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thinkorswim - Stop Wasting Money & Don't Fall for the Price Defaults
Can anyone explain why SSO and SPUU produce their (similar) gains in totally different ways?
VOO vs SSO- which one is good for long term investment?
I locked myself in a box spread and levered myself at 3.33x on SPY/QQQ
~$18k gains, holding for a few months since the low. ignore the -100% its an error, hopefully ; )
How to balance long term leveraged/unleveraged ETFs
Is this what Elon said he was looking for?
Dip Buying BackTesting - SPY & QQQ with Leveraged Accounts
Active Health Foods! NEW COMPANY BUY QUICK!
If you're young and have a very long investment horizon, then investing in stocks using leverage DECREASES your risk
If I put half my money into the SPY and half my money into SSO (2x leveraged spy) - would this be the same as 1.5x leverage?
TQQQ - The perfect ETF for a strong bull market
Debunking the "Leveraged ETFs Are Not a Long-Term hold" myth. Big backtest
$RECAF.....last huge oil deposit
What do you think about leveraged ETFs, are be-weekly refreshed ETFs even a thing ?
ATDS Lands New Contract, Revenues Keep Increasing
Canadian LPs WILL be allowed in the US markets *WHEN* MSOs are allowed to uplist. $APHA/TLRY 🚀🚀🚀
Mentions
Had you invested in the 2x SNP500, the SSO, at the peak of the financial crisis, it would have taken you until the end of 2013 to break even, as opposed to the beginning of 2013 for the normal 1x SNP500 🤣🤣🤣
2x leverage is generally accepted to be the best long term hold. SSO for S&P, QLD for the Nasdaq. For me, I hold QLD and QQQI in my ‘invest and forget’ account.
What's wrong with SSO on tradingview?
You don't need options income, you need (at least some) leverage. SSO, UPRO, QLD, QQUP, BTGD, BEGS etc
Use SSO then to dip your toes into using some leverage since the share price is so low. If you can't handle it then def don't play with LEAPS.
Never heard of SSO but I’m in QQQM in addition to SPYM (and NVDA). Trying to get into SPY LEAPS but that’s a lot of money to be risking.
IMO if you're under 40 it's not a bad idea to be aggressively investing in something like SSO or QQQ instead of just VOO.
Hot take - VOO and chill. Might be the right decision for *most* people, but if you have any conviction and risk tolerance there are so many ways to make more money. Especially so if you're young. SSO, QQQ, LEAPS, etc.. Nothing crazy and can get you far ahead of the pack.
Was going to say this. It's not very diversified when: 1. Private is stuff like BRK & TSLA which are large cap and tech heavy 2. QQQ is cap weighted and thus tech heavy 3. S&P20 is largecap/tech heavy 4. S&P500 is cap weighted and thus also largecap/tech heavy 5. KOSPI is a nice change interms of international but S Kor is also tech heavy. If OP was doing that then they'd be more diversified owning QQQ + Equal Weight SPY or VT + SSO. That said, their asset mix might not be as bad if their alts like gold and bond/cash mix was a higher %.
SSO/IEF/GLD if you wanna seem highly regarded
Not to diminish the amazing result (28% annual returns), but for those of us investing in SPXL, UPRO, SSO, etc. today, I think it is worth noting that this success was largely due to investing when the levered ETF had crashed 70-80%. That's the time to go all. Otherwise, it's best to build a portfolio like 40% UPRO, 30% ZROZ, 30% GLDM and target returns that beat the S&P by just a couple percent annualized. Would be interested in OP and others' perspective, but the huge cajones was going all in on massive leverage when everyone though the world was ending. Having cajones today and thinking the result (without a hedged portfolio) will be the same in a decade or two is probably wrong. Wait for the crash and go hedged until then. Even then, worth noting OP suffered a 76% drawdown on a $930k balance in early 2020. He'd made enough from 2010 to 2020 in the levered position to still be ahead vs just having invested in SPY or VOO, but tough to watch $700k evaporate in a month. [https://testfol.io/?s=52fT0SdC39B](https://testfol.io/?s=52fT0SdC39B)
That’s not how the fund works btw.. it’s re-leveraged daily. SPX would have to go -33.33% in one day, and it can’t because of circuit breakers. Not possible for this fund to break, but single stock levered funds or non-index levered funds definitely can. SSO is a better long term hold.
