UVXY is a leveraged volatility exchange-traded product issued by ProShares, launched October 3, 2011. It seeks daily investment results equal to 1.5x the daily performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index (SPVXSTR) — a rolling portfolio of first- and second-month Cboe VIX futures with ~1-month weighted average maturity (official fact sheet). Its daily objective was reduced from 2x to 1.5x on 2018-02-27 after the "Volmageddon" episode. Structurally it is not a 1940-Act fund but a commodity pool under ProShares Trust II (CFTC/NFA regulated, issues K-1 tax forms). Because VIX futures indexes suffer persistent roll costs, UVXY is designed for short-term tactical trading/hedging — its cumulative return since inception is approximately −100% (average −72.9%/yr per the fact sheet), maintained through repeated reverse splits.