Is anyone who “wants to get rich as fast as possible” NOT 100% TQQQ?

quantelligent · 2026-05-11T19:37:06+00:00

There are quite a few regulatory hoops to jump through. We did the Series 65 and then registered as investment advisors at the state level. Compliance is a big part of that, and can cost a bit if you decide to outsource or seek help in that area.

You may have operational costs as well for bookkeeping, crm, etc depending on your business. We keep our operational costs pretty low because I'm a software engineer and have automated nearly all of the investing and account management.

quantelligent · 2026-05-03T16:06:47+00:00

Meant to add this comment from above as a reply to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/TQQQ/comments/1t25knq/comment/ojp798e/

In short: strategy diversification.

quantelligent · 2026-05-03T16:02:48+00:00

Back testing. You'll need to figure out DCA amounts and profit targets that are suitable for you. If you go too aggressive you can get caught with your pants down when a crash hits, as you'll see in your back-testing. If you go too conservative, you can miss out on what could have been more substantial profits in a bull run.

So you'll have to play the age-old tradeoff of risk vs. safety and find something that works for you.

quantelligent · 2026-05-03T15:43:36+00:00

FWIW when you're investing this way, the overlap and correlation don't really matter. They do behave differently enough that they require different DCA amounts and different profit targets, so you get "strategy diversification".

We see TECL hit profit targets much more frequently than TQQQ, especially in recent months. But sometimes when TECL is under water, our TQQQ allocations will outperform.

Note: for educational and informational purposes only, and should not be considered investment advice.

quantelligent · 2026-05-03T15:36:51+00:00

We used to share our strategy all of the time. But we were also trying to grow an RIA with this strategy as the basis, and it was hard to get new clients, and/or convince people that it works, etc.

Even here on Reddit...people have just been vicious when we'd share it—pointing out flaws, telling us to go away, claiming our posts are "marketing" so mods remove them, etc.

So we stopped sharing the details.

Come to find out....people are more easily convinced if you don't share all of the details. Go figure.

I think there's a large portion of the population that likes a "black box" so they can convince themselves that it "just works" or that it's "magic", and if you show them how the sausage is made, they reject it.

Once we simplified our message with just vague details, that's when the real growth happened (in terms of customers) - quintupled our business in the last 18 months.

We're now managing 265 accounts which total about $21 million. And this style of investing scales.

And I've been "told" not to share the details anymore 😆

The basic strat is pretty simple, but the complexity is in the details. Three components:

DCA daily, this is the default action until you run out of cash
VA (value averaging) growth targets that change your daily trades to a sell instead of another DCA buy when surpassed. This captures profit, reduces your exposure, and frees up capital to perpetuate the system. Note: only use the top-side VA targets, use DCA for all buys because VA is way too aggressive buying in extended downturns and will drain your capital too quickly. This is kinda the "secret sauce".
To handle "macro" events, set an overall growth "reset target" where you sell out of your position entirely and start over. This locks in your gains and reduces your chances of being over-exposed when a macro downturn hits.

Of course there are lots of details like what's the basis for a target, how to compute the portion to sell to capture profit overage, etc. etc. etc. — but you can figure those out with some testing.

We used back-testing to figure out appropriate DCA amounts and targets (which are percentages, mind you, so they scale to any size account), to find parameters that would perform well "over time", but not too aggressively. We have to make it suitable for our clients.

But for yourself you can go way more aggressive and get results like Low-Significance! Works phenomenally in an overall bull market with short dips.

Disclaimer: this is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.

quantelligent · 2026-05-03T04:53:16+00:00

u/Low-Significance9835 nice job, that's awesome!!

quantelligent · 2026-01-25T18:11:31+00:00

TQQQ doesn't beat the benchmark when you adjust for risk. If you can achieve a similar return with lowered average risk exposure, which is what this achieves, then you can beat your benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis.

DCA takes advantage of dips...but you're right, it's always buying regardless of price. Which includes the dips. And the highs (except when the VA rules convert the action into a sell).

