The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to protect investors from harmful financials instruments, Cramer said Wednesday, the same way the Food and Drug Administration protects patients from bad drugs. In fact, Mary Schapiro’s first action as SEC chair should be to ban ultra-short exchange-traded funds. They’re causing too much damage in the markets.
Cramer’s talking specifically about the SKF, the UltraShort Financials ProShares ETF, which takes a dollar’s worth of investment and doubles it in order to boost returns. The fund is supposed to be a play on the financials’ decline. As the Dow Jones U.S. Financials index goes down, SKF shares go up. But that hasn’t been the case. SKF investors have actually lost money despite huge declines in the banks.
What this ultra-short fund really offers is the chance to sidestep the SEC’s margin restrictions. Short sellers are now double the threat they once were, and their ETF-enabled positions are hammering down the financials, hurting common-stock shareholders and the markets as a result. In Cramer’s words, “it is a manipulator’s dream come true.”
This isn’t the first time he’s railed against the SKF, and he said it wouldn’t be the last. Cramer won’t quit “until the SEC does something.” In the meantime, watch this video for the full story on just how damaging these ultra-short funds really are.
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