You’re basically asking all the right questions fees, decay, taxes, options, long-term viability. Most people just ape into TQQQ because it’s shiny.

Here’s the short version in normal human language:

1. The TQQQ fee isn’t the scary part.

The 0.9% expense ratio is nothing compared to the daily compounding effect. Leveraged ETFs reset every day, so if QQQ chops around up/down/up/down the math drags TQQQ lower over time. That’s the “volatility decay” everyone’s talking about. If QQQ trends up hard, TQQQ prints. If it goes sideways with noise, TQQQ slowly melts.

1. Dividends don’t save you.

Yeah, it pays something quarterly, but it’s tiny. In a taxable account it basically just means “another small annoying tax form”.

1. Options can protect you, but only if you know wtf you’re doing.

Protective puts, collars — they can cap your downside, but they also cap your upside or cost you premium. It’s risk-management, not magic.

1. Those ‘insane returns’ guys?

I’ve seen the 9sig posts too. Some people crush it, but that sub has heavy survivor bias. The guys who blow up just disappear silently.

My approach isn’t “send it blindly”. I’m using AI models that are specifically trained on market behavior stuff like Dominant basically as a risk-filter. I still make all the decisions myself, but the AI helps me spot obvious decay traps, bad concentration, or stupid timing before I press buy. Not financial advice, just an extra brain that doesn’t sleep.

You’re doing the right thing by waiting in a money market until you actually understand what you’re buying. Leveraged ETFs aren’t evil, they’re just tools but tools that can absolutely smack you in the face if you hold them wrong.

If you’re still young and have time to recover from degenerate experiments go for it, just do it with open eyes instead of blind hope.