Answered from ETFIQ data as of .
Why did my leveraged ETF lose money?
Because it delivers its multiple over a single day and then resets. Daily results compound, so a run of days is not the multiple times the period’s move, and in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less. Over the three months to Sep 11, 2026, 400 of 511 leveraged and inverse ETFs finished short of their own stated multiple.
Take a fund at two times, and an underlying that falls ten percent one day and rises eleven percent the next. The underlying is back where it started. The fund fell twenty percent, then rose twenty-two percent of what was left, and is down about two and a half percent. Nothing has gone wrong and nobody has taken a fee worth noticing; that is simply what compounding a levered daily return does to a path that goes out and comes back.
The size of it is decided by how far the underlying travelled, not by where it finished. A calm underlying that drifts up costs a holder almost nothing; a violent one that ends level can cost a great deal. That is why the volatility of the underlying is on every fund page here, next to the difference it produced.
It is not a fault in the fund and it is not hidden: every prospectus says the multiple applies to a single day. It is only that the stated multiple is a daily promise and most people read it as a holding-period one.
On ETFIQ today
| Ticker | Fund | Says | On | Underlying did | Fund returned | Label implied | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNDQ | Tradr 2X Short SNDK Daily ETF | -2x | SNDK | −17.5% | −64.8% | +35.0% | −99.8 pts |
| IREZ | Tradr 2X Short IREN Daily ETF | -2x | IREN | −26.7% | −40.3% | +53.3% | −93.6 pts |
| NBIZ | Tradr 2X Short NBIS Daily ETF | -2x | NBIS | −3.4% | −81.2% | +6.7% | −87.9 pts |
| QBTZ | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short QBTS ETF | -2x | QBTS | −28.1% | −26.5% | +56.2% | −82.7 pts |
| CBRZ | Tradr 2X Short CBRS Daily ETF | -2x | CBRS | −10.3% | −61.8% | +20.6% | −82.4 pts |
| ASTN | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short ASTS ETF | -2x | ASTS | −27.4% | −19.4% | +54.7% | −74.2 pts |
| CORD | T-REX 2X INVERSE CRWV DAILY TARGET ETF | -2x | CRWV | −11.5% | −49.6% | +23.0% | −72.6 pts |
| SMZ | Tradr 2X Short SMR Daily ETF | -2x | SMR | −12.9% | −34.0% | +25.9% | −59.9 pts |
| BEZ | Tradr 2X Short BE Daily ETF | -2x | BE | +6.0% | −71.2% | −11.9% | −59.2 pts |
| RGTZ | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short RGTI ETF | -2x | RGTI | −27.2% | −2.4% | +54.4% | −56.8 pts |
| MUZ | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short MU ETF | -2x | MU | −0.6% | −52.0% | +1.3% | −53.3 pts |
| LITZ | Tradr 2X Short LITE Daily ETF | -2x | LITE | +0.6% | −51.4% | −1.2% | −50.3 pts |
| IONZ | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short IONQ ETF | -2x | IONQ | −36.5% | +26.7% | +72.9% | −46.2 pts |
| SMST | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short MSTR ETF | -2x | MSTR | +5.7% | −53.5% | −11.3% | −42.2 pts |
| RKLZ | Defiance Daily Target 2X Short RKLB ETF | -2x | RKLB | −38.5% | +36.5% | +77.0% | −40.6 pts |
| SOXS | Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X ETF | -3x | SOXX | −11.6% | −5.6% | +34.7% | −40.3 pts |
| MSTZ | T-REX 2X INVERSE MSTR DAILY TARGET ETF | -2x | MSTR | +5.7% | −51.5% | −11.3% | −40.2 pts |
| BEG | Leverage Shares 2X Long BE Daily ETF | +2x | BE | +6.0% | −24.6% | +11.9% | −36.5 pts |
| NEBX | Tradr 2X Long NBIS Daily ETF | +2x | NBIS | −3.4% | −42.5% | −6.7% | −35.8 pts |
| NBIG | Leverage Shares 2X Long NBIS Daily ETF | +2x | NBIS | −3.4% | −42.3% | −6.7% | −35.6 pts |
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Where these figures came from
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Cite this page. ETFIQ, Why did my leveraged ETF lose money?, data as of Sep 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/questions/why-did-my-leveraged-etf-lose-money Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.