Recent days… weeks I should say… have been turbulent, to say the least. Nearly everything companies have thrown at the market has failed to achieve its intended effect — good earnings, decent outlooks, partnerships, stakes in other companies — none of it has been enough to shift the tone of a tech sector being punished with the same enthusiasm that lifted it during the memorable months of May and June.
As I type this note, I feel something that had been absent from my mind for a while — an adrenaline shot. Seventy-five minutes into the session, one of my key watchlists — all 30 components of the SOX — shows several semiconductor names up by double digits. That's translating into a 25% advance in SOXL, the leveraged ETF I've been following closely and trading since 2025.
Despite it being one of my two current positions, I try not to get too hyped up. Somehow, all the ups and downs I've been through since 2020 — when I started trading leveraged ETFs — have been feeding my own Trading-Psychology-LLM, and that's resulted in a more neutral lens.
It wouldn't be honest to say a -16% daily drop, or what's happening today, doesn't touch my mood. But I try to use my market memory as objectively as I can.
What do I mean by that?
Well, on Monday I watched SOXL gain a decent 10% in the pre-market only to reverse into a 15% intraday loss — a 25-point dive in a few hours alone.
That's leveraged ETFs.
This isn't your standard volatility. It's like watching your nation score the winning penalty in a football match, only for the referee to order a retake — and on the second attempt, yes, you know this one — it hits the post, and you're out of the World Cup.
Not once every four years. Maybe every four days.
