Play Ruble ETF On A Bounce

Let's be honest. The Russian ruble is no dollar, euro or Swiss franc. Hey, it's no Brazilian real or Chinese yuan either. In the world of strengthening emerging markets currencies, the ruble is getting left out of the conversation. That's bad news for the thinly-traded CurrencyShares Russian Ruble Trust

, which is down 2% in the past month and 4% in the past three. The ruble fell to its lowest level in a year on Wednesday, but was seen bouncing back in European trading today. That pop may force some near-term short covering as bets have been rising on non-deliverable forwards showing the currency at 31.0405 per dollar in three months, from 30.9654 on Oct. 19, according to Bloomberg News. In the near-term, the ruble is oversold and a bump in oil prices could support XRU for a day or two. Medium-term stay or go short as Russian companies need to pay back more than $12 billion of foreign currency-denominated loans in December, the most since at least September, Bloomberg reported.