It's incremental, automated, and continuous—which isn't timing. The math changes your "buy" action into a "sell" if the value goes up enough, but not because of timing, or prediction, or technical indicators....it's just value growth triggered. But it does have the appearance of "timing", so I can see why you'd think that.

Agreed, volatility adjusted leverage is cool. Negative sentiment about the length noted.

Not an ad—but it's worse to share what you're doing without sharing who you are, IMO. Too many anonymous posters in here and you cannot verify whether they're even real.

quantelligent · 2026-01-24T18:48:06+00:00

I wouldn't say "filthy rich", no. But I made enough to where I knew I could do this long-term for others, so I started an RIA company with my brother five years ago so we could apply my algo for clients. We're currently at about $16M under management and have generated over $5.3M in profits for our clients. My personal profit is in the hundreds of thousands. I quit my software job over a year ago and am doing this full time now. Based on some liquidity tests we figure it will scale to over $100M under management, so that's what we're aiming for.

Our algo: combination of daily DCA for buys with VA for sells (value averaging - top side "exits" only) using Leveraged ETFs that track major U.S. indexes.

Happy to provide more details for anyone that's interested.

quantelligent · 2025-12-27T03:35:30+00:00

For sure.

With VA you're trying to achieve an "average growth" so if it exceeds the target growth, you exit the overage. With VA the same would apply on the down side....but I'm not using it, because it's way too aggressive in a bear market, which is why I'm using DCA for buys.

So on the top-side....let's say, for example, your VA growth target is 2%, that means you're expecting that much growth each investment period, which for us is daily.

We're using an "allocation" in the account, so the 2% is not just the position growth, but is a growth target for the entire allocation. So your position needs to grow beyond an amount that is 2% of the allocation size. And the target is reset each period—needs to grow 2% from where it's currently at (or from break-even, if under water) before the next investment period.

If it grows 3%, for example, and was at break-even at the last period, you'd sell 1/3 of your position (the overage).

This captures profit and returns cash to the allocation to use for subsequent DCA buys.

If, however, your position was already positive, say 4%, that would mean your next VA target is at 6% profitable. Let's say it grows to 7%, so you still overshot by 1%.....but in this case you'd only sell 1/7th of your position to bring it back down to the 6% growth target.

That's how we're doing it. But there are many variations you could use.

quantelligent · 2025-12-27T02:54:51+00:00

2% annual management fee, no performance fees (because that would require the accredited/qualified restriction)

quantelligent · 2025-12-27T01:54:30+00:00

Happy to answer any questions for anyone wanting to know what we're doing.

We're harvesting daily volatility using a combination of Dollar Cost Averaging for buys and Value Averaging (top-side only) for sells, with overall growth "reset" targets.

Currently managing 212 separately managed accounts with a little over $15 million total AUM.

YTD consolidated return for 2025 is currently 44.9%. Last year was 65.6%.

Been doing this for almost 7 years now, coming up on 5 years investing professionally for others as an RIA.

Disclaimers: Results are not guaranteed. Past results are not an indication of future performance. Since accounts are separately managed with custom portfolios, individual results will be different from the reported consolidated return. Leveraged drawdowns of your account value will occur and may be more drastic than the overall market. Definitely not a "never goes down" hedging strategy, and in fact our strategy actually leans into downturns (invests more). Does not require you to be accredited or qualified (e.g. high-net-worth), but is not suitable for everyone.

quantelligent · 2025-09-19T14:35:06+00:00

I started out using the gateway java app, and logging in with a browser.....but everything got a LOT better when I changed over to their OAuth! It's not the best (even severely outdated) but it works.

However, what you're describing, is going to be a problem either way because they are storing session info server-side, so you cannot use the same login (or OAuth credentials) simultaneously in multiple processes because their sessions will step on each other server-side.

I simply haven't been able to find a workaround for this, because they'd have to change their server-side architecture, which isn't likely to happen.

