Profiting From The Demise Of Belgium

In a land known for its chocolate, something else much darker and less tastier is brewing. It appears that Belgium is looking more and more like it will be the next or one of the next European Union members to need a bailout. Belgium has not been mentioned in the "PIIGS" scenario (Portgual, Ireland, Italy and Spain), so the mere mention of Belgium should be troublesome. Belgium is one of the mid range-sized European Union economies, with a 2009 GDP of about $340 billion. It's a larger economy than Ireland or Greece, both of which were bailed out earlier this year, Ireland just this week. Traders can look to shorting the iShares MSCI Belgium Investable Mkt ETF EWK to profit from this. EWK is designed to match performance of publicly traded securities in the Belgian market, as measured by the MSCI Belgium Investable Market index. If a bailout is necessary of the land of waffles and chocolates, then traders may want to short the Belgian ETF and profit from it. Disclosure: no position in securities mentioned