An ETF to Bet on the Brick-and-Mortar Meltdown??

wolfstreet.com / by Wolf Richter • Nov 16, 2017

Short sellers have their heads handed to them regularly.

Finally time to make some easy money by betting on the collapse of brick-and-mortar retail, years after it began? Here’s a grisly thought: Now there’s an ETF for that.

In its launch announcement today, ProShares explained:

Over 30 major retailers have declared bankruptcy over the past three years, nearly two-thirds of those in 2017, including Toys “R” Us, RadioShack, and Payless. The pressure is expected to continue with some analysts predicting that online sales growth will outpace bricks and mortar retailers 3 to 1 by 2020.

Retail is being profoundly disrupted by shoppers moving online, oversaturated markets and changing consumer behaviors.

The brick-and-mortar retail pain splits two ways: Retailers that have failed to build a vibrant online sales channel and are dependent on their physical stores; and the landlords that lease stores to them.

This EFT focuses on the first, the retailers. The ticker is evocatively named EMTY. As an inverse ETF, it’s supposed to rise in price when the Solactive-ProShares Bricks and Mortar Retail Store Index, which is composed of 56 “traditional” brick-and-mortar retail stocks, declines.

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