What are Bear Mutual Funds?
"Bear" mutual funds are a special class of funds that sell short, buy put options, sell futures contracts, use leverage or employ other strategies to increase in value as the underlying assets decrease in value. Conversely, if the underlying assets increase in value, a Bear ETF will decrease in value. Out of a universe of 12,500+ mutual funds and about 2,000 ETFs offered for sale in the US, there ain't many of 'em! (See also Bear ETFs.)
Most Bear mutual funds track the inverse of an index, such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average, or a specific industry sector, such as financial or bio-tech stocks.
For detailed information about how a specific Bear fund is structured, click on its symbol in the list below, and then follow the link to the fund sponsor's web site.
CAUTION! Some Bear mutual funds are leveraged so as to track 200%(2x) or even 300% (3x) of the inverse of the change in the underlying assets. This can create extreme volatility in the price of the Bear fund. The degree of leverage is usually indicated in the fund's name. If "2x", "3x", "UltraShort" or similar wording is not indicated, the fund is probably not leveraged more than 100% against the underlying assets. Check the fund's web site to be sure.
CAUTION! Most Bear funds are designed to track the inverse of the performance of the underlying assets on a daily basis. The Bear fund may be reset to the underlying assets every day, and over time, the long-term tracking correlation between the Bear fund and the underlying assets may "fade" due to the compounding of daily returns. For further information, please see Understanding Long-Term Performance of Leveraged and Short Funds and each fund's web site.
Invest carefully, at your own risk. Please read the disclaimer.
Our new and improved Bear Funds Scoreboard is presented below (Scoreboard tab).
- Funds are listed in ticker symbol order.
- Mutual fund prices are updated only at the close of each trading day, at approximately 5:00 PM ET.
- For additional information on each fund, click on its ticker symbol.
