take the skf, the ultra short financials pro shares, an etf that let's investors short with 100% leveragede people money during the financial crisis. all the bank stocks got pulverized, many wiped out. wouldn't this be the instrument of choice? wrong! lost you money. one of the worst years in bank stock history and that's what happened. how is this possible? because these super leveraged etfs are designed to attract day to day changes. at the end of every day, they rebalance. they allow you to short or to own. so, here's interesting issue. if these etfs have no value for long-term investors, what's the point of even having them? frankly, it's hard for me to avoid the conclusion that their main function is to allow the shorts to get around the margin rules and manipulate the market with massive selling power at at once. this gets at a larger problem that the s.e.c. no longer seems interested in protecting you. here's the bottom line. stocks are not cash. they don't act like cash. they can't be viewed as cash. remember that stocks go down for many reasons that have nothing to do with the un