BetaPro Management Inc., the anager of the Horizons BetaPro Funds will be launching the first pair of Bull & Bear Gold Funds in North America on April 26.

In response to advisor demand, these new funds will offer investors the opportunity to profit from or protect against the rise or fall in physical gold prices.

In addition, both funds will provide investors with 200% exposure to gold for every dollar invested. The funds’ underlying benchmark index is the GSCI Gold Excess Return Index, which tracks the nearby futures contract price of refined gold on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The funds are denominated in U.S. dollars and can be purchased with either Canadian or U.S. funds.

“We look forward to the response from advisors across the country knowing that we have introduced these unique products in response to repeated statements of need,” said Adam Felesky, president of BetaPro, in a release. “We are also excited that Canadians will be the first to have access to this type of portfolio tool for physical gold.”

The funds will allow investors to profit from or protect against the increase or the decrease in the price of gold by providing both a bull portfolio tool and a bear portfolio tool. Each fund aims to track either 200% of the daily performance (the bull fund) or 200% of the inverse daily performance (the bear fund) of its respective underlying benchmark. For example, if the GSCI Gold Excess Return Index were to rise by 1% on a given day, Horizons BetaPro Gold Bull Plus Fund should rise by approximately 2%, while Horizons BetaPro Gold Bear Plus Fund should fall by approximately 2%.

Launched in October of 2005, the 10 original Horizons BetaPro Bull and Bear Funds based on a number of financial markets have proven very popular with advisors looking for new ways to create specific exposures within their client portfolios. The features of these funds include daily liquidity after T+1 settlement, no minimum hold period, no short-term trading fees and RSP-eligibility.

BetaPro is also launching Bull and Bear Funds for the S&P 500. This brings the number of offerings in the Horizons BetaPro line-up to 14. The other indices with both a Bull and a Bear Fund alternative are the S&P TSX60, the NASDAQ-100, the 10-year Government of Canada Bond, the U.S. Dollar versus the Canadian Dollar, and Crude Oil via the GSCI WTI Excess Return Index.

BetaPro has hired ProFund Advisors LLC to act as the portfolio manager to all the Horizons BetaPro Funds. ProFund Advisors LLC is one of the pioneers of the alternative index market in the United States and currently manages in excess of $8 billion in assets.

BetaPro Management Inc., a Toronto-based financial services company, is a member of the Jovian Group of Companies.