ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury

ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (TBT) aims to deliver two times the inverse (-2x) of the daily move in the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index. It uses swaps and futures instead of owning bonds. It gains when long-term Treasury prices fall, usually because rates rise, and loses when they climb. Its 0.93% expense ratio is just below the 0.95% average of similar inverse Treasury funds. Because its exposure resets daily, it is built for short-term trading.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, TBT returned +23.6%, 4th of 7 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +20.9% and its 10-year +2.9%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 29.8% and regained its old high 25.1 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2011 (-51.2%); its best was 2022 (+93.3%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 95% (Jun 13, 2008 to Aug 4, 2020), not yet recovered.

As of Aug 31, 2026, most of the fund sat in cash, Treasury bills and money-market holdings (85.92% of net assets), with its inverse exposure coming from 7 swap and futures positions rather than from owning the stocks outright.

• Over the three months to Aug 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $50.9M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -1.76%, +10.33%, -1.01%.

The fund's benchmark is the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index, built by ICE Data Indices. The index holds fixed-rate U.S. Treasury bonds with more than 20 years left to maturity, weighted by market value. It leaves out inflation-protected bonds, Treasury bills and stripped zero-coupon bonds, and it resets its positions each month. TBT does not own these bonds. Instead, ProShare Advisors uses a mathematical model to pick a mix of swap agreements (contracts with large banks that exchange returns) and futures. The goal is -2x the index's daily return.

Most of the fund's money sits in cash-like holdings. The fund's N-PORT filing as of August 31, 2026 showed about 86% in cash. Most of the rest was in repurchase agreements (short-term loans backed by government securities) and seven total return swaps. Swaps are private contracts, so the fund depends on its bank counterparties to pay what they owe.

The key mechanic is the daily reset. The fund rebalances every day. If long Treasuries rise, it cuts its exposure. If they fall, it adds exposure. Over longer periods, this compounding can pull returns far from -2x the index, usually for the worse when prices swing back and forth. The prospectus warns that if the index nears a 50% gain within a single day, holders could lose their entire investment.

• TBT charges 0.93% a year, versus an average of 0.95% for the similar funds below (1st of 3, cheapest first).
• Of that, 0.75% is the management fee; the rest covers other fund expenses.
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $95 in the first year and $1,143 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

Its -2x daily reset is designed for short bets on rising long-term rates, and over longer periods its returns can drift far from that target.

TBT's history shows both sides of a leveraged bet against long bonds. It gained 94.02% in 2022 as rates jumped. It lost 37.76% in 2020 and 51.2% in 2011. In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 29.8% in under three weeks and took about 25 months to recover. Its deepest drop was 95%, from June 2008 to August 2020, and it had not recovered as of October 27, 2026. Anyone forced to sell during a bad stretch could lock in deep losses. It paid a 2.39% trailing yield, quarterly, as of October 27, 2026, but income is not its purpose. It costs 0.93% a year. In the SEC's standard example, that comes to $1,143 over 10 years on $10,000. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by leveraged/inverse funds on the same index (treasury), same direction.