This is more of an educational post, but it also serves as a trading idea. Costs of derivatives and manager fees make leveraged ETFs have a dangerous time decay. If trading for periods longer than a day, these kick in. How badly they impair performance depends on the volatility of the underlyings, so be careful when trading these. A more clearly trending underlying makes for a safer leveraged play, so, instruments like QLD/QID aren't as affected by this. You can observe how being short both sides of the coin, can produce a downtrend in the chart, and thus, a safe long term short. Be careful when trading these for longer than a day, and if trading QLD, or QID, be careful with trades held for longer than a month, or a quarter (I estimate that is for how long they can outperform QQQ).
Cheers,
Ivan Labrie.
Komen
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Another way to put it, this 'portfolio' is up 235% YTD: