Justification of Levered ETFs?












1












$begingroup$


I have done some basic research on levered ETFs and cant understand them completely



How do you justify the existence of Levered ETFs when margin accounts are available? E.g. If I want 3X SPY returns, I can just deposit 1X in a margin account and lever the position to get 3X SPY.



I can justify the existence of these ETFs when the returns are 3X but the volatility is <3X, which is not always the case.



Could you guys give me a hand? ty.










share|improve this question









$endgroup$

















    1












    $begingroup$


    I have done some basic research on levered ETFs and cant understand them completely



    How do you justify the existence of Levered ETFs when margin accounts are available? E.g. If I want 3X SPY returns, I can just deposit 1X in a margin account and lever the position to get 3X SPY.



    I can justify the existence of these ETFs when the returns are 3X but the volatility is <3X, which is not always the case.



    Could you guys give me a hand? ty.










    share|improve this question









    $endgroup$















      1












      1








      1





      $begingroup$


      I have done some basic research on levered ETFs and cant understand them completely



      How do you justify the existence of Levered ETFs when margin accounts are available? E.g. If I want 3X SPY returns, I can just deposit 1X in a margin account and lever the position to get 3X SPY.



      I can justify the existence of these ETFs when the returns are 3X but the volatility is <3X, which is not always the case.



      Could you guys give me a hand? ty.










      share|improve this question









      $endgroup$




      I have done some basic research on levered ETFs and cant understand them completely



      How do you justify the existence of Levered ETFs when margin accounts are available? E.g. If I want 3X SPY returns, I can just deposit 1X in a margin account and lever the position to get 3X SPY.



      I can justify the existence of these ETFs when the returns are 3X but the volatility is <3X, which is not always the case.



      Could you guys give me a hand? ty.







      options etf






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked 2 days ago









      TomDecimusTomDecimus

      1068




      1068






















          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          3












          $begingroup$

          A margin loan and a levered ETF work differently.



          Suppose you have 1000 cash in your account and you want to buy 2000 dollars of SPY. On margin, the loan will be -1000 and your equity will be 1000. Then your initial leverage will be 2:1. But if the value of your SPY goes to 2200 it will be -1000 loan, 1200 equity, 2200 market value, or a leverage of 2200:1200 = 1.83:1. If the value if SPY goes down the leverage will increase above 2. If you want you can modify these leverage numbers by adding/taking out cash, but it is up to you to manage the leverage over time.



          With a levered ETF, the fund automatically adjusts the leverage to be 2:1 every day. It is a dynamic strategy, with some advantages and drawbacks.



          Does that "justify" the existence of levered ETF's? I don't know. But they work differently.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$













          • $begingroup$
            @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
            $endgroup$
            – Daneel Olivaw
            2 days ago










          • $begingroup$
            @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
            $endgroup$
            – TomDecimus
            2 days ago



















          1












          $begingroup$

          A partial answer could be legal or accounting reasons:




          • Legal reasons: Certain investors may not be allowed to buy outright derivatives or borrow large amounts of money.


          • Accounting reasons: Similarly, from an accounting perspective (e.g: financial ratios, capital requirements, covenants,…) there may be benefits in materializing an exposure through mutual funds instead of using derivatives or borrowed money.







          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$













            Your Answer





            StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
            return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
            StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
            StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
            });
            });
            }, "mathjax-editing");

            StackExchange.ready(function() {
            var channelOptions = {
            tags: "".split(" "),
            id: "204"
            };
            initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

            StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
            // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
            if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
            StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
            createEditor();
            });
            }
            else {
            createEditor();
            }
            });

            function createEditor() {
            StackExchange.prepareEditor({
            heartbeatType: 'answer',
            autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
            convertImagesToLinks: false,
            noModals: true,
            showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
            reputationToPostImages: null,
            bindNavPrevention: true,
            postfix: "",
            imageUploader: {
            brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
            contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
            allowUrls: true
            },
            noCode: true, onDemand: true,
            discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
            ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
            });


            }
            });














            draft saved

            draft discarded


















            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fquant.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f43548%2fjustification-of-levered-etfs%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown

























            2 Answers
            2






            active

            oldest

            votes








            2 Answers
            2






            active

            oldest

            votes









            active

            oldest

            votes






            active

            oldest

            votes









            3












            $begingroup$

            A margin loan and a levered ETF work differently.



            Suppose you have 1000 cash in your account and you want to buy 2000 dollars of SPY. On margin, the loan will be -1000 and your equity will be 1000. Then your initial leverage will be 2:1. But if the value of your SPY goes to 2200 it will be -1000 loan, 1200 equity, 2200 market value, or a leverage of 2200:1200 = 1.83:1. If the value if SPY goes down the leverage will increase above 2. If you want you can modify these leverage numbers by adding/taking out cash, but it is up to you to manage the leverage over time.



            With a levered ETF, the fund automatically adjusts the leverage to be 2:1 every day. It is a dynamic strategy, with some advantages and drawbacks.



            Does that "justify" the existence of levered ETF's? I don't know. But they work differently.






            share|improve this answer









            $endgroup$













            • $begingroup$
              @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
              $endgroup$
              – Daneel Olivaw
              2 days ago










            • $begingroup$
              @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
              $endgroup$
              – TomDecimus
              2 days ago
















            3












            $begingroup$

            A margin loan and a levered ETF work differently.



            Suppose you have 1000 cash in your account and you want to buy 2000 dollars of SPY. On margin, the loan will be -1000 and your equity will be 1000. Then your initial leverage will be 2:1. But if the value of your SPY goes to 2200 it will be -1000 loan, 1200 equity, 2200 market value, or a leverage of 2200:1200 = 1.83:1. If the value if SPY goes down the leverage will increase above 2. If you want you can modify these leverage numbers by adding/taking out cash, but it is up to you to manage the leverage over time.



            With a levered ETF, the fund automatically adjusts the leverage to be 2:1 every day. It is a dynamic strategy, with some advantages and drawbacks.



            Does that "justify" the existence of levered ETF's? I don't know. But they work differently.






            share|improve this answer









            $endgroup$













            • $begingroup$
              @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
              $endgroup$
              – Daneel Olivaw
              2 days ago










            • $begingroup$
              @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
              $endgroup$
              – TomDecimus
              2 days ago














            3












            3








            3





            $begingroup$

            A margin loan and a levered ETF work differently.



            Suppose you have 1000 cash in your account and you want to buy 2000 dollars of SPY. On margin, the loan will be -1000 and your equity will be 1000. Then your initial leverage will be 2:1. But if the value of your SPY goes to 2200 it will be -1000 loan, 1200 equity, 2200 market value, or a leverage of 2200:1200 = 1.83:1. If the value if SPY goes down the leverage will increase above 2. If you want you can modify these leverage numbers by adding/taking out cash, but it is up to you to manage the leverage over time.



            With a levered ETF, the fund automatically adjusts the leverage to be 2:1 every day. It is a dynamic strategy, with some advantages and drawbacks.



            Does that "justify" the existence of levered ETF's? I don't know. But they work differently.






            share|improve this answer









            $endgroup$



            A margin loan and a levered ETF work differently.



            Suppose you have 1000 cash in your account and you want to buy 2000 dollars of SPY. On margin, the loan will be -1000 and your equity will be 1000. Then your initial leverage will be 2:1. But if the value of your SPY goes to 2200 it will be -1000 loan, 1200 equity, 2200 market value, or a leverage of 2200:1200 = 1.83:1. If the value if SPY goes down the leverage will increase above 2. If you want you can modify these leverage numbers by adding/taking out cash, but it is up to you to manage the leverage over time.



            With a levered ETF, the fund automatically adjusts the leverage to be 2:1 every day. It is a dynamic strategy, with some advantages and drawbacks.



            Does that "justify" the existence of levered ETF's? I don't know. But they work differently.







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered 2 days ago









            Alex CAlex C

            5,86111022




            5,86111022












            • $begingroup$
              @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
              $endgroup$
              – Daneel Olivaw
              2 days ago










            • $begingroup$
              @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
              $endgroup$
              – TomDecimus
              2 days ago


















            • $begingroup$
              @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
              $endgroup$
              – Daneel Olivaw
              2 days ago










            • $begingroup$
              @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
              $endgroup$
              – TomDecimus
              2 days ago
















            $begingroup$
            @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
            $endgroup$
            – Daneel Olivaw
            2 days ago




            $begingroup$
            @TomDecimus as you can see mantaining a target leverage ratio is much simpler with a leveraged ETF than with a margin account, where you need to adjust daily your margin to keep the leverage ratio constant. Note that margin calls should normally bring the leverage ratio of a margin account back to its initial state.
            $endgroup$
            – Daneel Olivaw
            2 days ago












            $begingroup$
            @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
            $endgroup$
            – TomDecimus
            2 days ago




            $begingroup$
            @DaneelOlivaw +Alex C Tyvm guys, seems to me using margin acc gives more flexibility on leverage level at the cost of constantly add/remove cash. Thanks for the clarification.
            $endgroup$
            – TomDecimus
            2 days ago











            1












            $begingroup$

            A partial answer could be legal or accounting reasons:




            • Legal reasons: Certain investors may not be allowed to buy outright derivatives or borrow large amounts of money.


            • Accounting reasons: Similarly, from an accounting perspective (e.g: financial ratios, capital requirements, covenants,…) there may be benefits in materializing an exposure through mutual funds instead of using derivatives or borrowed money.







            share|improve this answer









            $endgroup$


















              1












              $begingroup$

              A partial answer could be legal or accounting reasons:




              • Legal reasons: Certain investors may not be allowed to buy outright derivatives or borrow large amounts of money.


              • Accounting reasons: Similarly, from an accounting perspective (e.g: financial ratios, capital requirements, covenants,…) there may be benefits in materializing an exposure through mutual funds instead of using derivatives or borrowed money.







              share|improve this answer









              $endgroup$
















                1












                1








                1





                $begingroup$

                A partial answer could be legal or accounting reasons:




                • Legal reasons: Certain investors may not be allowed to buy outright derivatives or borrow large amounts of money.


                • Accounting reasons: Similarly, from an accounting perspective (e.g: financial ratios, capital requirements, covenants,…) there may be benefits in materializing an exposure through mutual funds instead of using derivatives or borrowed money.







                share|improve this answer









                $endgroup$



                A partial answer could be legal or accounting reasons:




                • Legal reasons: Certain investors may not be allowed to buy outright derivatives or borrow large amounts of money.


                • Accounting reasons: Similarly, from an accounting perspective (e.g: financial ratios, capital requirements, covenants,…) there may be benefits in materializing an exposure through mutual funds instead of using derivatives or borrowed money.








                share|improve this answer












                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer










                answered 2 days ago









                setssets

                600724




                600724






























                    draft saved

                    draft discarded




















































                    Thanks for contributing an answer to Quantitative Finance Stack Exchange!


                    • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                    But avoid



                    • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                    • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                    Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


                    To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                    draft saved


                    draft discarded














                    StackExchange.ready(
                    function () {
                    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fquant.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f43548%2fjustification-of-levered-etfs%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                    }
                    );

                    Post as a guest















                    Required, but never shown





















































                    Required, but never shown














                    Required, but never shown












                    Required, but never shown







                    Required, but never shown

































                    Required, but never shown














                    Required, but never shown












                    Required, but never shown







                    Required, but never shown







                    Popular posts from this blog

                    "Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'ON'. (on update cascade, on delete cascade,)

                    Alcedinidae

                    RAC Tourist Trophy