I bought a grand worth tqqq in 2016 for $4.72 avg a share and slowly added more- my total investment was $3760 ($5 a week) I sold it last week at $113 a share (389.7 shares) for a total of $44k The paperwork on the sale said the average that I made was 38.9 % a year for those ten years (the highest year being a gain of 91.4%, the lowest at 19.7%) When i bought it back then, people were warning me about the risks involved and truthfully I wish I didn't listen to them, i'd be fully retired and not just partially. My plan was to wait till the market lets a little air out of the ballon and rebuy in and basically hold for another ten years; if it sticks to its 30%+ average per year- i'll have the 600k I need to fully retire. Granted I have other stocks, but the amount of time and effort and stress that goes into all that truthfully isn't worth it for me- at least anymore. It used to be really fun. My leveraged nvidia of course has done well, and leveraged apple, google and tesla too- but I also have some major losses that brings my ten year average to 17.2%. By my math, if i did the reverse- mostly into TQQQ, UDOW, UPRO, SSO, GLD, TECL, SOXL, SHM, ect and the minority amount into leveraged blue chips- my net worth would've been about 200k higher. So my advice would be to start the way I did- and only use about 10% of your portfolio on letfs like this & if the chip and ai bubble continue to inflate then start adding 10% per year for those ten years. If you start at $1000 and max out your IRA (583 a month). If Tqqq sticks to its ten year average (42.3%) then you'll have close to 600k after 10 years. 3.5 million after 15 years and well over 20 million dollars after 20 years. Good luck gangster
Nice. Highly regarded. *Nods in approval as a fellow UPRO degen* I sold out of my UPRO like a bitch in 2024. Luckily I just shifted to VOO/SSO while riding my UWM/TNA. Been selling UPRO puts but they never exercise. Do you plan on ever deleveraging?
Why is this so controversial? Even just holding SSO since inception beats VOO, and that went through the 2008 global financial crisis.
Yes, more concentrated and higher-leveraged ETFs have indeed collapsed. SSO survived the GFC and performed as expected, so it should survive another crisis.
Well, I'm considering switching to SSO (ProShares Ultra S&P500) temporarily, like I described.
inverse ETFs are intended for short-term trading, so your plan assumes you know when the crashes will start and stop. Jack Schwager's book *Market Sense and Nonsense* has a chapter on inverse and leveraged ETFs. these ETFs are very complex and the long-term performance often doesn't play out as people expect. he writes about 2006 to 2011, a very volatile period for the S&P 500. someone invested equally in SSO and SDS was almost entirely wiped out. >...consider an investor who bought equal amounts of both the leveraged long and short ETFs (that is, equal long positions in the SSO and SDS). **Although this combined investment sounds like a neutral holding in which the two positions should approximately offset each other, the reality is radically different. The combined investment would have lost the equivalent of 99 percent, measured relative to the amount invested in each ETF!**
I've had my cors SPY position for years so the gains are rather large. The gains on SSO are much smaller as they are often short term positions as it gets sold during a correction.
SSO doesn’t provide 2x SPY returns to start with….
\> For a taxable account, this is my attempt to reduce capital gains tax without allowing my account value to tank. How is this saving you on tax? You're selling SSO which should have the biggest gains on it no?
> Going for 2-3% is simply too risky for me. Huh? You're in the wrong security. On Friday, you lost 5.44% in a single day on SSO.
Calls on leveraged ETF isn’t quite the same as regular stock/ETF due to the return distribution being distorted by the daily leverage and the inherent volatility associated with that so just beware of that. Full disclosure, I own a fair amount of SSO and sell calls on them too
Go for the 2x versions, QLD (NDX) or SSO (SPX). Couple with 2x long duration treasuries (UBT). Look into the HFEA strategy. We could be approaching a dovish, quantitative easing environment, so long duration bonds will appreciate in value as yields drop. I haven't executed any variation of the HFEA strategy, but I'm interested in trying now that I have a larger portfolio. I may allocate about $100K (around 13.5%) of my current total portfolio for this strategy in the next serious downturn. Or I might just chicken out and just keep buying the S&P 500 as I've always done.
Leveraged ETFs like that 2x SSO can feel like a clever shortcut, but they actually muliply the risk big time, especially during volatile markets, and can seriously erode returns ovr time due to daily compounding. Comparing it to a single stock risk doesn’t quite work since levrage can wreck your gains faster than a court ruling on a company. Are you comfortable with the idea that chsing higher returns this way might also mean big swings or evn losses that could wipe out a chunk of your retirement savings?
