EMTY vs RWM

EMTYCProShares Decline of the Retail Store ETF

RWMBProShares Short Russell2000

In short

EMTY A short bet with a storyline. EMTY moves inverse to a basket of bricks-and-mortar retailers and resets daily. In a bear-fund crowd built on stock indexes, currencies and volatility, it is the one aimed at a single real-world theme.

RWM Short small caps at one speed: RWM targets the inverse of the Russell 2000's daily move, with no 2x or 3x multiplier on top. Trading since 2007, at 0.95% net of a waiver through September 30, 2027.

Stated mandate

EMTY The fund seeks capital appreciation from declines in bricks-and-mortar retailers by taking short exposure to the Solactive-ProShares Bricks and Mortar Retail Store Index, targeting approximately the inverse of the index’s daily performance.

RWM The fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to the inverse of the Russell 2000 Index's daily performance.

Why people hold it

• EMTY Thematic, not index. The best-known names in its bear cohort short the Nasdaq (PSQ), the euro (EUO), the yen (YCS) or volatility (SVXY). This one points at physical retail stores.
• The fee is 0.65% a year, well under the typical charge in its inverse-fund cohort and under every fund at the top of that group.
• Running since 2017, so the mechanics have been through years of live retail news cycles rather than a backtest.

• RWM Straight -1x, not a multiplier: it tracks the inverse of the Russell 2000's daily move, where stablemate TWM targets -2x on the same index.proshares.com
• ProShares calls it the only -1x ETF tied to the Russell 2000, the index of the 2,000 smallest US names in the Russell 3000.proshares.comproshares.com 2
• Trading since January 2007 and one of the busier funds in the inverse-equity aisle, so entering and exiting is rarely the hard part.
• Fee is 0.95% net of a waiver through September 30, 2027 (1.05% gross), near what this category charges, and it rates among the strongest builds in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• EMTY Daily reset. Hold past a day and the result can drift from the simple inverse of the index over that stretch, most of all in choppy, back-and-forth markets.
• Small and thinly traded. Spreads can widen, the trade price can sit away from net asset value, and funds with a modest asset base get closed or merged more often than large ones.
• One idea, one corner of the market. There is no diversification cushion here. The fortunes of bricks-and-mortar retailers drive the whole thing.

• RWM The -1x target resets daily. Hold longer and compounding rules: ProShares says multi-day returns can differ significantly from the target, in amount and even direction.proshares.comproshares.com 2
• Symmetric by design: on days the Russell 2000 climbs, the fund is built to lose roughly as much as the index gains.proshares.com
• Fund documents tell investors to monitor holdings as frequently as daily, which puts this at the hands-on end of the shelf.proshares.com

Full EMTY profile⁠

Full RWM profile⁠