We have already discussed the Leveraged Short ETF – SDS in a previous article so this one will cover the double long S&P 500 ETF. It goes by the name ProShares Ultra S&P500 and it trades under the ticker symbol SSO. Since this is a double long ETF the goal of the fund is to achieve 200% performance of the S&P 500 index on a daily basis prior to fees and expenses.


If you look at a short term chart, you will see that this ETF works quite well. This chart is of the rally that occurred from September to January in the S&P. In this powerful upswing you can see that SSO actually produced more than twice the return of the S&P 500 index.

SSO provided more than double the return of the S&P 500

However, don’t even think about making this ETF a long term holding in your investment portfolio. If you hang on through a down turn, the leverage will destroy your overall return. In fact, over the life of SSO the S&P 500 Index is basically flat, but you would be behind by 30% or more by holding SSO over that time period.

Over the life of the ETF, SSO has underperformed the S&P 500

These stock charts cover the time period from ETF inception until January 21, 2011. As this example shows Leveraged ETFs are designed for short term trading, not long term stock market investing.