Despite price gains across a range of commodities last week, many commodity investors remain deeply cautious and indeed bearish.

Last week saw the ETFS Daily Short Copper (SCOP) attract inflows of $37 million.

This has led many to allocate capital to specialist short exchange-traded products (ETPs), which last week enjoyed one of their best ever weeks on record, in terms of asset flows.

Short ETPs – also known as inverse ETPs – provide inverse exposure to a reference index, such as the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index.

They are available across virtually the entire commodities spectrum, encompassing precious metals, industrial metals, grains, softs and energy, and are typically aimed at sophisticated short-term investors.

A range of providers offer short ETPs, including as Direxion and ProShares in the US and Boost and Lyxor in Europe. But the undisputed leader in the commodities space is London-headquartered ETF Securities.

Last week, ETF Securities saw a flurry of interest in its line-up of short commodity ETPs.

The firm’s short gold product, ETFS Daily Short Gold (SBUL), pulled in a whopping $48 million, its highest weekly inflow on record. Similarly, its short silver product, the ETFS Daily Short Silver (SSIL), rose to the highest level since March 2012 after pulling in an extra $8 million.

Interestingly, inflows into short commodity ETPs were not isolated to the precious metals market. Indeed, copper – which is often known as ‘Dr Copper’ for its PhD-like ability to signal turning points in the world economy – also saw significant inflows.

The ETFS Daily Short Copper (SCOP) received $37 million of inflows, the second highest weekly inflow since inception. This figure is trumped only by the $59 million weekly inflow in January 2013, when disappointing US GDP figures dented high expectations for global growth. Ongoing concern over a temporary copper surplus and investors heeding to technicals are likely to explain the bearish positions placed last week.

Other short ETPs pulling in assets last week were the ETFS Daily Short WTI Crude Oil (SOIL) and the ETFS Daily Short Zinc (SZIC), both attracting $4 million in inflows.