Why shouldn t you hold leveraged ETFs long-term?
Triple-leveraged (3x) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) come with considerable risk and are not appropriate for long-term investing. Compounding can cause large losses for 3x ETFs during volatile markets, such as U.S. stocks in the first half of 2020.
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.
- Speculative market risk. There is a heightened degree of market risk associated with levered ETFs. ...
- Not the best choice for long-term Investments. ...
- High fees. ...
- Compounding and Volatility Exposure. ...
- Catastrophic Losses.
The daily rebalancing of leveraged and inverse ETFs creates a situation that for periods longer than a day or two the return of a leveraged or inverse ETF will deviate from the margin account benchmark.
Because they reset each day, leveraged and inverse ETFs typically are inappropriate as an intermediate or long-term investment. They may be appropriate, however, if recommended as part of a sophisticated trading or hedging strategy that will be closely monitored by a financial professional.
ETFs can be a great investment for long-term investors and those with shorter-term time horizons. They can be especially valuable to beginning investors. That's because they won't require the time, effort, and experience needed to research individual stocks.
1. Market risk. The single biggest risk in ETFs is market risk.
One major disadvantage of leverage is the potential for significant losses. As leverage amplifies the size of a position, even a small decline in the value of an asset can result in substantial losses.
Example of a negative leverage effect: If the interest on debt exceeds the total return of the project, less money is generated with the help of debt financing. This reduces the return on equity. With a total return of 5% and an interest on debt of 6%, you pay more for the additional capital than you can earn with it.
Leveraged ETFs amplify daily returns and can help traders generate outsized returns and hedge against potential losses. A leveraged ETF's amplified daily returns can trigger steep losses in short periods of time, and a leveraged ETF can lose most or all of its value.
Is it okay to hold Sqqq overnight?
While the Fund has a daily investment objective, you may hold Fund shares for longer than one day if you believe it is consistent with your goals and risk tolerance. For any holding period other than a day, your return may be higher or lower than the Daily Target.
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.
In a volatile market, where the underlying asset experiences large daily swings, the compounding effect of daily returns can cause the leveraged ETF to lose value rapidly. This is because losses are magnified over time, and gains are not enough to offset the losses.
By some estimates, returns generate up to 74% less rebalancing by leveraged and inverse ETFs once capital flows are taken into account. As a consequence, the potential for these types of products to exacerbate volatility should be much lower than many claim.
Market Instability: Leveraged investments are more sensitive to market fluctuations, and losses can build up quickly.
A firm that operates with both high operating and financial leverage can be a risky investment. High operating leverage implies that a firm is making few sales but with high margins. This can pose significant risks if a firm incorrectly forecasts future sales.
- SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
- iShares Core S&P 500 ETF.
- Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund.
- Shelton NASDAQ-100 Index Direct.
- Invesco QQQ Trust ETF.
- Vanguard Russell 2000 ETF.
- Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF.
- SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust.
Buying high and selling low
At any given time, the spread on an ETF may be high, and the market price of shares may not correspond to the intraday value of the underlying securities. Those are not good times to transact business.
The QQQ gained 18.1% annually over the past 10 years. That tops all of the nearly 300 ETFs in the category. That easily outpaces the 12.6% average annual gain of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) — the cornerstone of most investors' portfolios.
The Bottom Line
A leveraged ETF uses derivative contracts to magnify the daily gains of an index or benchmark. These funds can offer high returns, but they also come with high risk and expenses. Funds that offer 3x leverage are particularly risky because they require higher leverage to achieve their returns.
Has an ETF ever gone to zero?
For most standard, unleveraged ETFs that track an index, the maximum you can theoretically lose is the amount you invested, driving your investment value to zero. However, it's rare for broad-market ETFs to go to zero unless the entire market or sector it tracks collapses entirely.
Leveraged ETFs can produce significant short-term gains, such as 2x or 3x the performance of their benchmark, but investors should note that short-term losses can also be amplified.
TQQQ is one of the largest leveraged ETFs that also tracks the Nasdaq-100. QQQ is perhaps best-suited as a long-term investment for those who want broad exposure to the Nasdaq-100 Index. TQQQ is built for short-holding periods and is best suited for day traders.
Leveraged ETFs amplify daily returns and can help traders generate outsized returns and hedge against potential losses. A leveraged ETF's amplified daily returns can trigger steep losses in short periods of time, and a leveraged ETF can lose most or all of its value.
Don't go all in and don't buy and hold TQQQ – or any leveraged stocks ETF – “naked” for the long term without a hedge of some sort, because sometimes they simply can't recover from major drawdowns. The last decade has looked great for TQQQ, but don't succumb to recency bias.
