>>17170029
When the underlying is on an upward trajectory, the daily rebalancing helps rather than hurts so SOXL over the long term has actually returned more than the expected 3x. Think about it. Suppose you used margin and started at 3x leverage. When the underlying increases in price, the gains are added to your principle in effect slowly decreasing your leverage since the margin amount remains the same. But with daily rebalancing, the margin is automatically reset for you so you start each day off back at 3x over the long term propelling you that much further. Consider this, in the first 3 years of SOXL's existence, from 2010 to 2013, it was flat since the entire market was flat. Then everything took off. The school of thought that fears beta decay above all else would lead you to believe that SOXL was a bad investment. Yet when you look at the chart you see that from 2010 to present SOXL, despite the chip and flatness the first three years, returned 30x. The S&P over the same time span? 2x. And that's with chop, flat periods, large dips, etc. Synthetic semiconductor based leveraged instruments have been back tested as far back as semiconductor companies have existed. These synthetic models use the same methodology of construction as the SOXL underlying. The result through all market environments including the Great Recession, black Monday, etc? Complete and utter obliteration of market returns. It's no contest over the long term. Personally I believe in the semiconductor sector, certainly over the next couple of decades which is my time horizon. I also like leverage and I like the regular rebalancing so I will be buying SOXL. You are welcome to do otherwise.