Thursday, March 29, 2012

TVIX: Here Come the Federales

From the Wall Street Journal:
Chaos Over a Plunging Note
Complex Security Drops 60% in Value in Past Week; SEC Is on the Case
Regulators are examining volatile trading in a complex exchange-traded note that caused it to lose 60% of its value in the past week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the VelocityShares 2x Long VIX Short Term Exchange note, managed by Credit Suisse Group AG, which had about $700 million in assets before the decline, according to people familiar with the matter. The SEC review is preliminary, the people said.

The scrutiny comes amid rising investor alarm and confusion over trading in exchange-traded notes. The Credit Suisse note, which trades as TVIX and is designed to track stock-market volatility, plunged 29% on Thursday last week and then another 30% on Friday, even though market volatility was little changed. Another exchange-traded note, a Barclays Capital product designed to track natural gas, plunged this week for reasons that investors say remain unclear.

Spokeswomen for Credit Suisse and Barclays declined to comment....MORE