How do you get 2x leverage on $100? By borrowing another $100 and buying $200 worth of stocks. Leveraged ETFs use total return swaps to achieve this rather than outright borrowing money, but the result is the same, and they pay interest on that $100 of borrowed money. The interest accrual is not part of the expense ratio. It is accounted for on a daily basis in the NAV. And yes, if you regress the daily NAV returns of a leveraged ETF onto the daily returns of the underlying index, you will find that the daily underperformance relative to 2x the index is close to the listed expense ratio + the interest paid on the swaps. You need to correctly account for day count conventions to get a precise measurement (e.g. weekends accrue three days of interest). You can even see the interest rate paid on each swap (these ETFs actually transact with multiple investment banks) in the N-PORT forms filed with the SEC. For example, this is the latest N-PORT filing for ProShares SSO: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1174610/000175272425180300/xslFormNPORT-P_X01/primary_doc.xml On the TRS that the fund has with Citibank, the fund pays the Effective Fed Funds Rate (FEDL01), which is 4.09% right now, + an extra spread of 0.90% on top of it so a total of 4.99% with current FEDL01 levels. You can search for "Total Return Swap" in the form linked above, and look under at section C.11.2 "Description and terms of payments to be paid to another party".
The only cost associated with a leveraged ETF is the listed fee. Sure there can be volatility decay (or momentum upside) but that's different. Want to make your case that interest rates actually matter then it seems like you'd need a chart comparing fees (say for SSO, UPRO, SPXL, etc) and interest rates over a number of years.
Do you have any resource that shows the management fee of UPRO / SSO / SPXL / etc over time - something that would show if interest rates actually make an impact?
2x *daily*. Down 10% and up 10% means SSO is lower than sp500. A few days of this plus one massive win leaves the sp500 way up and SSO way down. It is why the 3x NVDA is way down while normal NVDA is way up over a long timeline.
Because, as an example, in 2008 financial crisis your SSO portfolio would have crashed 85%. Can you handle that? Imagine seeing your portfolio that is worth one million dollars evaporate to just 250k.
I’m 2x with LETFs like SSO. I handle it by not looking or caring about the number today.
Look at the VOO plot, ups and downs 10 years ago are nearly invisible. May be DCA $10k each month as others have suggested. You may consider some 2x like SSO.
This is generally the truth. I think having some futures overlays, like my gold GC longs, can make sense, but my core only rotates to defensives/SSO tranches based on predefined drawdowns. Tax harvesting is the "alpha" there, though, less predicting direction
Would be better to do a 2x ETF like SSO or QLD imo.
FXAIX, QQQM, SSO, BTC. Same as before and same tomorrow.
I'm a dumbass SPY is x-dividend. ES and other derivatives like SSO are up. If you held SPY overnight; you just get the dividend in a few days. PM is NOT down.
Too many phases if you ask me. They should just stick to the Goldman Sachs model 1. Pre-purchase an investment for yourselves and largest clients. (ex... investment in BRIC countries) 2. Get some economist/analyst/writer on your team to shill it to smaller clients and retail (ex...BRICS have had horrible returns unless you were Goldman Sachs who unloaded their earlier positions) No need for phase 3 or 4. Goldman Sachs were always the smartest cats, sharkiest sharks, and scummiest conniest bankers. So whenever they say one thing I'm more likely to do the opposite just like with Bloomberg and their [100% CHANCE OF RECSSION WITHIN A YEAR](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-17/forecast-for-us-recession-within-year-hits-100-in-blow-to-biden) call right at the fucking market bottom of 2022. So I'll hold onto my SSO/VOO/GOOGL/GOOG. If anything, it means I should buy QQQ on any dips.
TQQQ and QLD UPRO and SSO ZROZ, EDV GLD and lower ER variants CTA, KMLM, and DBMF
VOO doesn't have a liquid options market. You get raped on bid/ask spreads. SPY works. But you have to deal with volatility and losing out on divvies, which, until recently was a decent part of the return. You need to factor in the cost of owning the options, both transaction costs while rolling and theta. Do the math and let us know what you find. Oh, and then let us know whether you can do better than owning some combination of SPY and leveraged SPY ETFs such as SSO.
