Shorting in an IRA

Investors today actively trade their IRA accounts in the equity markets. One solution to getting short exposure in an IRA is to buy inverse ETF's. As the name implies, these inverse funds go up in value when the price of the underlying index goes down.

Taxes

Unlike mutual funds, exchange-traded funds are not required to distribute capital gains to shareholders. Taxable gains are therefore generally controllable to the extent the shareholder decides when to sell shares of the ETF.

Gold ETFs

Due to the prohibition against direct ownership of gold in an IRA, an investor looking to benefit from changes in gold prices might choose to invest in shares of an exchange-traded fund. The Deutsche Bank Double Long ETN, for example, trades in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DGP and gives investors leverage up to twice the price movement of gold.

The Gold Short ETN (NYSE:DGZ) is a gold ETF which goes up in price when the price of gold falls.

Symbol DZZ is the Double Short Gold ETN traded on the New York Stock Exchange. This ETF is leveraged at twice the price movement in the underlying gold index.