ProShares - VIX Short-Term Futures ETF
This fund tracks market volatility itself rather than stocks or bonds. It is built as a short-term trading instrument, not a buy-and-hold investment.
$16.73+0.25 (+1.52%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.85%
- Fund size
- $214M
- 1Y return
- −49.9%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- —
- Holdings
- 3
- Volume · 30D
- 2.8M sh
- NAV per share
- $17.06
- 52W range
The ETF.net VIXY Grade
Score 33 of 100 sits in the D band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.FScore 15Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.Not scoredRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.FScore 13Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 76Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.Not scoredDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 84Category rank
Our read on VIXY
DThe original volatility ETF: ProShares launched it in 2011 to put VIX futures in a fund wrapper instead of a bank note. It tracks an index that rolls short-dated VIX futures daily, designed to move with expected S&P 500 volatility.
The fund seeks, before fees and expenses, to match the performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index. It is designed to benefit from increases in expected S&P 500 volatility as reflected in VIX futures prices.
Why people hold it
- Launched January 2011 as one of the first volatility ETFs, built to deliver VIX futures exposure in a fund rather than an unsecured bank-issued note.sec.gov
- Plain 1x exposure to the short-term VIX futures index: no leverage multiplier stacked on top of an already jumpy asset.proshares.com
- Actively traded, which matters for a tool most people use in short bursts around market stress rather than hold for years.
- ProShares says on the fund page that rolling VIX futures daily has historically carried significant costs that reduce returns. Unusual candor about a built-in drag.proshares.com
Worth knowing
- The daily roll is the whole story: ProShares notes VIX futures indexes have historically shown significant roll costs, and that VIX levels have tended to revert to an average.proshares.com
- Files as a commodity pool, not a 1940 Act fund, and sends a K-1 at tax time. Worth knowing before it lands in a taxable account.proshares.com
- At 0.85% a year, it costs more than the typical hedging peer, including TAIL (0.59%) and CAOS (0.63%).
VIXY Holdings
- Other
- 3
- 100%
- Net Other Assets (Liabilities)
VIXY Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
VIXY$5,012
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | VIXY |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −35.7% |
| 1 month | −9.5% |
| 3 months | −24.6% |
| 1 year | −49.9% |
| 3 years | −43.5% |
| 5 years | −48.2% |
| 10 years | −46.7% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | VIXY |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −35.7% | |
| 2025 | −43.0% | |
| 2024 | −27.4% | |
| 2023 | −72.7% | |
| 2022 | −25.0% | |
| 2021 | −72.4% | |
| 2020 | +10.5% |
VIXY in the news
VIXY Dividends
No distributions in the last 12 months.
VIXY Risk
- 43.8%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- −1.08
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −96.5%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- −2.31
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
VIXY Cost
0.85%
VIXY0.85%
- The middle half of Portfolio Hedging funds
- Median 0.63%
8 of the 11 Portfolio Hedging funds charge less.