I measure once a month the decay of major leveraged ETFs. It may be useful for anyone using leveraged ETFs for investing, trading or hedging.
Where does the decay come from?
Leveraged ETFs often underperform their underlying indexes leveraged by the same factor. This relative decay has several reasons: beta-slippage, roll yield, tracking errors, management fees. Roll yield may be prominent for commodity ETFs, but beta-slippage is usually the main source of decay. However, it doesn’t always result in decay. When an asset is trending with little volatility, a leveraged ETF can bring an excess