I don’t mean to be a simpleton here, but SPMO or SSO has pretty handily beat the S&P. Are their risks and time horizons one needs to be privy to? Sure. But I feel like “can’t beat the market” has almost been too drilled into peoples heads such that a 22 year old with a 50 year time horizon doesn’t even attempt to seek bigger gains
Hi, I passed the series 7 and 63 and Vanguard wants me to choose what department I want to work in and I have to clue what to pick. I want the position that is the least stressful but I do know they can still put me anywhere. My options are SSO, Investments, Retirement, and Self-Directed Plus. Does anyone have any insight?
If volatility decay kills you in the long run, then explain how a fund like SSO outperforms the S&P since inception...? If what you're saying is true, then wouldn't it trend down instead of up?
I didn’t do SPXL but I did do SSO (2x) for very long periods, like a decade. I think research shows that in most cases it outperformed SPY over long periods even though they say you’re not supposed to hold it for long. I also moved stuff into SSO after the COVID drop which worked well for a number of years.
Diversified LETFs are for long term holding. Single stock LETFs are for swing trading and shorter term plays. www.testfol.io Check returns versus regular ETFs on SSO, QLD, UPRO against stuff like SPY and QQQ. Bull runs far outpace the volatility decay and sideways losses.
Vol decay, try QLD or SSO. Or a portfolio with SPXL/TQQQ with other uncorrelated funds rebalanced periodically. Check out r/LETFs
Most people here could probably full port SSO (2x SPY) and get better gains lol
Well if 100% VTI is a sensible strategy because VTI should go up in the long run, then why not double down on that assumption and go 100% SSO?
You could use SSO instead for 2x SPY exposure, implied underlying costs of (EFFR + 0.5%) × 1.1, implied cost of 5.3% per year. Or you could use deep ITM LEAPs on SPY, could probably get an implied borrow around 5%. These methods have defined loss, rather than loans that need to be repaid.
Definitely, we have agentless desktop SSO configured in the background and it auto signs you in unless you’re outside our company’s network.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SSO/ Buddy look at the 5y and max time charts. What part of that looks like something that shouldn't be held long term? The real answer is don't be wrong on leverage, especially 3x leverage. Yeah volatility drag can hurt, but it can also help compound in a low volatility environment.
It’s a hedged strategy already so the volatility is much lower than pure TQQQ and expected returns are higher. You will at minimum need to use QLD or SSO on the leveraged side of the portfolio to not underperform the indices.
Defensive is simply an unleveraged position on equities like QQQ or judt hedges only versus the aggressive position which is used to increase leverage via LETFs such as TQQQ. This is a variation of the very popular SSO GLD ZROZ strategy in r/LETFs but using TQQQ instead and adding in managed futures for even more diversification. 200SMA is used to determine periods of low volatility when price is above (bull runs) and to separate out the bad times with high volatility below the 200SMA and avoiding leverage when below it.
That’s factually not true, drag happens in both directions. It’s different bc of drag, SSO a 2x lev actually comes in post fees at ~1.5x. However you wouldn’t have margin risk, rolling futures, etc.
Thoughts on levered ETF vs margin? Seems like SSO essentially hits their 2x leverage and your additional cost is minimum compared to margin call risk
You have the right idea. QLD and SSO are great leverage products in my opinion and make up 40% of my portfolio (20% each). I am doing the same thing. Gonna use them till 45 and then shift to VT/VOO or a simple 3 fund portfolio. My logic is that my risk tolerance is high thanks to a fairly stable job and high income. Also, with the next 12-15 years being my accumulation phase, I have no debt and no dependents and can hold the positions as long as required to weather any drawdowns while constantly DCAing. If you’re in a similar boat, I don’t see any argument against doing this.
