Assets invested in inverse and leveraged ETFs listed globally increased 14.1% in the first nine months of 2017 to reach a new record high of $77.1 billion, according to London-based ETF industry consultant ETFGI.

AUM in globally listed inverse and leveraged ETFs is up 14.1% in the first nine months of 2017.

Inverse and leveraged ETFs gathered $4.7bn in year-to-date net inflows with investors clearly favouring products providing short exposure to assets: inverse ETFs experienced $1.9bn net inflows over this period, leveraged inverse ETFs gathered $3.8bn, while leveraged ETFs actually suffered net outflows of $1.0bn.

ProShares is the largest inverse and leveraged ETF provider in terms of assets with $23.8bn invested in products following such strategies. Direxion is some way behind in second with $11.0bn, followed by Lyxor AM with $4.8bn and Nomura AM with $4.7bn.

As of the end of September 2017, the inverse and leveraged ETF industry had 834 ETFs with 1,287 listings, from 59 providers on 19 exchanges in 16 countries.

Of these 834 ETFs, 419 were leveraged products, with assets of $43.6bn; 228 were inverse listings, with assets of $16.6bn; and 187 were leveraged inverse ETFs with assets of $17.0bn.