5 things to start your day - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

5 things to start your day - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail





Those that love to hate the recent stock rebound are putting their money where their mouth is. As my colleague Claire Ballentine pointed out Wednesday, stock bears are rushing to invest in inverse exchange-traded funds this month, with inflows heading toward record highs. The ProShares Short S&P 500 ETF -- which looks to return the opposite of the performance of the U.S. stock benchmark -- is on pace for its biggest monthly inflow ever. More juiced up peers which target multiples of the inverse performance of stocks -- such as the ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500 ETF and Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bear 3X Shares ETF -- are also heading toward their best months ever. The U.S. equity rally is now clocking in around 31%, with stocks sitting just 13% below their all-time high from February. If traders see that as enough for now, and the rally corrects, the fresh bearish money could soon see a return. But if stocks continue to push higher, those invested in the leveraged funds could come under pressure to cut their losses -- in the process adding another boost to the upward momentum.