I’m in on Reddit and generally bullish but the likelihood of it becoming half of meta is slim. Meta has: - a refined and insanely robust ad targeting algorithm that can tap into many mixed media placements; not just FB, but IG (which has reels aka TikTok), now threads - SSO (single sign on), which is still prominent and gathers swaths of 3rd party data from the digital ecosystem. Reddit doesn’t have this offering being anonymous - ancillary products within VR (and the ray ban glasses, say what you want about that) - on platform shopping features The 2nd is the only fundamental moat that Reddit cannot offer. The others are realistic to compete in but could take years. Not saying Reddit will compete in those verticals but worth using them as examples to contextualize the time horizon in which in took Meta to establish them. As someone in the digital marketing space Reddit is improving its offerings but still a text based platform with a so-so targeting algorithm
facebook used to be (and still kinda is) the normie's identity card for the internet it's basically used as an SSO for every site they use and care about, lets them play all their fav games like farmville and candy crush, and has a messenger component that, for a time, basically became an SMS replacement reddit has none of those things. doesn't mean it's a bad buy, just saying it's not nearly meta level
Honestly has worked out pretty well for me. I have decent sized positions in UPRO and SSO that I've just let run for years (which is advised by almost nobody, including the products themselves lol) but my UPRO position is up like 100% in a time frame where VOO is up around 35ish so I can't complain. I'm sure I'll get humbled someday by UPRO, less so by SSO but it's survived COVID, the inflation concerns after, and the tarriff shitshow just fine so im just letting it run
Basically increase your income as much as possible, spend as little as possible, and invest as much as possible into ETFs like QQQ and VOO. Depending on your risk appetite, young investors can take advantage of leveraged ETFs such as QLD or SSO for 2x daily leverage on QQQ and SPY for the long term.
Yes of course. Was only referring to SSO, QLD etc. with a strong underlying
Thanks very much. But just one thing, SPMO and AVUV have no overlap at all. Completely different. SSO and QLD are super long term bets with constant DCAing and injection during drawdowns. That’s should help me come out on top during a 15 year timeframe
You're mixing solid stuff with some weird junk. VT and AVUV are fine, but SPMO is a weird smart beta play and overlaps a lot with AVUV. SSO+QLD is double trouble - you're basically layering leverage on already volatile sectors. FBTC is fine if you’re cool with potential 80% drawdowns. Check this breakdown of your allocation: https://www.insightfol.io/en/portfolios/report/2423193b43/
LETF hedged strategies with 200SMA switching. Examples would be for example TQQQ hedged for the highest levels of risk, with SSO hedged at the lowest end of risk. TQQQ, gold, managed futures, bonds strategy with 200SMA switch Results with dotcom bubble and 2008 GFC: Strategy: https://testfol.io/tactical?s=2Qt4zrwoJ0m Standard ETFs: https://testfol.io/?s=9giBG7lgiNi
Primarily VOO and QQQM, but I also have JEPQ, a few CEFs and also QLD and SSO. I may dump SSO in favor of SPMO.
No one will care but I'm blown away I have managed a random allocation of stocks that seems to nearly match the market exactly the past week. A weird mix of GOOG/WMT/BRK/UNH/SOXL/SSO/PPA that have always had 1-2 up and 1-2 down in a way that is like the Thanos knife, perfectly balanced to copy the SPY. Which is f'ing annoying bc the amount of stress to match 100% SPY was not worth it haha.
The downside to SSO it being leveraged is if the S&P does face a substantial drawback, it’ll take slightly longer for SSO to recover because it’ll be recovering from a smaller amount. There is definitely more risk but I like the potential growth. GL man, make sure to do your on research and find out what you’re most comfortable with. Holding long term and continuing to invest/reinvest is the smart thing to do, regardless of what ETF.
They’re prob closer to like 30/25/25 , or even equal splits. SSO is definitely going to be more volatile but over time it will recover along side the S&P500. I have a dividend paying portfolio & a speculative individual stock portfolio as well, so overall I probably hold 60% in VGT/SPMO/SSO.
What’s your split? 50/30/20 VGT SPMO SSO?
Liquidation on something like SSO (2x S&P 500) is so unlikely that it might as well be considered impossible. Take a look at SQQQ for example (short 3x Nasdaq 100). It has lost 99.999% of its value over time and still continues to trade 100m shares daily. If SQQQ hasn’t been forced to liquidate, then none of the bull leveraged ETFs would either.
Liquidation on something like SSO is so unlikely that is might as well be considered impossible. Take a look at SQQQ for example (short 3x Nasdaq 100). It has lost 99.999% of its value over time and still continues to trade 100m shares daily. If SQQQ hasn’t been forced to liquidate, then none of the bull leveraged ETFs would either.
