Leveraged Gold Miners ETFs To Host Reverse Split Party

What happens when a triple-leveraged exchange traded fund tumbles almost 72 percent on a year-to-date basis? It likely receives a mandatory invitation to a reverse split party.

Such is life for the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares NUGT. The largest triple-leveraged gold miners ETF, which closed just over $3 last Friday, will be reverse split 1-for-10 with that split going into effect prior to the open of U.S. markets on September 10, according to a statement issued by Direxion.

With gold and gold miners being taken to the woodshed in 2015, NUGT is not the only leveraged miners that will be reverse split. The Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares JNUG, NUGT's small-cap counterpart, will also be reverse split, but on a 1-for-5. By the time September 10 rolls around, JNUG will have experienced two reverse splits in less than nine months.

Perhaps it is an oddity, but JNUG's bearish equivalent, the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 3X Shares JDST, will also be reverse split 1-for-5. Year-to-date, JDST is down almost 6 percent thanks to some fleeting moments of bullishness for miners in the first and second quarters, but JDST has surged 87.4 percent over the past three months.

Three other Direxion triple-leveraged ETFs will also undergo reverse splits, including the Direxion Daily Natural Gas Related Bull 3X Shares GASL. GASL, which closed around $6.30 last Friday, will be reverse split 1-for-5.

As noted last week, the First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund FCG, the ETF GASL is the leveraged answer to, could also be a candidate for a reverse split. FCG, home to several of this year's worst-performing S&P 500 members, closed just below $6.60 last Friday though First Trust has not made any split announcements pertaining to that ETF.

The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares TZA and the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares will undergo 1-for-4 reverse splits.