2 New ETFs Capitalize On Retail’s Decline

ProShares rolled out two funds today that look to exploit the rise of online shopping and the decline of brick-and-mortar retail stores. The ProShares Decline of the Retail Store ETF (EMTY) and the ProShares Long Online/Short Stores ETF (CLIX) both list on the NYSE Arca and come with expense ratios of 0.65%.

EMTY offers -100% exposure to the Solactive-ProShares Bricks and Mortar Retail Store Index, an equally weighted index of 56 retail companies that include department stores, supermarkets, clothing stores, consumer electronics and home improvement stores, among others, according to a press release.

“Investors are witnessing signs of trouble in the malls and falling stock prices in the markets,” said ProShares co-founder and CEO Michael Sapir, who noted that these are the first ETFs to allow investors to take advantage of these trends.

CLIX doubles down in the rise of online shopping. Not only is it tied to the ProShares Long Online/Short Stores Index, which offers 100% long exposure to online or nontraditional retailers, it holds a 50% short-position exposure to traditional retailers that rely mainly on brick-and-mortar stores, the press release said.

“CLIX’s 50% net exposure to the equity markets may result in less volatility than typical long-only equity strategies,” Sapir added.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected]