Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, the ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (NYSE: UVXY) has received the dreaded one-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the ProShares ETF and see what CAPS investors are saying about it right now.

UVXY facts

Inception October 2011
Total Net Assets $291.2 million
Investment Approach Seeks to replicate twice the return of the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures index for a single day. The VIX is a commonly followed measure of the expected volatility of the S&P 500 over the next 30 days.
Expense Ratio 0.95%
Alternatives VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short-Term ETN
iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 59% of the 135 members who have rated the ProShares ETF believe it will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last month, one of those Fools, All-Star bbmaven, tapped the ProShares ETF -- as well as other VIX futures-based funds -- as a particularly risky long-term selection:

When volatility is high, they will spike. However, that averages around 10% of the time over the course of a year. When volatility is low, it costs the funds a great deal to continue to roll both the short term and longer term futures. When the longer term futures reflect [more] volatility than the shorter term futures (which is true about 90% of the time, resulting phenomenon is called contango -- UVXY will go down even if the [VIX] stays static. ...

In essence, each of these as long term investments are horrible -- they WILL go to zero eventually. In fact, they are designed to do so.

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Want to see how well (or not so well) the stocks in this series are performing? Follow the TrackPoisedTo CAPS account.