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Risk | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2018
Risks and Uncertainties [Abstract] |
Risk | NOTE 8 – RISK Correlation and Compounding Risk The Geared Funds do not seek to achieve their stated investment objective over a period of time greater than a single day (as measured from NAV calculation time to NAV calculation time). The return of a Geared Fund for a period longer than a single day is the result of its return for each day compounded over the period and usually will differ from the one-half inverse (-0.5x), the inverse (-1x), two times the inverse (-2x), one and one-half times (1.5x) of the return, two times (2x) of the return, three times the inverse (-3x), or three times of the return (3x) of the Geared Fund’s benchmark for the period. A Geared Fund will lose money if its benchmark performance is flat over time, and it is possible for a Geared Fund to lose money over time even if the performance of its benchmark increases (or decreases in the case of Short, UltraShort and UltraPro Short Funds), as a result of daily rebalancing, the benchmark’s volatility, compounding, and other factors. Longer holding periods, higher benchmark volatility, inverse exposure and greater leverage each affect the impact of compounding on a Geared Fund’s returns. Daily compounding of a Geared Fund’s investment returns can dramatically and adversely affect its longer-term performance during periods of high volatility. Volatility may be at least as important to a Geared Fund’s return fora period as the return of the Geared Fund’s underlying benchmark. The Matching VIX Funds seek to achieve their stated investment objective over time. Each Ultra, UltraShort, UltraPro and UltraPro Short Fund uses leverage and should produce daily returns that are more volatile than that of its benchmark. For example, the daily return of an Ultra or UltraPro Fund with a 1.5x or 2x or 3x multiple should be approximately one and one-half or two or three times as volatile on a daily basis as is the return of a fund with an objective of matching the same benchmark. The daily return of an UltraShort or UltraPro Short Fund is designed to return two times the inverse (-2x) or three times the inverse (-3x) of the return that would be expected of a fund with an objective of matching the same benchmark. The Geared Funds are not appropriate for all investors and present significant risks not applicable to other types funds. The Leveraged Funds use leverage and are riskier than similarly benchmarked exchange-traded funds that do not use leverage. An investor should only consider an investment in a Geared Fund if he or she understands the consequences of seeking daily leveraged, daily inverse or daily inverse leveraged investment results. Shareholders who invest in the Funds should actively manage and monitor their investments, as frequently as daily. While the Funds seek to meet their investment objectives, there is no guarantee they will do so. Factors that may affect a Fund’s ability to meet its investment objective include: (1) the Sponsor’s ability to purchase and sell Financial Instruments in a manner that correlates to a Fund’s objective; (2) an imperfect correlation between the performance of Financial Instruments held by a Fund and the performance of the applicable benchmark; (3) bid-ask spreads on such Financial Instruments; (4) fees, expenses, transaction costs, financing costs associated with the use of Financial Instruments and commission costs; (5) holding or trading instruments in a market that has become illiquid or disrupted; (6) a Fund’s Share prices being rounded to the nearest cent and/or valuation methodology; (7) changes to a benchmark index that are not disseminated in advance; (8) the need to conform a Fund’s portfolio holdings to comply with investment restrictions or policies or regulatory or tax law requirements; (9) early and unanticipated closings of the markets on which the holdings of a Fund trade, resulting in the inability of the Fund to execute intended portfolio transactions; (10) accounting standards; and (11) differences caused by a Fund obtaining exposure to only a representative sample of the components of a benchmark, over weighting or under weighting certain components of a benchmark or obtaining exposure to assets that are not included in a benchmark. A number of factors may affect a Geared Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with its benchmark, and there can be no guarantee that a Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent a Geared Fund from achieving its investment objective. In order to achieve a high degree of correlation with their underlying benchmarks, the Geared Funds seek to rebalance their portfolios daily to keep exposure consistent with their investment objectives. Being materially under- or over-exposed to the benchmark may prevent such Geared Funds from achieving a high degree of correlation with such benchmark. Market disruptions or closure, large amounts of assets into or out of the Geared Funds, regulatory restrictions, extreme market volatility, and other factors will adversely affect such Funds’ ability to adjust exposure to requisite levels. The target amount of portfolio exposure is impacted dynamically by the benchmarks’ movements during each day. Because of this, it is unlikely that the Geared Funds will be perfectly exposed (i.e., -0.5x, -1x, -2x, 1.5x, 2x, -3x or 3x as applicable) to its benchmark at the end of each day, and the likelihood of being materially under- or over-exposed is higher on days when the benchmark levels are volatile near the close of the trading day. Each Geared Fund seeks to rebalance its portfolio on a daily basis. The time and manner in which a Geared Fund rebalances its portfolio may vary from day to day depending upon market conditions and other circumstances at the discretion of the Sponsor. Unlike other funds that do not rebalance their portfolios as frequently, each Geared Fund may be subject to increased trading costs associated with daily portfolio rebalancing in order to maintain appropriate exposure to the underlying benchmarks. Counterparty Risk Each Fund may use derivatives such as swap agreements and forward contracts (collectively referred to herein as “derivatives”) in the manner described herein as a means to achieve their respective investment objectives. The use of derivatives by a Fund exposes the Fund to counterparty risks. Regulatory Treatment Derivatives are generally traded in over-the-counter (“OTC”) markets and have only recently become subject to comprehensive regulation in the United States. Cash-settled forwards are generally regulated as “swaps”, whereas physically settled forwards are generally not subject to regulation (in the case of commodities other than currencies) or subject to the federal securities laws (in the case of securities). Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act (“Title VII”) created a regulatory regime for derivatives, with the CFTC responsible for the regulation of swaps and the SEC responsible for the regulation of “security-based swaps.” The SEC requirements have largely yet to be made effective, but the CFTC requirements are largely in place. The CFTC requirements have included rules for some of the types of transactions in which the Funds will engage, including mandatory clearing and exchange trading, reporting, and margin for uncleared swaps. Title VII also created new categories of regulated market participants, such as “swap dealers,” “security-based swap dealers,” “major swap participants,” and “major security-based swap participants” who are, or will be, subject to significant new capital, registration, recordkeeping, reporting, disclosure, business conduct and other regulatory requirements. The regulatory requirements under Title VII continue to be developed and there may be further modifications that could impact the Funds. As noted, the CFTC rules may not apply to all of the swap agreements and forward contracts entered into by the Funds. Investors, therefore, may not receive the protection of CFTC regulation or the statutory scheme of the CEA in connection with each Fund’s swap agreements or forward contracts. The lack of regulation in these markets could expose investors to significant losses under certain circumstances, including in the event of trading abuses or financial failure by participants. Counterparty Credit Risk The Funds will be subject to the credit risk of the counterparties to the derivatives. In the case of cleared derivatives, the Funds will have credit risk to the clearing corporation in a similar manner as the Funds would for futures contracts. In the case of uncleared derivatives, the Funds will be subject to the credit risk of the counterparty to the transaction – typically a single bank or financial institution. As a result, a Fund is subject to increased credit risk with respect to the amount it expects to receive from counterparties to uncleared derivatives entered into as part of that Fund’s principal investment strategy. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations due to financial difficulties, a Fund could suffer significant losses on these contracts and the value of an investor’s investment in a Fund may decline. The Funds have sought to mitigate these risks by generally requiring that the counterparties for each Fund agree to post collateral for the benefit of the Fund, marked to market daily, subject to certain minimum thresholds. However, there are no limitations on the percentage of assets each Fund may invest in swap agreements or forward contracts with a particular counterparty. To the extent any such collateral is insufficient or there are delays in accessing the collateral, the Funds will be exposed to counterparty risk as described above, including possible delays in recovering amounts as a result of bankruptcy proceedings. The Funds typically enter into transactions only with major, global financial institutions. OTC derivatives of the type that may be utilized by the Funds are generally less liquid than futures contracts because they are not traded on an exchange, do not have uniform terms and conditions, and are generally entered into based upon the creditworthiness of the parties and the availability of credit support, such as collateral, and in general, are not transferable without the consent of the counterparty. These agreements contain various conditions, events of default, termination events, covenants and representations. The triggering of certain events or the default on certain terms of the agreement could allow a party to terminate a transaction under the agreement and request immediate payment in an amount equal to the net positions owed to the party under the agreement. For example, if the level of the Fund’s benchmark has a dramatic intraday move that would cause a material decline in the Fund’s NAV, the terms of the swap may permit the counterparty to immediately close out the transaction with the Fund. In that event, it may not be possible for the Fund to enter into another swap or to invest in other Financial Instruments necessary to achieve the desired exposure consistent with the Fund’s objective. This, in turn, may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective, particularly if the level of the Fund’s benchmark reverses all or part of its intraday move by the end of the day. In addition, cleared derivatives benefit from daily marking-to-market and settlement, and segregation and minimum capital requirements applicable to intermediaries. To the extent the Fund enters into cleared swap transactions, the Fund will deposit collateral with an FCM in cleared swaps customer accounts, which are required by CFTC regulations to be separate from its proprietary collateral posted for cleared swaps transactions. Cleared swap customer collateral is subject to regulations that closely parallel the regulations governing customer segregated funds for futures transactions but provide certain additional protections to cleared swaps collateral in the event of a clearing broker or clearing broker customer default. For example, in the event of a default of both the clearing broker and a customer of the clearing broker, a clearing house is only permitted to access the cleared swaps collateral in the legally separate (but operationally comingled) account of the defaulting cleared swap customer of the clearing broker, as opposed to the treatment of customer segregated funds, under which the clearing house may access all of the commingled customer segregated funds of a defaulting clearing broker. Uncleared derivatives entered into directly between two counterparties do not necessarily benefit from such protections, particularly if entered into with an entity that is not registered as a “swap dealer” with the CFTC. This exposes the Funds to the risk that a counterparty will not settle a transaction in accordance with its terms and conditions because of a dispute over the terms of the contract (whether or not bona fide) or because of a credit or liquidity problem, thus causing the Funds to suffer a loss. The Sponsor regularly reviews the performance of its counterparties for, among other things, creditworthiness and execution quality. In addition, the Sponsor periodically considers the addition of new counterparties and the counterparties used by a Fund may change at any time. Each day, the Funds disclose their portfolio holdings as of the prior Business Day. Each Fund’s portfolio holdings identifies its counterparties, as applicable. This