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by nullc 2317 days ago
At least the risk profile of a leveraged ETF is fairly unambiguous and easily discovered. Its very real potential for downside is also matched by a real potential for upside and the available pricing is fair-- even if its risk profile not necessarily matched to your (or anyone elses) financial needs.

I think a bigger risk to investors is dishonest/deceptive marketing and extremely risky and often illiquid investments being peddled as sure deals, including ones where the chance of upside is essentially nil and you're lucky if you break even.
1 comments
MR4D 2317 days ago
> Its very real potential for downside is also matched by a real potential for upside

This actually isn't true (and that's a big problem).

Leveraged ETFs (such as TVIX) typically are very leaky. [0]

[0] - https://seekingalpha.com/article/1864191-what-you-need-to-kn...

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nullc 2317 days ago
I originally wrote very real potential for upside and weakened it by dropping the "very", specifically thinking about the drag on leveraged ETFs... :) Guess I didn't go far enough.

I feel like this is in the weeds though: some bad investments people get suckered into have extremely high and diversified risk of total loss, but at _best_ can only return a few percent in a year.

Not only are they negative EV, but even if you get lucky and it pays off you only end up with money market fund like income. Deals that no one who was informed and knew how to do the relevant math would ever take.

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