Macroshares have a new series of up/down oil. DOY/UOY Each started trading at 25$/share. They were supposed to only hold Treasuries and cash and transfer assets between the two as oil moved around. I assumed that the prices of the two would always add up to 50$. I built a pretty big position in the pair, buying whenever the value was below 50$. As time went on, the pair got cheaper and cheaper to the point where they were trading consistently near 47$. There was also no liquidity. I was holding multiples of the daily volume of each. I took a decent hit trying to get out of that disaster. Now they've done some crazy split and I have no desire to jump back into that garbage.
There were/are two pairs of MacroShares Up/Down Crude Oil ETFs. The first pair UCR/DCR were launched 11/30/06. I believe they were targeted at $25 oil. They were liquidated by design on 6/25/08. The prospectus stated that if crude oil closed above $112 for three days in a row, then the funds would cease trading and liquidate becuase DCR would be essentially zero at that point. That event was triggered in April of last year. http://investwithanedge.com/final-etf-death-toll-for-2008-58 They launched a second pair based on $100 crude oil UOY/DOY on 7/1/08. I have not looked at the prospectus to see what oil prices might trigger their closure and liquidation. And yes, this latest pair recently had a 4:1 split for no apparent reason. http://investwithanedge.com/macroshares-undergo-ridiculous-41-split