UBS No Longer Selling Leveraged ETFs

UBS has stopped selling leveraged exchange-traded funds, saying that the funds don’t conform to its belief in long-term investing due to the “short-term nature of these securities.”

And LPL Financial is only selling leveraged and inverse ETFs up to twice the long or short performance.

Likewise, Edward Jones and Ameriprise Financial are no longer selling leveraged ETFs, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Massachusetts securities regulator are investigating the suitability of the products. After originally saying the products might not be suitable for investors who hold them for longer than one day, FINRA reversed its position to say that they could be suitable if the are “closely monitored by a financial professional.”

One of the biggest providers of leveraged ETFs, Direxion Funds, told Bloomberg that they did not believe that advisers are making ill-suited recommendations about leveraged ETFs.

In a statement, Ameriprise said, “In response to FINRA’s recent guidance regarding leveraged and inverse ETFs, we have instructed our advisers to stop soliciting the purchase of these products.”