7 Best Leveraged ETFs for April 2024 - NerdWallet (2024)

FAQs

7 Best Leveraged ETFs for April 2024 - NerdWallet? ›

Leveraged ETF prices tend to decay over time, and triple leverage will tend to decay at a faster rate than 2x leverage. As a result, they can tend toward zero.

Leveraged ETF prices tend to decay over time, and triple leverage will tend to decay at a faster rate than 2x leverage. As a result, they can tend toward zero.

ProShares UltraPro QQQ is the most popular and liquid ETF in the leveraged space, with AUM of $21.9 billion and an average daily volume of 67.3 million shares a day. The fund seeks to deliver three times the return of the daily performance of the NASDAQ-100 Index, charging investors 0.88% in annual fees.

Longtime ETF analyst Todd Sohn of Strategas Securities said the Leverage Shares 5x Long Magnificent Seven ETP UK:MAG7 appears to be the most heavily levered product available to trade in any developed market, although a seven-times levered index on oil and gas futures exists in Europe.

The best-performing ETF in the last 10 years was VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH).

"They all go to 0 over time." "If you hold them for more than a few days, you will lose money." The 3x Long Nasdaq 100 ETF (TQQQ) was launched in February 2010, over 8 years ago. Since its inception, it has advanced 4,357%, versus a gain of 378% for the unleveraged Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ).

These investors may not understand that a 200% or 300% leveraged ETF doubles or triples the underlying index returns only over very short holding periods and that these leveraged ETFs are likely to return substantially less than double or triple the underlying index returns over holding periods longer than a few days ...

Because they rebalance daily, leveraged ETFs usually never lose all of their value. They can, however, fall toward zero over time. If a leveraged ETF approaches zero, its manager typically liquidates its assets and pays out all remaining holders in cash.

Why avoid leveraged ETFs? ›

Leveraged ETFs decay due to the compounding effect of daily returns, volatility of the market and the cost of leverage. The volatility drag of leveraged ETFs means that losses in the ETF can be magnified over time and they are not suitable for long-term investments.

The Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares (JNUG) and the Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bear 3x Shares (JDST) are the two most volatile exchange-traded funds of all. Each has a one-year volatility reading of about 170.

The two major risks associated with leveraged ETFs are decay and high volatility. High volatility translates to high risk. Decay emanates from holding the ETFs for long periods.

BMO has launched the first quadruple leveraged ETN fund that tracks the S&P 500. The fund will trade under the ticker symbol "XXXX" and seeks to generate four time the S&P 500's return on a daily basis. The launch come as bullishness rise among investors and Wall Street predicts more gains to come in 2024.

Direxion launched its first leveraged ETFs in 2008. In November 2008 the company was the first to offer ETFs with 3X leverage, a move that was copied some months later by its competitors ProShares and Rydex Investments.

Nearly all leveraged ETFs come with a prominent warning in their prospectus: they are not designed for long-term holding. The combination of leverage, market volatility, and an unfavorable sequence of returns can lead to disastrous outcomes.