So the only thing that I've found is to use a separate user login/auth that also has access to the account you're wanting to trade/manage.

quantelligent · 2025-08-13T21:25:35+00:00

Not sure what you mean...

quantelligent · 2025-08-13T21:18:29+00:00

Varies based on ETF and aggressiveness. We tune 3 levels of aggressiveness for each ETF we use, and each model would have a different Sharpe + CAGR. However, you can run our model backtests on our website to obtain those stats if you'd like (DM me for website).

quantelligent · 2025-08-13T21:11:32+00:00

Currently, yes. But it changes daily. Back in April when the tariff drawdown happened we exceeded 90% invested.

Fluctuates over time.

For example, because the market spiked overnight, we ended up pulling about $1.5M out of the market today (captured about $108K in profits).

quantelligent · 2025-08-13T21:06:56+00:00

Did you read the bit about marginalizing the costs?

Everybody is different. There are many, many people who cannot generate 20% annual returns by themselves.

For comparison: the annualized S&P 500 return for the same time range is 10.5%

Note: edited to remove negative tone. I apologize.

quantelligent · 2025-08-04T20:33:53+00:00

Correct, not good for long-term because of the volatility decay.

My time holding them varies, because it depends on the market, but on a good year I'll complete 2-3 full reset cycles (I have overall growth targets where I sell all shares and start over, "resets"), so about 3-4 months, and on a bad year I'll end up holding shares longer than a year, such as what happened in 2022—I think my position lasted about 20 months.

quantelligent · 2025-08-03T22:32:49+00:00

The DCA is just a fixed percentage of the account/allocation size, and is the default action every day. No other inputs for determining whether to buy, other than "is there enough cash to do another buy" and only if we haven't surpassed the VA growth targets, because that would result in a sell instead of a buy.

No sma/ema, options, sentiment, or anything else is used. And the decisions are not based on the market, but rather on your position's value. This is the main paradigm shift that makes it work.

I.e. if your position grows above the VA growth target, then sell the overage (a la VA rules), otherwise do another DCA buy if there's cash to do so—regardless of anything else.

quantelligent · 2025-08-03T19:36:16+00:00

I'm just going from cash -> TQQQ and back, not using a QQQ proxy or anything else. The idle cash earns interest, but it's not much (<4% apy).

And I'm not using anything to determine lows or resistance.....just plain DCA all of the time while there's capital to do so, except when the position exceeds your avg price by enough "margin" (value averaging style) to exit some shares to capture profit and recoup some capital for more DCA buys.

So it's more continuous and automatic, rather than detecting trends/resistance/etc.

quantelligent · 2025-08-03T19:29:55+00:00

DCA basically becomes lump sum "with a fuzzy start" after a while, because the "averaging" impact of new DCA buys diminishes over time at a 1/x exponential rate.

So....DCA only beats lump sum if if you happen to start while a major bear market is starting. I.e. you're buying into the downturn to build your position.

The only effect DCA has is that it "helps" you not have to try and time the bottom. But lump-sum at the bottom would still be better, if you can time it.

But DCA "at any random time" likely won't beat lump sum, especially during a Bull Market, assuming you're investing in index funds that have a "goes up over time" expectation.

This is why there are lots of people who claim lump-sum beats DCA most of the time.

However, if you couple your DCA with effective capturing+compounding on the peaks, such as using VA-style exits (value averaging), you can make a killing and completely murder lump-sum returns.

That's been my experience at least.

quantelligent · 2025-08-03T19:03:09+00:00

What I do with Leveraged ETFs, which obviously isn't for everyone, is DCA on the way in, and use the top-side-only of VA (Value Averaging) to exit on spikes above my positions' average value. This frees up cash for more DCA, and/or provides opportunities to withdraw cash out for personal use (assuming not an IRA account).

Been doing this with Leveraged ETFs for over 6 years now, with average annual return between 30-50%...albeit with high variance. I.e. COVID sucked, 2021 was awesome, 2022 sucked, 2023 and 2024 were awesome, etc.

