It was September 2008 ... not that long ago, when we were in a global financial crisis.

Now, just over a year later, the number 4 ETF in terms of volume traded is the FAZ. 

FAZ? What is the FAZ?  It is the"Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares" ETF. 

The ETF Fund describes itself this way:  "The Fund Summary -  The investment seeks to replicate, net of expenses, 300% of the inversedaily performance of the Russell 1000 Financial Services Index. The fund will invest at least 80% of assets in securities that comprise the index. It will also utilize financial instruments that, in combination, provide leveraged and unleveraged exposure to the index. The fund is nondiversified."

The 5 day average volume for  the FAZ was 100,456,511 shares.  Only the SPY, QQQQ, and the XLF had higher 5 day average volumes. 

A 3x short ETF with those kind of volumes?  Quite unusual isn't it? What is going on here? One would almost think that it was being used in some hedging scheme.   In any case, something quite unusual is going on here.

Take a look at yesterday's 90 day chart on the FAZ shown below.  For the past two months, it appears to have been in a bottoming process.  Pay particular attention to the volumeon the chart. 

Over the past 4 months, the volume has been increasing substantially.  On November 2nd. the volume reached its peak level for the FAZ ... over 157 million shares.   In terms of price movement, something big appears to be brewing.  You can't get these kind of volume changes without a noticeable change in price action somewhere down the road.