Supercharge Your Portfolio With These Powerful ETFs

By: David Goodboy - Street Authority

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have revolutionized the way investors approach the financial markets.

No longer are multiple accounts required to access the majority of indexes, currencies and commodities. Now, with a stock brokerage account, the self-directed investor can trade nearly every popular financial instrument with the click of a mouse.

Not only has access been democratized, but leverage has also undergone a revolution. ETFs that provide two and even three times leverage -- meaning they amplify the moves of an instrument or index by a given multiple, in either direction -- are available on a variety of financial instruments.

I'll never forget my first time using triple-leveraged ETFs. My technical research and fundamentals clearly indicated that the SP 500 index, the broad barometer of U.S. stocks, was overextended on the upside. A big drop was on its way, and it was going to happen soon.

Having just learned about the power of triple-leveraged ETFs to capture such a move, I was excited to have recently discovered the Direxion Daily SP 500 Bear 3X ETF (NYSE: SPXS).

I had a strong suspicion that stocks were going to dive sometime before Wednesday. So when the market opened Monday, I purchased the Direxion 3X Bear ETF to capture the move. My analysis was 100% correct.

As the market approached Monday's close, stocks started spiraling downward. The market behaved similarly on Tuesday with bearish news hitting the wire, causing the SP 500 to drop like a rock.

I was super excited, knowing that I was making triple the points on the upside since my triple-leveraged ETF was inverse, meaning it moved in the opposite way of the index. When I checked the position on Wednesday, I was fully confident of at least a triple in my account.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

My account was actually slightly lower than it was prior to the big drop and my purchase of the Direxion 3X Bear ETF.

What happened? There must be some kind of mistake, I thought.

Upon calling my broker, it was explained to me that the leveraged ETF was designed to track the daily movements of the index and not to be held for more than a single trading session. It was also noted that the triple-leveraged ETFs are rebalanced every night.

This rebalancing and the associated fees can actually make the ETF move in the opposite direction it is supposed to go. Had I sold at the end of the session when the SP 500 plunged, I would have been profitable.

But since I held onto the ETF for several days, I lost money, even with the correct analysis on direction. That was a difficult lesson to learn, so I started researching these volatile trading tools.

Leveraged ETFs, launched in 2006, are ETFs that provide more than 1-to-1 leverage to the underlying instrument or index. The mistake I made was based on the fact that the leverage is two or three times the daily movement of the underlying instrument or index -- and not two or three times the longer-term gains or losses.

In addition, ETFs sold as triple-leveraged are generally only actually 2 1/2 times leveraged. In other words, for every point the underlying index moves during the day, a leveraged ETF moves 2.5 times that amount.

Examples of popular double-leveraged ETFs include ProShares' UltraShort Dow 30 DXD ( NYSE: DXD), UltraShort QQQ (NYSE: QID), Ultra Gold (nYSE: UGL) and Ultra Euro (NYSE: ULE) and Rydex's SP500 (NYSE: RSU). Examples of triple-leveraged ETFs include Direxion's SP 500 Bull (USMF: DXSLX), Nasdaq 100 Bear (USMF: DXSSX) and Small Cap Bull (USMF: DXRLX).

Just how do these ETFs obtain leverage of this magnitude? In an effort to avoid complex mathematics, simply stated, it is done with a mixture of options, index futures and swaps to achieve the desired results.

Unfortunately, this financial witches' brew requires a daily rebalancing to maintain the desired leverage. This rebalancing results in extra management and interest costs, which will adversely affect profits if the ETF is held overnight.

Risks to Consider: Leveraged ETFs are powerful tools when used properly. Used improperly, they can spell disaster for your portfolio. Holding triple-leveraged ETFs overnight is just one dangerous aspect of leveraged ETFs. The other involves investors lacking money-management skills and biting off more than is prudent when trading these instruments. Remember, leverage will cut you if you are positioned opposite of the market's movement.

Action to Take -- It's critical to remember that leveraged ETFs are tools strictly for day trading. They can be vastly profitable if you are able to correctly forecast market direction on a day-to-day basis.

Could You Really Collect $55,000 a Year in Retirement?
Now it's possible thanks to "Retirement Savings Stocks." These high-yielders dish out enough income for you to golf every day... go to Hawaii four times a year... and still have more than enough left over to fund your children's or grandchildren's education. To learn about these exclusive retirement stocks, click here.

2 thoughts on “Supercharge Your Portfolio With These Powerful ETFs

  1. Personally, I recommend you learn how to trade options correctly, and you can create the same effect, better effects actually, with more personal control. Adding a witches brew (levered ETFs) to a witches brew (market in general) is begging for an upset stomach.

  2. Hi David, I don't agree that leveraged ETF's are just for day trading. For day trading you'd be better off with a CFD, if your broker offers those. Levered ETF's (or levered tracker 'Factor' certificates, of which Commerzbank in Germany has many) are excellent for catching longer directional moves, even months! Just look at the 3 times levered Direxion DRN (real estate) and DUST (gold miners) for a bullish and a bearish underlying. The key is to have an underlying with a clean trend (Gold miners actually don't have a clean trend, but it has been so strong that DUST had a huge return in the past 5-6 months). Volatility the arch-ennemy of levered ETF's and trackers, they loose value just from chopping around and this volatility loss is the worse the higher the daily volatility and the higher the leverage. That means that only high quality underlyings, such as blue chips and indexes in a clean move are suitable. When you have such an underlying, the leverage provides a form of compounding: the tracker value increases nearly like the price of the underlying raised to the power equal to the leverage. If your undelying doubles the tracker could rise up to eight fold for 3x leverage PROVIDED you get a SMOOTH MOVE.
    Examples:
    Nikkei 225 on Commerzbank 4x long, returned nearly 700% since October 2010, despite an move of only 60% of the underlying: http://www2.warrants.commerzbank.com/Products/ProductSearchAdvanced.aspx?c=1077594
    Roche (Swiss blue chip pharma), 3x long (also available as 5x long - blows you up in a downturn!):
    http://www11.warrants.commerzbank.com/Products/ProductSearchAdvanced.aspx?pc=228&a=40011
    Unfortunaly Commerzbank also offers trackers on underlyings that a far too volatile for such leverage, so you have to be very careful and MUST get out when thing get choppy.
    Finally, if you purchase anything like this, make sure the position is smaller than what you'd use for a plain stock. If you find a stock in a clean uptrend (e.g. Roche), or just broken out from a period of consolidation, buy a 3x levered position that is 3 times smaller. If you're right and the stock is a rocket with smooth trajectory, the compounding effect will return you more than triple the underlying and conversely if you are wrong you lose less. (If you're wrong you shouldn't wait to cut your loss anyway).

Comments are closed.