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Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are a great way to play the market as a whole, a specific industry, or an index. ETFs trade like stocks, meaning their price fluctuates each day as buyers and sellers trade shares. Thus, the value of an ETF is not calculated like a mutual fund.
Long Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are a great way for investors to go long on different sectors or indices without having to actually buy physical shares of stock.
With leveraged ETFs, Ultra (2x) and UltraPro (3x), the return is twice and triple the regular performance of the benchmark index the ETF tracks. Note this is twice the DAILY return; leveraged ETFs should not be traded long, only day traded, to avoid pricing differentiation. Read this article from ETFDB, 7 Risks of Trading Leveraged ETFs and How to Avoid Them for important education on leveraged ETFs.
Following up on our popular post Inverse / Short ETFs For Bearish Investors, here is a full list of the best long and leveraged ETFs, including 2x and 3x long (bullish) ETFs.
Long / Bullish S&P 500 ETFs (1x, 2x, 3x)
| ETF Name | Ticker | Leverage | Benchmark Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long S&P 500 | SPY | 1x | S&P 500 |
| UltraLong S&P 500 | SSO | 2x | S&P 500 |
| Direxion S&P 500 Bull 2x | SPUU | 2x | S&P 500 Index |
| UltraPro Long S&P 500 | UPRO | 3x | S&P 500 |
| Direxion S&P 500 Bull 3x | SPXL | 3x | S&P 500 Index |
| Long Mid Cap 400 | IJH | 1x | S&P Mid Cap 400 |
| UltraLong Mid Cap 400 | MVV | 2x | S&P Mid Cap 400 |
| Direxion Mid Cap Bull 2x | MDLL | 2x | S&P Mid Cap 400 Index |
| UltraPro Long Mid Cap 400 | UMDD | 3x | S&P Mid Cap 400 |
| Direxion Mid Cap Bull 3x | MIDU | 3x | S&P Mid Cap 400 Index |
| UltraPro Long Small Cap 600 | SAA | 3x | S&P Small Cap 600 |
Long / Bullish NASDAQ ETFs (1x, 2x, 3x)
| ETF Name | Ticker | Leverage | Benchmark Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long QQQ | QQQQ | 1x | Nasdaq 100 |
| UltraLong QQQ | QLD | 2x | Nasdaq 100 |
| UltraPro Long QQQ | TQQQ | 3x | Nasdaq 100 |
Long / Bullish Russell ETFs (1x, 2x, 3x)
| ETF Name | Ticker | Leverage | Benchmark Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Russell 2000 | IWM | 1x | Russell 2000 |
| UltraLong Russell 2000 | UWM | 2x | Russell 2000 |
| Direxion Small Cap Bull 2x | SMLL | 2x | Russell 2000 |
| UltraPro Long Russell 2000 | URTY | 3x | Russell 2000 |
| Direxion Small Cap Bull 3x | TNA | 3x | Russell 2000 |
| Direxion Financial Long 3x | FAS | 3x | Russell 1000 Financial Services |
| Direxion Retail Long 3x | RETL | 3x | Russell 1000 Retail |
| Direxion Energy Long 3x | ERX | 3x | Russell 1000 Energy |
Long / Bullish Dow Jones ETFs (1x, 2x, 3x)
| ETF Name | Ticker | Leverage | Benchmark Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Dow 30 | DIA | 1x | Dow Jones Industrial Average |
| UltraLong Dow 30 | DDM | 2x | Dow Jones Industrial Average |
| UltraPro Long Dow 30 | UDOW | 3x | Dow Jones Industrial Average |
What is an ETF
A Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a basket of individual securities held under one product that tracks an index, group of stocks, commodity, etc. but is traded like a stock on a stock exchange. The first big point to note is that an ETF is NOT a mutual fund; ETFs prices change throughout the day just like a stock.
The most popular ETFs are the index funds. Want to invest in the NASDAQ? Then buy shares of ETF “QQQ”. Want to be short the NASDAQ? Then buy some shares of “PSQ”, which is the 1x inverse of the Nasdaq 100. There are also ETFs that track the S & P 500, e.g. “SPY”, and the Dow Jones Industrials has the “DIA”.
Bottom line: Every major stock market index has an ETF representing both long and short.
