Exchange-traded funds offering investors betting on or against Tesla Inc. two times the returns of the volatile stock launched Thursday, after what seemed like a long-shot bid at winning regulatory approval.
The T-Rex 2X Long Tesla Daily Target ETF, (ticker TSLT) uses derivatives to track twice the daily returns of Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker while the T-Rex 2X Inverse Tesla Daily Target ETF (TSLZ) seeks to deliver the opposite return of the stock by the same magnitude.
They’re the first double-leveraged single-stock ETFs focused on Tesla to trade in the US market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. Previous iterations for similar ETFs hadn’t made it past regulatory hurdles tied to volatility rules.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is seemingly softening its stance toward such products, after allowing a 2x Bitcoin futures ETF by Volatility Shares to launch earlier this year.
“We are excited to finally be able to break the 2X barrier and expect this will usher in a whole new generation of trading vehicles to offer more choices for investors when it comes to speculating or hedging,” said Matthew Tuttle of Tuttle Capital Management, which in partnership with REX Shares is behind the double-leveraged Tesla ETFs.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Tuttle and REX Shares assuaged regulatory concerns regarding volatility. Tuttle says that “nothing changed, just figured it out and learned from my mistakes.”
Shares of the EV-maker surged during the early pandemic years, gaining more than 740% in 2020 and another 50% the following year, before dropping 65% in 2022. Its 90-day volatility clocks in at about 50, while the S&P 500’s comes in at 11.
On Wednesday, Tesla reported worse-than-expected earnings in the third quarter, after price cuts and softer sales weighed on the electric-vehicle maker’s margins.
The EV-maker’s volatility is part of the reason why leveraged funds focused on the company have been particularly popular. Assets in the Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 1.5X Shares ETF (TSLL) have ballooned to above $1 billion from around $160 million at the start of the year. Meanwhile, the Yieldmax TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF (TSLY) has drawn in more than $860 million this year.
“The single-stock Tesla ETFs have been the biggest hits of the group, so there is a good shot the 2X ones will succeed as well,” said Bloomberg Intelligence’s Athanasios Psarofagis. “There is still a market and interest in leverage ETFs, so if you could conveniently package up an adrenaline rush, traders will use it.”
Tuttle and REX Shares are also launching double-leveraged ETFs focused on Nvidia Corp. All four of the new funds carry a 1.05% management fee.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.