Nvidia gained 34.8% between September 5, 2025, and October 12, 2026. Morningstar Research Managing Director Jeffrey Ptak said 2x daily Nvidia ETFs returned between 31.8% and 39.5% over the same period. Direxion's fund performed best, while T-REX's offering performed worst, according to Ptak's comparison. The return gap was 7.7 percentage points, nearly 8 percentage points, over roughly 13 months.
Direxion Daily NVDA Bull 2X ETF (NVDU) and T-REX 2X Long NVIDIA Daily Target ETF (NVDX) both seek 200% of Nvidia's daily stock return before fees and expenses. Published fund disclosures put NVDU's annual expense ratio at 0.92%. Published fund disclosures put NVDX's annual expense ratio at 1.05%. The 0.13-percentage-point difference in annual expenses is unlikely, by itself, to explain the return gap. Daily compounding, financing costs, portfolio implementation and tracking differences warrant examination. The precise contribution of each factor cannot be established from the cumulative returns alone.
GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF (NVDL) has approximately $3.5 billion in net assets. NVDU has $523 million in net assets. NVDX has $442 million in net assets.
Leveraged ETFs target a multiple of a stock's daily return, not the cumulative return over several months or a year. The funds rebalance exposure as Nvidia's share price changes to maintain the daily target. Returns compound between trading sessions, making the sequence of gains and losses important. In a simplified hypothetical example, Nvidia would lose 1% over two sessions after rising 10% and then falling 10%. A hypothetical 2x daily ETF would gain 20% in the first session and lose 20% in the second, leaving a 4% loss before fees and other costs. Doubling Nvidia's 34.8% cumulative gain would produce a misleading benchmark of 69.6%, which a 2x daily ETF does not promise over the entire period. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warns that leveraged ETFs can diverge significantly from stated multiples over periods longer than one day, particularly in volatile markets.
Investors should not treat leveraged ETFs tracking the same stock as interchangeable. Relevant comparison factors include expense ratios, daily tracking performance, financing and derivative costs, distributions, and differences between net asset value returns and exchange-traded market price returns. A thorough comparison should use the same dates, return methodology and treatment of distributions for every fund. Traders considering leveraged Nvidia exposure should examine each product's consistency in meeting the daily objective and the cost of maintaining exposure. Traders should also examine each product's behavior during rallies and sharp reversals. Single-stock leverage amplifies Nvidia's already concentrated risk. Strong underlying stock performance does not automatically produce a superior long-term result for every 2x ETF.
2X Nvidia ETFs Underperform Despite Stock's 34.8% Gain
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Summary
According to the latest daily market report, Nvidia's stock surged 34.8% from September 5, 2025, to October 12, 2026, while 2x leveraged ETFs returned between 31.8% and 39.5%. Direxion’s NVDU outperformed T-REX’s NVDX by 7.7 percentage points. Morningstar’s Jeffrey Ptak cited daily compounding, financing costs, and tracking differences as possible causes. Expense ratios alone don’t explain the gap. Leveraged ETFs target daily returns, not long-term gains, and performance can diverge in volatile markets. The fear and greed index remains a key tool for tracking such anomalies.
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