Groups of Funds are collectively referred to in this Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q
in several different ways. References to “Short Funds,” “UltraShort Funds,” “UltraPro Short Funds,” “Ultra Funds” or “UltraPro Funds” refer to the different Funds based upon their investment objectives, but without distinguishing among the Funds’ benchmarks. References to “Commodity Index Funds,” “Commodity Funds” and “Currency Funds” refer to the different Funds according to their general benchmark categories without distinguishing among the Funds’ investment objectives or Fund-specific benchmarks. References to “VIX Funds” refer to the different Funds based upon their investment objective and their general benchmark categories.
As described in each Fund’s prospectus, each of the Funds intends to invest in “Financial Instruments” (Financial Instruments are instruments whose value is derived from the value of an underlying asset, rate or benchmark including futures contracts, swap agreements, forward contracts and other instruments) as a substitute for investing directly in commodities, currencies, or spot volatility products in order to gain exposure to the VIX Index, natural gas, crude oil, precious metals, or currencies, as applicable. Financial Instruments also are used to produce economically “inverse”, “inverse leveraged” or “leveraged” investment results for the Geared Funds.
Each “Short” Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to either
one-half
the inverse
(-0.5x)
or the inverse
(-1x)
of the daily performance of its corresponding benchmark. Each “UltraShort” Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times the inverse
(-2x)
of the daily performance of its corresponding benchmark. Each “UltraPro Short” Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to three times the inverse
(-3x)
of the daily performance of its corresponding benchmark. Each “Ultra” Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to either one and
one-half
times (1.5x) or two times (2x) the daily performance of its corresponding benchmark. Each “UltraPro” Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to three times (3x) the daily performance of its corresponding benchmark. Each Matching VIX Fund seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, both for a single day and over time, that match (1x) the performance of its corresponding benchmark. Daily performance is measured from the calculation of each Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) to the Fund’s next NAV calculation.
Each Geared Fund seeks investment results for a single day only, not for any other period. This is different from most exchange-traded funds and means that the return of such Fund for a period longer than a single trading day will be the result of each day’s returns compounded over the period, which will very likely differ in amount and possibly even direction from
-0.5x,
-1x,
-2x,
-3x,
1.5x, 2x or 3x of the return of the benchmark to which such Fund is benchmarked for that period. Volatility of the benchmark may be at least as important to a Geared Fund’s return for the period as the return of the benchmark. Geared Funds that use leverage, are riskier than similarly benchmarked exchange-traded funds that do not use leverage. Accordingly, these Funds may not be suitable for all investors and should be used only by knowledgeable investors who understand the potential consequences of seeking daily leveraged, inverse or inverse leveraged investment results. Shareholders who invest in the Geared Funds should actively manage and monitor their investments, as frequently as daily.
Each Matching VIX Fund seeks investment results, before fees and expenses, that match the performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index (the “Short-Term VIX Index”) or the S&P 500 VIX
Mid-Term
Futures Index (the
“Mid-Term
VIX Index”) (each a “VIX Futures Index”). Each Geared VIX Fund seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to a multiple or
the inverse of the daily performance of the Short-Term VIX Index. Each VIX Fund intends to obtain exposure to its benchmark by taking positions in futures contracts (“VIX futures contracts”) based on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (“Cboe”) Volatility Index (the “VIX”).
ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil, ProShares Ultra Gold, ProShares Ultra Silver, ProShares UltraShort Gold, ProShares UltraShort Silver, ProShares UltraPro 3x Short Crude Oil ETF, ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Natural Gas, ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil, ProShares UltraPro 3x Crude Oil ETF, and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas are benchmarked to indexes designed to track the performance of commodity futures contracts, as applicable. The daily performance of these Indexes and the corresponding Funds will likely be very different in amount and possibly even direction from the daily performance of the price of the related physical commodities.
Each Geared Fund continuously offers and redeems its Shares in blocks of 50,000 Shares and each Matching VIX Fund continuously offers and redeems its Shares in blocks of 25,000 Shares (each such block a “Creation Unit”). Only Authorized Participants may purchase and redeem Shares from a Fund and then only in Creation Units. An Authorized Participant is an entity that has entered into an Authorized Participant Agreement with one or more of the Funds. Shares of the Funds are offered to Authorized Participants in Creation Units at each Fund’s respective NAV. Authorized Participants may then offer to the public, from time to time, Shares from any Creation Unit they create at a
per-Share
market price that varies depending on, among other factors, the trading price of the Shares of each Fund on the NYSE Arca, the NAV and the supply of and demand for the Shares at the time of the offer. Shares from the same Creation Unit may be offered at different times and may have different offering prices based upon the above factors. The form of Authorized Participant Agreement and related Authorized Participant Handbook set forth the terms and conditions under which an