Cost of betting on ETF drop at record high due to China stock rout

New York

IF American investors thought it was difficult to make money from the boom in China's stock market, they're probably finding it even tougher to try to profit from a bust.

At the current cost to borrow shares of the biggest US exchange- traded fund (ETF) investing in mainland stocks, short-sellers need the equivalent of a 40 per cent annualised drop just to break even, according to Markit, a London-based research firm.