TZA is the bear side of the small-cap leveraged pair, targeting -300% of the Russell 2000's daily move. Where TNA rises when small caps rally, TZA rises when they fall. Small caps are more sensitive to interest rates and domestic economic conditions than the mega-caps that dominate the S&P, which gives TZA a different character from the broad-market bear funds.
Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X ETF (TZA) is currently trading at $39.01. Over the past 52 weeks, TZA has traded between a low of $36.33 and a high of $95.40. Recent daily volume is around 3.5M. These figures update live as the market moves.
TZA uses swaps and futures on the Russell 2000 and resets its exposure daily, so the -3x target describes a single session. The daily reset produces decay in choppy markets, and because equities drift upward over long periods, an inverse fund held indefinitely faces that drift as a persistent headwind. It is a tactical instrument.
The Russell 2000 is full of companies that borrow at floating rates and earn most of their revenue domestically. That makes it unusually sensitive to rate expectations and to the credit cycle — small caps often break down before the S&P does when financial conditions tighten, which is why traders watch TZA as a stress signal as much as a trade.
Rate-sensitive days: Fed decisions, CPI, and any session where the 10-year yield moves hard. Regional bank stress and credit-spread widening also hit the Russell disproportionately. TZA volume tends to spike well before broad-market panic shows up in the S&P.