No. FAZ and FAS are not equities. The number of shares outstanding changes during the course of the trading day to meet demand, or lack of demand. So even though there is a bid/ask a large trade can't move the share price.
Brokers can convert "creation units" into shares to meet high demand, or convert shares back into "creation units" to soak up any big sells. So there's no "emotional gap".
FAZ and FAS move at 3x the average they track while the markets are open. But the daily resets can result in very different performance between the two on anything greater than a few days span.
Any gaps are created by changes in the implied volatility of the underlying derivatives. FAZ, being a bear fund, is 100% derivative based while FAS has a considerable amount of stock in it's portfolio. Derivatives lose value as time passes. Because of this, in either a rising market, flat market, even a gently descending market (as long as volatility remains low) it's a mathematical certainty that FAS will outperform FAZ. Look beyond the chart and just look at the number of splits in the two funds, the difference in performance is drastic.
But - should you get a declining market with a volatility spike (not an uncommon combination) FAZ can really spike fast. But beware, declining volatility detroys FAZ value much faster than rising volatility helps it.
I gotta update those I-boxes, a lot of dead links. Oh, and speaking of I-boxes... GYOG's - Looking sharp!
