BetaPro Management Inc. has launched North America’s first two-times leveraged and two-times inverse leveraged ETFs that offer exposure to the daily price performance of copper futures contracts.

The two new copper ETFs began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday. They offer investors two different ways to attempt to profit from market changes in copper futures contracts. They are the only ETFs in North America with returns exposed solely to copper futures contracts.

“Often referred to as ‘the metal with a PhD in Economics’, investment interest in copper as an asset class has grown rapidly over the last decade as investors became more familiar with its crucial role in global electronics manufacturing and urban development,” said Howard Atkinson, president of BetaPro. “Of course, the huge increase in global electronics manufacturing and industrialization in emerging markets has dramatically increased the use of copper worldwide.”

Copper is the world’s most widely used base industrial metal, and is highly correlated to global economic growth and industrialization in emerging market economies. China imports more than a quarter of the world’s copper, according to the International Copper Study Group, and other major importers include India and Brazil.

Copper often performs very differently from precious metals, and gold in particular, but tends to be correlated to other base metals. Historical performance shows that its volatility can be quite high, especially compared to other metals.

Outside of going directly to the futures markets, the only way investors can get access to copper through an ETF is indirectly through ETFs that track base metal equities.

The Horizons BetaPro COMEX Copper Bull Plus ETF (TSX:HKU) seeks daily investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to two times (200%) the daily performance of the COMEX copper futures contract for a subsequent delivery month.

The Horizons BetaPro COMEX Copper Bear Plus ETF (TSX:HKD) seeks daily investment results, before fees, expenses, distributions, brokerage commissions and other transaction costs, that endeavour to correspond to two times (200%) the inverse (opposite) of the daily performance of the COMEX copper futures contract for a subsequent delivery month.

The copper ETFs are denominated in Canadian dollars. Any U.S. dollar gains or losses as a result of a Copper ETF’s investment will be hedged back to the Canadian dollar to the best of the ETF’s ability.

IE