There is Math Decay, 100x10%=110, 110x-10% = 99, Lost 1% due the the Math. People like to call it 'Volatility decay' but it is Simple Math. Take your SPXU & SDS( it's -2x counterpart). S&P if is EVEN over a year, SPXU/SSO will be Negative(\~8-12%). Math comparison favor the Negative Integer. SDS, the Inverse of SPXU/SSO will also be Negative, even greater, much greater. Compounding is another Math situation, yet it's not inherent in Math. Thats why you see a 2x make more than the Index because the Index is UP. When EVEN or negative you lose a great deal with a LONG position on LETFs.
Look up SPMO , SSO & VGT. Check their since inception returns. Although allocating more into one fund ( VOO ) will allow for stronger compounding in many years. But the 3 funds I listed are for more aggressive growth imo. I hold all 3, they all overlap to some degree but I’m okay with that.
Can he just stop saying shit during market hours, I'm trying to avoid an SSO put and it just barely reached the tip and this guy has to go "WE GOT NUCLEAR SUBMARINES HEADED TO RUSSIA BABY"
Sold put options on SSO at $100 and $99 earlier this week and it's been bouncing between those two today and I'm just staring at it like a poor hawk hoping it lands at 100.01 by the weekend
I mean you don’t need to do TQQQ. Mine is more of an extreme example with 3x leverage and concentration to just 100 stocks. The most conservative one would be SSO. Try your own backtests by filling over mine and see what results you’d get. I’d expect much lower and smoother drawdowns than any strategy on here while far exceeding any general investment advice on here to “VOO and chill” which would’ve caused a -55% drawdown during 2008z
Each 350 Call would mirror $63k in SSO. I'm not sure of the tax situation, but you could sell 1/2 of your SSO and buy 1 350 Call to have the same exposure. The inflated price of the 350 call reflects the rf return on the cash difference between putting up $35k to control $63k in SPY. I know you're going out far so you can 'fire and forget', but you'll more than likely need to exercise these early in 2027 before a dividend payment for max value.
Stocks will go down a lot tomorrow $SSO short
I trade so I’ve only held this position for like 2-3 months. I would not leverage crypto to hold long term, just for general movement during a bull run. Stuff like QLD TQQQ SSO and UPRO are much better long term holds due to less volatility
SSO is already 2x SPY. So you’re saying the options would be 2x SSO (so 4x SPY) but also at the same time 1:1 with SPY? I think I’m missing something here bc I don’t understand what you mean
How have they cornered the market on SSO? What about Okta?
I imagine it would be hard to beat a combo of BRKU, SSO, and QQQ in the long run.
They dont really teach you that stuff at school, this is just wallstreet leverage jargon. TLDR, only diversified risks are compensated. With leverage, you can take on more risk. It costs the (EFFR + ~0.5%) × 1.1 for every point of leverage, plus the higher expense ratios for the funds. For example, SSO or SPUU (2x SPY) cost like ~5-5.25% per year on leverage costs, plus their expense ratios. Historically they have outperformed unlevered 1x (when simulated back to 1885). Lots of sub periods where they suck, like the great depression, dot com, GFC, etc. Otherwise, they tend to do great like post WWII, depression recovery, the 80s/90s, 2009 onwards
Take a look at VUG - it's the market growth index fund. With a slightly higher risk than VOO it recovers nicely from dips and grows faster. I have about 50/50 VOO/VUG. allocation for 80% of my investment. Rest is funny money, like 2x leveraged SSO QLD USD and some single stocks like NVDA
Yeah, I have been waiting for some sort of drop of a couple percent to put the last bit of cash I have into a leveraged one like SSO but now, by the time it drops, it would just be like if I bought in one or two weeks ago anyway
I agree with the VOO and chill method. If you want to allocate into a bit more risk for whatever reason, you can add a bit of QLD (2x QQQ) or SSO (2x SPY) for a bit of leverage.
Flat is actually the perfect environment for a wheel strategy. If it's on a decline, it wouldn't work well. That's why I use SSO - it's a double-leveraged ETF based on the S&P - which doesn't usually go on a gradual decline. There are sharp crashes and positive movements traditionally.
Not the OP but I used the wheel strategy with higher account values for years and consistently average 20-30% per year most years. I divide my wheel portfolio into 3 chunks. Then I sell 4 blocks of weekly puts (one on margin technically if I allowed all 4 to get executed). I consistently use SSO for this. I trade this type of account once a week - either Friday or Monday and don’t pay attention to it any other times really. With patience, you absolutely can make a lot of money this way. Then there are crash years like Covid that mess it all up. I wouldn’t count on it if I needed the income from it to live.
