The United States Short Oil Fund, an exchange-traded security designed to inversely track in percentage terms the movements of crude oil prices, has been launched on the New York Arca Stock Exchange.

The investment objective of the fund is to have the changes in percentage terms of its units’ net asset value inversely reflect the changes in percentage terms of the spot price of light, sweet crude oil delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma, as measured by the changes in the price of the futures contract on light, sweet crude oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It is not the intent of the fund to be operated in a fashion such that its NAV will equal, in dollar terms, the dollar price of spot crude oil or any particular futures contract based on crude oil.

It may invest in interests other than the benchmark futures contract to comply with accountability levels and position limits.

Crude oil is one of the most important physical commodities in the global economy. Crude oil futures are one of the most actively traded futures contracts and represent the primary US benchmark for crude oil prices.

The portfolio consists of short positions in listed crude oil futures contracts and other crude oil related futures, forwards and swap contracts. These investments will be collateralized by cash, cash equivalents and US government obligations with remaining maturities of two years or less.