Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SOXL vs SOXX: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SOXL returned +128.7% to SOXX's +72.0%, and SOXX charges 0.33% to SOXL's 0.75%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $24.7bn for Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X ETF and $48.3bn for iShares Semiconductor ETF.
Pair scorecard
SOXX costs 0.42 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 56.7 points; SOXX is 2.0 times larger.
| Measure | SOXL | SOXX |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +128.7% | +72.0% |
| What its daily multiple gave, 3 months | 23.3% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | SOXX 12.3% | |
| What the underlying did, 3 months | SOXX 12.3% | |
| The multiple over the whole window | 3 times gives +36.9% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its all-time high | 20.3%, high on Jun 22, 2026 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Semiconductor | Semiconductors |
| Against its benchmark, 1 year | ahead by 58.7 pts | |
| Against its daily multiple, 3 months | 6.5 points short | |
| Against the whole-window multiple | 20.1 points short | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.75% | 0.33% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $24.7bn | $48.3bn |
| Active share vs the S&P 500 | 82% | |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 74% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 62% | |
Risk and return
Mar 19, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026 · 866 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SOXL against SOXX, Mar 19, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026; SOXX against PBUS, Sep 29, 2017 to Oct 23, 2026.
SOXL returned more: +13,997.6% to +3,425.2%. SOXX swung less: 28.1% to 84.8%. SOXX fell less at its worst: −44.4% to −89.8%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SOXL | SOXX | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +13,997.6% | +3,425.2% | SOXL | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +34.6% | +23.9% | SOXL | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +12,738.9% | +2,851.9% | SOXL | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 84.8% | 28.1% | SOXX | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 55.9% | 18.7% | SOXX | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −89.8% | −44.4% | SOXX | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | Not measured | 212.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 124.0% | 123.4% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 3.01 | 1.38 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.99 | 0.59 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.76 | 0.85 | SOXX (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.16 | 1.28 | SOXX (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.216 | 0.200 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.39 | 0.54 | SOXX | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SOXX | PBUS | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −6.8% a year | +10.2% a year | SOXX not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −4.39 | 1.48 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −9.9% to −3.8% | −3.3% to +23.7% | SOXX includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.72 | 0.69 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 56.8% | 21.7% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 866 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
SOXL and SOXX on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SOXL and SOXX do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SOXL follows Semiconductor and SOXX follows Semiconductors.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 SOXL returned +128.7% and SOXX +72.0% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 56.7 points.
- Cost. SOXL charges 0.75% of assets a year and SOXX 0.33%, a gap of 0.42 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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Over the three months to Oct 28, 2026, SOXL returned 16.8%, against 23.3% for three times SOXX's daily moves. Of that 20.1, daily compounding is −13.6 points, which any 3 times fund would show over the same path, and the fund itself is −6.5 points against 3 times each day's move, compounded. SOXX moved at 43% annualized over that window.
Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 3 times SOXX's 12.3% implies +36.9%, which makes SOXL look 20.1 points short. That is not the fund's objective, which is daily. SOXL aims to return +3 times SOXX's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer periods the daily results compound, so the total is not +3 times the period's move: it is lower after a fall and recovery, and can be higher in a steady run. The more it moves, the further the two numbers separate.
SOXX
By weight, 74% of SOXX's portfolio is stocks that are also in the S&P 500; its active share against the S&P 500 is 82%. The top ten holdings are 62% of the fund across 31 positions, as published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 the fund returned +72.0% with distributions reinvested against +13.3% for its benchmark, the MSCI USA Index, so a holder was ahead by 58.7 pts. It sits 20.3% below its all-time high of Jun 22, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Are SOXL and SOXX in the same category?
- SOXL is a leveraged ETF and SOXX is a thematic ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, SOXL or SOXX?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SOXL returned +128.7% and SOXX +72.0%.
- Which is cheaper, SOXL or SOXX?
- SOXX is cheaper, by 0.42 percentage points a year. That is about $42 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, SOXL against SOXX, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/soxl-vs-soxx
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[SOXL against SOXX (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/soxl-vs-soxx)
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