SSO or QLD and chill. This is not financial advice.
The key is leverage on a positive expected return asset. SSO or UPRO are LETFs that leverage the return of VOO. You don’t lose the benefit of diversification this way but increase returns similarly to concentration without adding on the idiosyncratic risk. I used to be extremely heavily concentrated. 6 years of holding 100% TSLA. But now I believe leverage is much smarter and less risky.
I have the last decade. I keep half my funds 50% SPY 50% SSO for 1.5x leverage using the 200 sma method (when spy breaks under the 200 sma sell the SSO and buy SPY and reverse when it breaks over 200 sma) and use the other half on individual names with high upside potential. You cant do this unless you have a lot of time to keep abreast of news and do market research. My current holdings Ive been in the last year or so are ASTS ( sat comms), RKLB(space ships), TEM (AI healthcare bought on Pelosi buy) KTOS (bought on Trump domestic drone push), KRKNF ( Anduril supplier of drone parts), and NB (bought on China rare earth blockade). I recently bought ETHA when tbey passed the crypto bills which normalize building out financial tokenization which ETH seems the most likely to benefit from. The main thing is to watch for meta market movers. For example when Trump got elected I went long natural gas because gas prices tanked due to Biden stopping lng export terminals which Trump would obviously overturn. When China retaliated tariffs with rate earth export bans and Trump started talking about domestic rare earth I bought domestic rare earth companies (already exited all but NB which has a Q4 catalyst). Anyone thats my story good luck.
Was in a similar boat as you when I was 18. A lot of people disagree with my investing philosophy but I believe when you are young and have a small account relative to your income, you can afford to take significant risk (but not to the level of being a degenerate). This means using leverage on things like VOO in the form of LETFs such as SSO or UPRO and hedging properly with gold, managed futures, and bonds. Small account fluctuation can easily be managed psychologically since your income is large relative to account size. If you make $100k, a drawdown of 30% on a $60k account is a nothingburger. But a 30% drawdown on an account of $600k is much more psychologically taxing.
Lots of people will mention leverage decay, but consider that regular ETFs are also already leveraged, just at a leverage of 1. There’s no reason to assume that 1 is the optimal leverage for every index. Also fees are mostly a non-issue when compared to the far greater returns. If you choose an underlying index that’s relatively stable and not super volatile, like the S&P 500, leverages of 2 or even 3 can make sense. Check out tickers like SSO (2x) and SPXL (or UPRO) for 3x. Buying and holding leveraged ETFs is generally not advised (although, if you check out those tickers, you’d be up a lot more if you DCA in over the same period as with the underlying index). However, there are some legitimate investment strategies that involve using volatility indicators for the underlying index to know when to liquidate your position, to avoid getting caught in a massive crash (which would be amplified with the leverage). You can look up simple strategies like a 200 SMA strategy. I would say the S&P 500 is one of the only indexes stable enough to support a leverage level of 3, so going with a leverage level of 2 like in SSO is pretty safe for long term holding. As for how they work, most of the LETFs rebalance daily to achieve the desired leverage level. So, if the index moves up 2% in a day, the LETF aims to move up x\*2%, where x is the leverage of the LETF. The daily rebalancing is important to note, because large market moves are usually spread out across many days, so moving down 50% in 5 days won’t completely ruin a 2x LETF, because of the daily rebalancing. Doing so in 1 day would ruin the LETF, but with circuit breakers this is virtually impossible to happen. Hopefully this answers some of your questions, for more information you can check out r/LETFs . IMO the best way to use LETFs is long term holding or a 200 SMA strategy, I would not reccomend trading them.
Another good example is any of these SOXL/UPRO/SSO/TQQQ, the market has been doing really well and S&P 500 breaking records but due to the crash in April while the market is hitting all time highs the 3x leverages ETF's still haven't gotten completely back to their 2025 highs.
Yeah no I will be DCA'ing in VOO , I'm saying I am also considering allocating 15% of my portfolio to SSO which is basically a 2x leveraged VOO. I'll rebalance every year
What's your guys opinion on keeping 75% of an 18yr olds portfolio in voo and the rest in SSO or smth . I'll keep an automatic sell when it falls more than 5% from last highest price point.