Things have gone from bad to worse in China today, as the market continues to tumble despite the efforts of government regulators. The country’s new regulatory move places a six month ban on investors owning stakes of more than 5% of a company from selling any of their shares. The move was intended to stop some of the market’s bleeding, but the Shanghai Composite Index is down nearly 6% on the day.

China was having a fantastic year up until a few weeks ago, and the country was even leading the worldwide markets at some points in 2015. June came and wiped away all that growth, with the market dropping 30% overall and companies losing a total of $3 trillion in value. The collapse has been so bad that many Chinese companies are opting to halt trading entirely.

The easiest way to illustrate the magnitude of what is happening in China is to take a look at some of the country’s popular ETFs. The social media world was buzzing about several Chinese ETFs today, and we’ve highlighted some of our favorite comments and reports, hopefully giving you a better understanding of today’s sell-off.

ETFs having a rough day

As one could expect, ETFs tracking China’s main indexes saw big losses across the board today. The first one to look at is the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (ASHR - ETF report). ASHR tracks the CSI 300 index, which is comprised of the 300 largest and most liquid stocks in China’s A-share market, which are typically China-based companies traded by mainland Chinese citizens.

Here we see the extreme measures being used in an attempt to stop this sell-off, as this investor reports that 40% of the market has halted trading.

One of today’s biggest losers is the Daily FTSE China Bull 3x Shares ETF (YINN- ETF report), which is a leveraged ETF that seeks daily investment returns of 300% of the performance of China’s FTSE 25 Index. While the CSI 300 tracks the A-share market, the FTSE 25 follows the 25 largest and most liquid companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. YINN is down about 14% on the day, and investors weren’t happy about it. 

Not buying/selling anything today. Very disappointed on my move buying $YINN yesterday. I hope some sanity arrives in china soon. #SMFH

— Stevie B (@Honolulu_Trader) July 8, 2015

These two ETFs give a general sense of what the market looks like in China overall. We get a perspective of how the Chinese are trading, and a bit of a broader, more global outlook on how China’s biggest stocks are performing. Investors may want to play it safe and avoid these ETFs right now, but a bounce back could possibly be in order soon, and we should all keep a close eye on them going forward.

 Inverse ETFs win big

Chances are if you bet on China continuing to slip, you won big. The simplest way to win big on China’s crumbling market is to time an investment in an inverse ETF perfectly. One noteworthy example of one of these ETFs is the Direxion Daily CSI 300 China A Share Bear 1x Shares ETF (CHAD - ETF report). Again, this ETF tracks the A-share market, and its leveraged and inverse status has made it a big winner as the A-share market has fallen. It is up over 10% today. 

$CHAD is only up 48% since it debuted.

— ETF Godfather (@ETFGodfather) July 8, 2015

CHAD is relatively new and was created just before the worst of China’s recent woes. This perfect timing has made it a huge success. Another inverse ETF doing well is the Daily FTSE China Bear 3x Shares (YANG - ETF report). As Chinese philosophy says, with every yin there is a yang, and this ETF follows the inverse of the FTSE 25, leveraged 300% like YINN as well. 

YANG has climbed even higher, and currently sits up over 16% on the day. 

Bottom Line

From our perspective, sometimes it can be hard to understand exactly what is going on in foreign markets. However, when a collapse like this happens, it starts to have an effect on American markets, so it is extremely important to stay informed about China right now. As we’ve showed here, one of the easiest ways to do that is looking at Chinese ETFs, and even though the country’s market is somewhat unpredictable at the moment, investors can see the possible plays to make and especially if the downturn continues.