ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas (BOIL) Covered Calls

The ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas ETF provides 2x daily leveraged exposure to the Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex. It is designed for sophisticated traders seeking to amplify short-term gains from natural gas price movements. The fund achieves its target through futures contracts and swap agreements. Due to daily rebalancing and compounding effects, its performance over longer periods may significantly deviate from two times the performance of the underlying index.

You can sell covered calls on ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas to lower risk and earn monthly income. Born To Sell's covered call screener gives you customized search capabilities across all possible covered calls but here are a couple of examples for BOIL (prices last updated Mon 4:16 PM ET):

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The ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas ETF (BOIL) is a leveraged exchange-traded fund that seeks to provide daily investment results (before fees and expenses) that correspond to two times (2x) the daily performance of the Bloomberg Natural Gas Subindex. This index reflects the performance of natural gas futures contracts traded on the NYMEX. BOIL is a highly tactical instrument intended for short-term speculation on energy prices and is not suitable for long-term "buy-and-hold" portfolios due to the structural risks of leverage decay and contango in the futures markets.

Core Business and Products

BOIL does not hold physical natural gas. Instead, it maintains its 2x daily exposure through financial derivatives, primarily front-month and near-month natural gas futures contracts and total return swap agreements with major financial institutions. As of March 2026, the fund actively manages its "roll" process to mitigate the impact of contango—where future contracts are more expensive than spot prices—though this remains a persistent drag on long-term value. The fund also holds substantial cash and money market instruments to serve as collateral for its derivative positions. To maintain its 2x target, the fund’s exposure is reset at the end of every trading day, which amplifies volatility during market spikes.

Competitive Landscape

BOIL occupies a volatile niche in the energy commodity space, used primarily by day traders and hedge funds. It faces competition from both unleveraged commodity funds and inverse products. Key competitors that trade on major exchanges and feature active options markets include:

1. United States Natural Gas Fund: The industry standard for unleveraged natural gas exposure; it provides a direct play on futures without the 2x amplification of BOIL.
2. ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Natural Gas: The inverse (-2x) counterpart to BOIL, designed to profit when natural gas prices decline.
3. United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund: An alternative that spreads futures exposure across 12 months to reduce the impact of contango, offering a "smoother" but unleveraged experience.
4. First Trust Natural Gas ETF: Provides exposure to the sector via equities (producers and explorers) rather than futures contracts, offering a different risk-return profile.
5. ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil: A 2x leveraged sibling in the energy space that traders often pivot to when seeking volatility in oil markets rather than gas.

Strategic Outlook and Innovation

In early 2026, BOIL has seen extreme volatility driven by shifting weather patterns and the expansion of U.S. LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) export capacity to Europe and Asia. The fund recently completed a 1-for-10 reverse split in February 2026 to maintain an optimal trading price after a period of sustained downward pressure on the underlying commodity. Strategically, BOIL remains a "pure beta" tool for traders betting on "polar vortex" events or geopolitical supply shocks that cause rapid spikes in Henry Hub spot prices.

Innovation for the fund management team involves optimizing swap counterparty agreements to reduce the 0.95% expense ratio's impact on daily tracking. While the underlying natural gas market is increasingly influenced by AI-driven data centers and their high energy demands, BOIL’s primary risk remains "volatility decay." In a sideways market, the daily rebalancing process can erode the fund's Net Asset Value (NAV) even if gas prices remain flat over time. Consequently, the fund continues to prioritize trader education, emphasizing that BOIL is a specialized tool for directional momentum plays rather than a long-term investment in the energy transition.

Want more examples? BOH Covered Calls | BOKF Covered Calls