UPW vs UTSL: which held to its multiple?
Over three months against its own daily promise, UPW finished 0.9 points short and UTSL 1.8 points short. ProShares Ultra Utilities and Direxion Daily Utilities Bull 3X ETF.
UPW returned −22.6% while 2 times XLU's move would have been −22.5%
UTSL returned −33.0% while 3 times XLU's move would have been −33.8%
A percentile among the 470 leveraged ETFs, long, over three months. It is a position in a set, not a rating, and neither end of it is a recommendation. All leveraged ETFs ranked by it → How it is computed →
Performance, window by window
| Total return | Multiple would give | Difference | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window | UPW | UTSL | UPW | UTSL | UPW | UTSL |
| 1 month | −12.2% | −17.9% | −11.8% | −17.8% | −0.3 pts | −0.1 pts |
| 3 months | −22.6% | −33.0% | −22.5% | −33.8% | −0.1 pts | +0.8 pts |
| 6 months | −27.9% | −40.3% | −26.6% | −39.9% | −1.3 pts | −0.5 pts |
| 1 year | −20.2% | −32.3% | −14.0% | −20.9% | −6.3 pts | −11.3 pts |
| 3 years | +62.3% | +74.8% | +92.6% | +139.0% | −30.3 pts | −64.2 pts |
| Since launch UPW Jan 2010 · UTSL May 2017 | +650.1% | +44.7% | not meaningful | not meaningful | not meaningful | not meaningful |
UPW and UTSL over each window. Every figure is an ETFIQ calculation with distributions reinvested. Source: ETFIQ. Open the live comparison on ETFIQ →
On the same fields
UPW and UTSL on the same fields, as of Sep 30, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
UPW in plain words
Three months to Sep 30, 2026: UPW returned −22.6% where its own daily promise gave −21.7%, 0.9 points short. Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 2 times XLU's −11.3% implies −22.5%, which makes UPW look 0.1 points short. 0.8 of that is daily compounding, which happens to any 2 times fund over the same path, and the rest is the fund. UPW aims to return +2 times XLU's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer, the daily results compound, so the total is not +2 times the period's move: in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less, and in a steady run it can be more. XLU moved at 14% annualized over that window. That is what decides how far the two figures separate: the same fund on a calm underlying and a violent one is a different product.
UTSL in plain words
Three months to Sep 30, 2026: UTSL returned −33.0% where its own daily promise gave −31.2%, 1.8 points short. Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 3 times XLU's −11.3% implies −33.8%, which makes UTSL look 0.8 points over. 2.5 of that is daily compounding, which happens to any 3 times fund over the same path, and the rest is the fund. UTSL aims to return +3 times XLU's move each day, then resets. Over longer, the daily results compound, so the total is not +3 times the period's move: in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less, and in a steady run it can be more.
Questions people ask
- Which came closer to its stated multiple, UPW or UTSL?
- Over the window to Sep 30, 2026, UPW finished 0.1 points from what its multiple implies and UTSL finished 0.8 points from its own, so UPW came closer. Neither figure predicts the next window: it depends on how much the underlying moves about.
- Are UPW and UTSL levered on the same thing?
- Yes. Both are levered on utilities, UPW at +2 times and UTSL at +3 times the daily move.
- Which one decays faster, UPW or UTSL?
- Decay follows how much the underlying moves about. Over this window UPW’s moved at 14% annualized and UTSL’s at 14%, so UPW has the rougher ride and, at the same multiple, loses more to compounding.
- Can I hold UPW or UTSL for a year?
- Both reset every day, so the multiple in the name applies to a single day and the daily results compound. Over a year the total is not the multiple times the year’s move, and in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less. ETFIQ makes no recommendation either way.
ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.
ETFIQ, UPW against UTSL, data as of Sep 30, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/upw-vs-utsl
Free to use with attribution. Every figure is calculated from a named public source; the method is at etfiq.com/methodology.
Cite this page. ETFIQ, UPW against UTSL, data as of Sep 30, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/upw-vs-utsl Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.
Other forms
- Plain
- ETFIQ, UPW against UTSL, data as of Sep 30, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/upw-vs-utsl
- APA
- ETFIQ. (Sep 30, 2026). UPW against UTSL. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/upw-vs-utsl
- Markdown
- [UPW against UTSL (ETFIQ, Sep 30, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/upw-vs-utsl)