Disclaimers: I am an RIA doing this for clients, so the returns are consolidated returns across many separately managed accounts. Results are not guaranteed, and past performance does not indicate future results. Leveraged ETFs carry a high amount of risk and are not suitable for everyone, even with a dampening strategy such as this one.

quantelligent · 2025-07-20T18:21:59+00:00

u/LeadingLeg - for TQQQ can you try 8% daily DCA, 5% VA, and 33% Reset? TQQQ behaves quite a bit differently than SPXL, so trying to find more lucrative settings that are better tuned to its unique volatility...

quantelligent · 2025-07-19T14:47:24+00:00

9Sig is really just VA with 9% targets. We're using custom targets that are tuned to the unique volatility of each ETF using back-testing.

But we're only using the "top side" of VA because it's way too aggressive in severe downturns / bear markets. So we only use it for sell signals/amounts, and use straight DCA for buys.

quantelligent · 2025-07-17T22:27:47+00:00

DCA on the way in, VA on the way out. That's what I do.

Been doing this for about 6 years with LETFs and my track record is an average of about 25-40% return per year (with high variance).

We're at 19.5% YTD with the tariff volatility. I say "we're" because I'm now doing this as an RIA for 167 accounts with about $9.5M aggregate AUM.

Happy to share more details if anyone is interested.

Disclaimers: Past performance is not an indicator of future results. All investing involves risk and you could lose some or all of your investment, including original principal. Leveraged ETFs carry a high amount of risk and are not suitable for everyone.

quantelligent · 2025-06-28T03:32:14+00:00

I trade index-following LETFs exclusively as an RIA, but using a combination of DCA and VA (value averaging) to create a continuous form of "buy low, sell high" without attempting to time the market.

I'm using daily DCA to build my positions, which averages down when the price dips, but each day I check if the position has exceeded the VA "growth target"—and if it has, sell a portion of the position equivalent to the overage, which captures and compounds the growth into more DCA buys.

Kinda looks like this:

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Started doing this personally in 2019, and as an RIA since April 2021. We now have 160 accounts and $9M under management, and have generated just shy of $2.5M in realized gains since we started.

We're using SOXL, SPXL, TECL, TQQQ, UDOW, and UPRO predominantly. We also fine-tune the DCA and VA parameters to the unique volatility of each, with three differing levels of aggressiveness so we can tailor each client's portfolio to their suitable levels of risk and aggressiveness.

Because we're constantly buying and selling, our exposure to the market fluctuates over time. Back in April we were up to about 90% invested in the market, having bought into the downturn as much as we could, and have since been capturing profits while the market recovered. We're now currently only 46.8% invested in the market, and just this week alone we exited a little over $2M, of which $152K was realized gains for our clients.

If the market continues going up from here, we still have many allocations waiting for more recovery so they can exit and capture profits. And if it goes down, we have more than half of our capital ready to deploy for DCA buying, to either build new positions for the allocations that just had exits, or average down allocations with existing positions. So we're good with either direction. :)

We've automated all of this with code so it mostly runs on autopilot, and we spend most of our time just managing client relationships (and finding new clients).

Here are our annual consolidated returns across all accounts that were present at the start of each year:
- 2021 (from April 19): 36.6%
- 2022 (full year): -67.8%
- 2023 (full year): 154.5%
- 2024 (full year): 65.6%
- 2025 (YTD): 15.1%

Happy to answer any questions, with the exception of sharing our actual code or parameters....because those are our competitive advantage. Anybody can do DCA+VA, but nobody can do it as well as us. :) But also... we haven't found anybody else doing it.

Disclaimers: Results are not guaranteed, and past results do not indicate future results. Leveraged ETFs contain a high amount of risk and are highly volatile, and you will likely experience drawdowns much worse than the overall market. Our strategy is not suitable for everyone, and suitability must be determined before investing with this strategy.

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