TSLL: How Tesla Investors Lose Money Even When the Stock Goes Up

The article explains that the Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares ETF (TSLL) is designed for short-term trading, not long-term investing, because it resets leverage daily. Even if Tesla stock rises over time, TSLL can lose value due to volatility decay when Tesla experiences large swings up and down. The piece highlights that Tesla has been extremely volatile, with historical drawdowns over 40% and a roughly 74% decline from November 2021 to January 2023 before recovering. Performance data show the ETF has badly lagged the stock over multiple horizons: TSLL is down 62% YTD versus TSLA down 31.64%, down 36.8% over one year versus TSLA down 5.57%, and down 65.18% over five years versus TSLA up 42.56%. The market takeaway is that leveraged single-stock ETFs can underperform the underlying equity badly over time, especially in choppy conditions.