New spread ETFs: double bull and bear positions on leveraged ETFs!

The universe of ETFs keeps getting bigger with the launch of exotic instruments on an almost daily basis. I am still waiting for the "unemployment ETF", anyone?

Factor Shares has just launched "spread exchange traded funds". They allow investors to simultaneously hold both a bull and a bear position in one leveraged ETF(!). (As if leveraged ETFs were not bad enough, but maybe holding two of them is not as bad?). 

Designed to "simplify spread trading and lower its cost barriers", the new ETFs enable investors to track two market segments, one long and one short, in a single ETF position. The initial five FactorShares ETFs pair up major asset classes from among the S&P 500 Index, US Treasury Bonds, Gold, Oil and the US Dollar.

As a plus, anyone who wants to engage in such transactions would not have to pay double the fees.

"The initial suite of FactorShares spread ETFs are designed to rebalance daily to achieve the desired effect of maintaining dollar neutrality. FactorShares ETFs are also capital efficient, targeting a daily leverage ratio of 4:1, where each dollar invested provides approximately two dollars of long futures exposure and two dollars of short futures exposure, immediately after daily rebalancing.  FactorShares ETFs seek investment results for a single day only, not for longer periods."