In the next few weeks, ETF Securities is expected to launch on the London Stock Exchange 33 short exchanged-traded commodities (ETCs) and 33 leveraged ETCs. The 66 new ETCs will track the Dow Jones - AIG Commodities Index.

A specific ETC will be coming to short each of the following markets: aluminum, cocoa, coffee, copper, corn, cotton, crude oil, gasoline, gold, heating oil, lead, lean hogs, live cattle, natural gas, nickel, platinum, silver, soybean oil, soybeans, sugar, tin, wheat and zinc.

An individual ETC will launch for each of the same commodities on the leveraged side. While the short ETCs will provide 100% exposure, the leveraged ones will offer 200% coverage of the underlying benchmarks.

In addition, an ETC is expected to cover all commodities in general. Broader category launches are also planned for specific ETCs, including ones that'll provide exposure both in terms of leveraged and short to: agriculture, energy, grains, industrial metals, livestock, petroleum and precious metals.

On the short side, each fund has been designed to earn minus one times the daily change in its underlying index. So if its underlying index falls by 3%, a short ETC should go up by the same amount.

The firm's leverage funds are being designed to gain for investors two times the daily change in indexes. In theory at least, if one of the new leveraged ETCs goes up 1% in a day, then the shareholder should gain 2%. Of course, it can work the other way as well: If a leveraged ETC's benchmark is down 1%, then the investor will lose twice as much that day.

One of the gripes from some corners of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) investors has been the lack of inventory to short specific markets. While ETF Securities has touted its new lineup in Europe as the first of its kind in the world, a unit of ProShares has offered a more limited stable of such 2x inverse ETFs in Canada.

And several 2x leveraged ETFs and 1x short ETFs are in registration in the U.S. for commodities.

"Right now, you've got to basically borrow the shares of long ETFs. It's just like shorting an individual stock," said Keith Newcomb, a Nashville, Tenn.-based advisor. "There are inverse stock index mutual funds. But if you can buy an ETF that's designed for using leverage or shorting, that'll make it a lot easier and much less complicated of a process."

He added that such inverse ETFs will open up such strategies to a wider audience. "You won't have to open a margin account," Newcomb said. "It makes things a lot more straightforward and will probably have broader appeal."

The new ETCs will cover 19 different commodities and nine subindexes. ETF Securities is also launching four new commodities funds that will provide separate exposure to cocoa, lead, tin and platinum. 

With the new ETCs, ETF Securities says in advertisements that it'll have created 110-plus ETCs (including long, nonleveraged products).

ETF Securities also says it was a pioneer in the ETC arena, developing its first lineup in 2003. Since their opening in London, the company has extended its ETC platform to exchanges across Europe.