Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces that a class action lawsuit has
been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District
of New York, on behalf of all persons who purchased or otherwise
acquired shares in the UltraShort Real Estate ProShares fund (the “SRS
Fund”)(NYSE:SRS), an
exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) offered by ProShares Trust (“ProShares”),
pursuant or traceable to ProShares’ false and misleading Registration
Statement, Prospectuses, and Statements of Additional Information
(collectively, the “Registration Statement”) issued in connection with
the SRS Fund’s shares (the “Class”). The Class is seeking to pursue
remedies under Sections 11 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the
“Securities Act”).
The complaint names ProShares; ProShare Advisors LLC, SEI Investments
Distribution Co., Michael L. Sapir, Louis M. Mayberg, Russell S.
Reynolds, III, Michael Wachs, and Simon D. Collier, as defendants
(collectively, “Defendants”). ProShares sells its Ultra and UltraShort
ETFs as “simple” directional plays. As marketed by ProShares, Ultra ETFs
are designed to go up when markets go up; UltraShort ETFs are designed
to go up when markets go down. The SRS Fund is one of ProShares’
UltraShort ETFs. The SRS Fund seeks investment results that correspond
to twice the inverse (–200%) daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S.
Real Estate Index (“DJREI”), which measures the performance of the real
estate sector of the U.S. equity market. Accordingly, the SRS Fund is
supposed to deliver double the inverse return of the DJREI, which fell
approximately 39.2 percent from January 2, 2008 through December 17,
2008, ostensibly creating a profit for investors who anticipated a
decline in the U.S. real estate market. In other words, the SRS Fund
should have appreciated by 78.4 percent during this period. However, the
SRS Fund actually fell approximately 48.2 percent during this period—the
antithesis of a directional play.
The complaint alleges the Defendants violated the Securities Act by
failing to disclose that the SRS Fund is altogether defective as a
directional investment play. Defendants failed to disclose the following
risks in the Registration Statement: (1) inverse correlation between the
SRS Fund and the DJREI over time would only happen in the rarest of
circumstances, and inadvertently if at all; (2) the extent to which
performance of the SRS Fund would inevitably diverge from the
performance of the DJREI — i.e., the probability, if not
certainty, of spectacular tracking error; (3) the severe consequences of
high market volatility on the SRS Fund’s investment objective and
performance; (4) the severe consequences of inherent path dependency in
periods of high market volatility on the SRS Fund’s performance; (5) the
role the SRS Fund plays in increasing market volatility, particularly in
the last hour of trading; (6) the consequences of the SRS Fund’s daily
hedge adjustment always going in the same direction as the movement of
the underlying index, notwithstanding that it is an inverse leveraged
ETF; (7) the SRS Fund causes dislocations in the stock market; (8) the
SRS Fund offers a seemingly straightforward way to obtain desired
exposure, but such exposure is not attainable through the SRS Fund.
No class has yet been certified in the above action. Until a class is
certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. If
you purchased shares in the SRS Fund pursuant to the Registration
Statement, you have certain rights, and have until October 5, 2009, to
move for Lead Plaintiff status. To be a member of the class you need not
take any action at this time, and you may retain counsel of your choice.
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this
Notice or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please
contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith,
3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone
at (215)638-4847, Toll-Free at (888)638-4847, by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com
or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith
Howard G. Smith, Esquire
(215)
638-4847
(888) 638-4847
howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com
