Matt Giannino
Founder & CEO of Market Moves, Options-Selling Education
The Nasdaq 100 looks set for a persistent uptrend after hitting a new record, which favors 3x leveraged exposure through TQQQ. After three choppy months, funds are refocusing on what matters while positioning and sentiment remain lopsided and weak, making a rise likelier than more chop and possibly another major bull run. Leveraged ETFs compound in steady uptrends but lose to friction in chop, as TQQQ's 136% gain against QQQ's 35% in April-May showed. Gulf tensions still need to end. x.com x.comÂ
Leveraged semiconductor and Nasdaq 100 ETFs should beat a 3x position in the average individual name because market correlations are falling and dispersion is rising. Low correlation among basket members reduces the volatility drag that hurts levered ETFs, as seen when CPU stocks pumped while memory dumped. x.comÂ
Leveraged ETFs such as TQQQ lose much of their promised return to decay. QQQ is up 18% this year, so a 3x product should be up 54%, but TQQQ is up only 42%; the missing 12% is decay. A 3x perpetual future captures the full 54% instead and lets traders set leverage as they want. x.comÂ
The top US companies will keep their global dominance, making 2026 a year to revalue a leveraged bet on the Nasdaq-100. This is a long-term, high-conviction bet on the United States, not a trade. x.comÂ
QQQM is the cheaper way to own the Nasdaq 100. It holds exactly the same portfolio as QQQ but charges a 0.15% expense ratio versus 0.20%, a 25% difference. On $10,000 that is $15 a year in fees instead of $20, a gap that adds up with bigger amounts over decades. x.comÂ
3x leveraged ETFs like the ProShares UltraPro QQQ and Direxion Semiconductor Bull 3x are not foolproof long-term holdings and would suffer badly in a dot-com or GFC-style decline. They target 3x daily returns, and the daily leverage reset compounds losses in volatile periods. The Nasdaq one launched in 2010 at the start of a ZIRP bull market; backtested to the late 1990s it would still be underwater. A 2x software ETF holding Adobe, Microsoft and Salesforce was discontinued this April. x.comÂ
The Nasdaq 100 is suited to be a core holding thanks to having the largest size and liquidity among top tech ETFs, even though its roughly 19-22% annualized 10-year return trails the leaders. Semiconductor ETFs topped the decade at around 35-38% a year. x.comÂ
A $2M split of $500K each across QQQ, VOO, VGT and TQQQ targets about 15% combined annual growth, enough to withdraw $10K a month and live comfortably in a lower-cost country with better healthcare, weather and safety. x.comÂ
The Nasdaq-100's index construction is exceptional because it captures each market leader in turn: it rode the runs in Tesla, the FANG stocks, software, Nvidia and memory, and kept working when each group stalled by handing off to the next leader. That delivers an excellent Sharpe ratio, enough that simply holding it may be the best approach. x.comÂ
Favoring the Nasdaq 100 over small caps remains right because the digital economy has changed market structure, and AI is accelerating that shift. Fading QQQ against IWM has been the widowmaker trade in US equities since the iPhone launch. The Magnificent 7 are breaking out to new all-time highs as AI enters a consumer-agent stage, while small caps suffer from fears over rates and oil. Breadth warnings are everywhere, but the structure has changed: adapt or die. x.comÂ