged funds are highly unsuitable for long term investors.

If your financial advisor or stockbroker recommended that you invest in leveraged gold miner or junior gold miner securities, you may have options to recover your investment loss. If your advisor failed to fully disclose the risks of investing in leveraged gold miner or junior gold miner securities, then you may have a claim for misrepresentation. If your investment objective was to only invest in safe and stable investments, you may have a claim for unsuitability. If leveraged gold miner or junior gold miner securities made up a large portion of your portfolio, then you may have a claim for over-concentration and lack of diversification. If your advisor purchased this fund without your knowledge, you may have a claim for unauthorized trading. If your advisor purchased this fund on margin, you may have a claim for excessive use of margin and negligence.

The attorneys at Carlson & Associates, P.A., located in Miami, Florida, represent investors who have lost money due to the improper conduct of financial advisors. If you would like to have a free consultation, we can be reached at (305) 372-9700 to discuss your options.