The dreadful performance of the bizarre TVIX ETF: -70% in 3 months

Leveraged ETFs are something to stay away from for any period longer than a few hours. We commented a couple of months ago on the launch of yet another bizarre version, the leveraged VIX.

Please take a look at the TVIX perfiormance since inception:

The performance since inception, December 2010 (!): -70%. Wow.

SEC : "The ETNs are riskier than securities that have intermediate or long-term investment objectives, and may not be suitable for investors who plan to hold them for longer than one day.

Natural gas contango worsens; UNG drops hard

Contango has worsened today, now at 1.93% for the two front months:

UNG has done very poorly, same as every time this happens, what can we say.

Remember that UNG did a reverse split a couple of months ago, "kiss of death".

Brent crude oil hits new 2.5 year high: USO ETF buy alerts

Brent crude oil has reached a new 2 and a half year high this morning, trading at $123.

USO alerts charts, note the score of +90 (from INO's system, click for trial)

Note also that we are still way off its peak of 2008  in the middle of the financial crisis. Note the accuracy of the signals, particularly the sell in July 2008 (red triangle).

To really see the rise, please see the 6 month chart, note the buy signal (green triangle) in November:

Japan's Yen falling hard, FXY ETF shows sell signal

The Japanese yen continued to significantly weaken overnight, with a  little bump this morning. This is a  24h chart (from INO's tools):

The FXY ETF now shows a clear sell signal, note the red triangle (and score -100):

Currency ETFs and the U.S. dollar: BZF hit new all-time high

With yet another upgrade on Brazil yesterday, the BZF ETF has reached a new  all-time high.

Please note that BZF issued a distribution of $3.22 in December.

We track all currency ETFs here.

It is only a matter of time before the Brazilian central bank intervenes, although today they were saying that it's better to have a string currency and a strong influx of dollars than the opposite.

All those U.S. dollars are indeed flowing into Brazil.

China raises rates again: top China ETFs

China has done it, again. The central bank has raised interest rates, the second time this year alone, as it struggles with inflation.
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Inflation has been running within striking distance of a 28-month high of 5.1 %, and is expected to rise further in coming months.

We track Chinese ETFs live here.Top performer since 2010 is actually the 3X bull ETF.

Yen drops hard: FXY straddles +35%

Here we go, the Yen is dropping hard. Our FXY straddles from March:

Here are the buy-sell signals for the Yen itself, note the +100 score on the USD versus the Yen:

And for the FXY ETF, note the -100 score (sell!):

From INO's tool (click here for bonus access).

 And the buy-sell signals for the last 2 years, pretty good:

Yen continues to drop today, lower than before earthquake; FXY Straddles

The Yen continued to drop overnight. Stay tuned for an update on our FXY straddles later today.

You can clearly see the Yen bounced after the earthquake, and the sharp reversal. The Yen is now lower than it was before the earthquake, as we expected it to be:

Charts are 24h, from INO (click for free 2 months bonus).