Two weeks ago we reported [3]that as the market's fascination with the "get poor quick" schemes known as 3x levered ETFs fades away, the time for the next logical step, the death of levered ETFs, has arrived when Direxion announced that it is closing 9 3x levered ETFs, among which the Direxion Daily Healthcare Bear 3X Shares (SICK) and Direxion Daily Agribusiness Bear 3X Shares (COWS). For those curious why everyone should be delighted that such uberlevered, gambling-enabling abortions as SICK COWS should always get the axe, here is a visual explanation from Nanex [4].
On July 20, 2012 we saw three ETF's exhibit abnormal behavior after hours - all three ran the ask price (and the NBBO) to the moon in a matter of 20 seconds.
What was even more curious were the symbols involved - CURE SICK COWS (we're not making this up).
Below is an animation of the sequences in each, note the symbol cycling through each new animation:
[5]
As of August 14, 2012 it would appear that they have decided to kill the SICK COWS rather than CURE them: Dead SICK COWS [4]