Special report | Speculation

The latest investment fad is made for gamblers

Leveraged ETFs are exploding. They seem designed to incinerate your money

An illustration of an anthropomorphised roulette wheel with arms and legs clutching some banknotes in one hand and posed to spin the wheel with the other. Piles of cash are stacked around its feet.
Illustration: Daniel Jurman
|3 min read

Finance is an industry of ceaseless experimentation. The experiments which pay off are quickly copied and propagated through the market. That is often to the good. But left unchecked, innovation places intolerable risks on investors and the financial system.

This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “ETF madness”

From the May 31st 2025 edition

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