Daily ETF Watch: Direxion Closures, Splits

Direxion, known for its leveraged and inverse ETFs, has recently shut down three of its funds and completed splits on 10 more.

Closures

The three funds that saw their last day of trading on March 23 include the following:

• Direxion Value Line Small- and Mid-Cap High Dividend ETF (VLSM)
• Direxion Value Line Mid- and Large-Cap High Dividend ETF (VLML)
• Direxion Value Line Conservative Equity ETF (VLLV)

The trio launched a little more than a year ago, but failed to gather much in the way of assets.

Splits

The eight reverse splits included two 1-for-10 splits and six 1-for-4 splits.

The former two include the following funds:

• Direxion Daily S&P Oil & Gas Exp. & Prod. Bull 3x (GUSH)
• Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bull 3x (GASL)

The six remaining 1-for-4 splits include the following funds:

• Direxion Daily India Bull 3x (INDL)
• Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3x (LABU)
• Direxion Daily Brazil Bull 3x (BRZU)
• Direxion Daily Latin America Bull 3x (LBJ)
• Direxion Daily Emerging Markets Bull 3x (EDC)
• Direxion Daily Russia Bull 3x (RUSL)

All six funds have experienced steep declines over the last 12-month period. Reverse splits basically combine individual shares into one, driving up the price of individual shares. If share prices sink too low, funds can be delisted from their exchanges.

Direxion in a press release noted that the 1-for-10 splits would reduce the numbers of shares of the affected funds by 90%, while the 1-for-4 splits would reduce the number of shares by 75%.

Finally, the two regular share splits include the 4-for-1 splits for the following ETFS:

• Direxion Daily FTSE China Bear 3X Shares (YANG)
• Direxion Daily S&P Oil & Gas Exp. & Prod. Bear 3X Shares (DRIP)

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].