ProShares Short MSCI EAFE

ProShares Short MSCI EAFE (EFZ) seeks the opposite (-1x) of the MSCI EAFE Index's daily return, so it gains on days when stocks in developed countries outside the US and Canada fall. It's built for short-term hedging (offsetting losses elsewhere) or trading: it resets daily, so returns over longer stretches can drift far from -1x the index. It charges 0.95% a year, and its 10-year average annual return through December 31, 2025, was -7.76%.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, EFZ returned +87.0%.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +12.1% and its 10-year 0.0%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash, while stocks fell, it gained 41.6%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2009 (-30.4%); its best was 2008 (+37.9%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 85.1% (Mar 9, 2009 to Dec 23, 2025), not yet recovered.

As of Aug 31, 2026, most of the fund sat in cash, Treasury bills and money-market holdings (88.94% of net assets), with its inverse exposure coming from 4 swap and futures positions rather than from owning the stocks outright.

• Over the three months to Aug 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $1.4M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -0.47%, -1.32%, -1.35%.

EFZ seeks the opposite (-1x) of the MSCI EAFE Index's return each day, before fees. The index covers large and mid-sized companies in 21 developed countries outside the US and Canada, including Japan, the UK and Germany (as of May 31, 2026). It aims to include 85% of the stock market value in those countries, picking companies by size and how easily their shares trade.

The fund doesn't borrow shares to bet against them. ProShare Advisors uses a mathematical approach to choose its positions, mainly swap agreements: contracts with financial institutions that pay the fund when the index falls and cost it when the index rises. Cash backing the swaps typically sits in Treasury bills, repurchase agreements (short-term loans backed by government securities) and a ProShares money market ETF. As of August 31, 2026, it held four total return swaps referencing EFA, with 89% of net assets in cash and 8% in repurchase agreements.

The fund rebalances daily. When the index rises, the fund's assets shrink, so it reduces its bet against the index; when the index falls, it adds more. Over longer periods, the daily reset can push returns far from -1x, usually for the worse in choppy markets. Costs, a swap partner failing to pay, or currency swings can also hurt results.

• EFZ charges 0.95% a year.
• Of that, 0.75% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• The fee includes a 0.75% waiver from the adviser, which may end.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $97 in the first year and $1,946 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

EFZ targets -1x the MSCI EAFE Index for a single day, and over longer periods the daily reset, costs and rising markets have worn it down, including an 85.1% fall from its 2009 peak that remained unrecovered as of October 27, 2026.

EFZ has risen when markets plunged: it gained 41.6% in the 2020 COVID crash and 34.3% in the 2022 bear market, measured from market peak to low. It launched October 23, 2007, just after the pre-crisis market peak, and returned 37.9% in calendar 2008. Over long stretches it has lost heavily: its worst calendar year was 2009 (-30.4%), and it fell 85.1% from March 9, 2009, to December 23, 2025, without recovering as of October 27, 2026.

Those gains help someone who must raise cash in a bad year only if the shares were already held, and holding them through rising markets has been costly. Its yield over the past year was 3.67% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly and mostly from interest on cash; annual expenses are 0.95%. Past results don't predict future ones, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by leveraged/inverse funds on the same index (the index could not be identified from the name).

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