Quick caveat: nothing we write in PETITION ought to be construed as investment advice and we have all kinds of lawyerly things to say on this topic in our disclaimer here. Cool? Cool.

Now that that boring disclaimer stuff is out of the way, if you've ever wondered whether you could ACTUALLY short retail - other than getting into restructuring - there is a new group of ETFs that do just that. Bloomberg and Axios both reported this week on the rise of ETFs targeting the retail industry, including, gulp, one's that use leverage to do so. It's our understanding that even firms with strict trading/conflicts policies allow for index fund investing. So, knock yourselves out. 

(Footnote: another alternative is investing in distressed Puerto Rican real estate.)

Again, note the disclaimer and if you lose money don't blame us.