EMTY vs SVXY

EMTYCProShares Decline of the Retail Store ETF

SVXYBProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF

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.

SVXY Short volatility, half dose. SVXY targets one-half the inverse of a VIX short-term futures index each day, a deliberately de-tuned take on the short-vol trade, and it has run that mandate since 2011.

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.

SVXY SVXY seeks daily results equal to one-half the inverse of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index. Its objective is measured daily, so returns over longer periods can differ from the stated daily target.

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.

• SVXY The half-strength design is the whole idea: a -0.5x daily target rather than full inverse, so a jump in VIX futures lands with half the force of a one-for-one short.proshares.com
• 0.95% a year sits below the typical leveraged and inverse fund, and among that crowd this is one of the stronger implementations in its peer group.
• Launched in 2011 and actively traded, so it has a long operating history and a working market for getting in and out.

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.

• SVXY The objective resets daily. Hold longer and compounding takes over, so results over weeks or months can look nothing like half the inverse of the index.proshares.com
• It is a commodity pool holding VIX futures, not a basket of stocks. Reporting and tax treatment follow different rules than a standard equity ETF.proshares.com
• Pure price vehicle with no distribution stream, and volatility spikes arrive fast, which is exactly what a short-vol position is on the wrong side of.

Full EMTY profile⁠

Full SVXY profile⁠