portfolio holdings information may be accessed through the web on the Sponsor’s website at www.ProShares.com. Each counterparty and/or any of its affiliates may be an Authorized Participant or shareholder of a Fund, subject to applicable law. The counterparty risk for cleared derivatives transactions is generally lower than for uncleared OTC derivatives. Once a transaction is cleared, the clearing organization is substituted and is a Fund’s counterparty on the derivative. The clearing organization guarantees the performance of the other side of the derivative. Nevertheless, some risk remains, as there is no assurance that the clearing organization, or its members, will satisfy its obligations to a Fund. Leverage Risk The Leveraged Funds may utilize leverage in seeking to achieve their respective investment objectives and will lose more money in market environments adverse to their respective daily investment objectives than funds that do not employ leverage. The use of leveraged and/or inverse leveraged positions could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment, even over periods as short as a single day. For example, because the UltraShort Funds and Ultra Funds (except for the Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF which includes a one and one-half times multiplier) include a two times the inverse (-2x), or a two times (2x) multiplier, a single-day movement in the relevant benchmark approaching 50% at any point in the day could result in the total loss or almost total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund in which an investor has invested, even if such Fund’s benchmark subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the movement. For UltraPro Fund and UltraPro Short Fund, because the Funds include a three times (3x) or three times the inverse (-3x) multiplier, a single day movement in the benchmark approaching 33% at any point in the day could result in the total loss or almost total loss of an investor’s investment if that movement is contrary to the investment objective of the Fund in which an investor has invested, even if the benchmark subsequently moves in an opposite direction, eliminating all or a portion of the movement. This would be the case with downward single-day or intraday movements in the underlying benchmark of an Ultra Fund and UltraPro Fund or upward single-day or intraday movements in the benchmark of an UltraShort Fund and UltraPro Short Fund, even if the underlying benchmark maintains a level greater than zero at all times. Liquidity Risk Financial Instruments cannot always be liquidated at the desired price. It is difficult to execute a trade at a specific price when there is a relatively small volume of buy and sell orders in a market. A market disruption can also make it difficult to liquidate a position or find a swap or forward contract counterparty at a reasonable cost. Market illiquidity may cause losses for the Funds. The large size of the positions which the Funds may acquire increases the risk of illiquidity by both making their positions more difficult to liquidate and increasing the losses incurred while trying to do so. Any type of disruption or illiquidity will potentially be exacerbated due to the fact that the Funds will typically invest in Financial Instruments related to one benchmark, which in many cases is highly concentrated. “Contango” and “Backwardation” Risk In Funds that hold futures contracts, as the futures contracts near expiration, they are generally replaced by contracts that have a later expiration. Thus, for example, a contract purchased and held in November 2017 may specify a January 2018 expiration. As that contract nears expiration, it may be replaced by selling the January 2018 contract and purchasing the contract expiring in March 2018. This process is referred to as “rolling.” Rolling may have a positive or negative impact on performance. For example, historically, the prices of certain types of futures contracts have frequently been higher for contracts with shorter-term expirations than for contracts with longer-term expirations, which is referred to as “backwardation.” In these circumstances, absent other factors, the sale of the January 2018 contract would take place at a price that is higher than the price at which the March 2018 contract is purchased, thereby creating a gain in connection with rolling. While certain types of futures contracts have historically exhibited consistent periods of backwardation, backwardation will likely not exist in these markets at all times. The presence of contango (where prices of contracts are higher in the distant delivery months than in the nearer delivery months due to the costs of long-term storage of a physical commodity prior to delivery or other factors) in certain futures contracts at the time of rolling would be expected to adversely affect an Ultra Fund, an UltraPro Fund or a Matching VIX Fund that invests in such futures, and positively affect a Short Fund, an UltraShort Fund or an UltraPro Short Fund that invests in such futures. Similarly, the presence of backwardation in certain futures contracts at the time of rolling such contracts would be expected to adversely affect the Short Funds, UltraShort Funds, and UltraPro Short Funds, and positively affect the Ultra Funds, UltraPro Funds and Matching VIX Funds. Since the introduction of VIX futures contracts, there have frequently been periods where VIX futures prices reflect higher expected volatility levels further out in time. This can result in a loss from “rolling” the VIX futures to maintain the constant weighted average maturity of the applicable VIX Futures Index. Losses from exchanging a lower priced VIX future for a higher priced longer-term future in the rolling process would adversely affect the value of each VIX Futures Index and, accordingly, decrease the return of the Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF and the Matching VIX Funds. Gold and silver have historically exhibited persistent “contango” markets rather than backwardation. Natural gas, like crude oil, moves in and out of backwardation and contango but historically has been in contango most commonly.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for any concentrations existing at the date of the financial statements that make an entity vulnerable to a reasonably possible, near-term, severe impact. This disclosure informs financial statement users about the general nature of the risk associated with the concentration, and may indicate the percentage of concentration risk as of the balance sheet date. + References Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 275 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2134479 + Details
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