SEC suspends approval of high-leverage ETFs, concerned that risks exceed limits.

PANews, December 3 - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a series of warning letters to some of the country's most prolific high-margin trading exchange-traded fund providers, effectively halting the launch of products intended to provide two or three times daily returns on stocks and commodities. In nine nearly identical letters released on Tuesday, the SEC informed companies including Direxion, ProShares, and Tidal that it would not proceed with the review of proposed issuance products until key issues were resolved. The regulator's core concern is that the risk exposure of these funds may exceed the SEC's limits on the risk that funds can take relative to their assets. These letters instruct fund managers to either modify their investment strategies or formally withdraw their applications.