Wall Street Gamblers Get Crushed as Leveraged ETF Losses Hit 40%

They were all the rage on the way up: high-risk, high-return exchange-traded funds, minted in bulk by Wall Street product managers in the euphoria of the post-election bull market.

Now these speculative products are dealing their owners a gut punch after a series of disappointing economic reports and anxiety over US trade policy have put a brake on risk tolerance across the markets.