Nvidia’s Plunge Exposes the Hidden Cost of Leveraged ETFs Sumit Roy Thu, November 12, 2026 at 8:56 PM EST NVDA -3.21% NVDL -6.81% NVDY -3.43% TSLL +5.47% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Single-stock ETFs tied to Nvidia have been walloped over the past month. Questions about AI spending, fears that Democrats' midterm wins will slow the data center buildout, and finally the scandal that ended with CEO Jensen Huang's resignation have sent the stock tumbling.Nvidia fell from a high of $239 to a low of less than $149 on Wednesday, a 38% drop in a little over a month.Leveraged funds amplified the pain. The GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF (NVDL), the biggest Nvidia-focused ETF, fell from $40 to $14.50 over the same period, a 64% decline. Its assets have shrunk from $4.5 billion in October to $2.4 billion today, well below their peak of $6.7 billion in November 2024.Even unleveraged products didn't escape the carnage. The YieldMax NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF (NVDY), the only other Nvidia ETF with more than $1 billion in assets, at $1.1 billion, fell 38% from its October high to Wednesday's low, in line with the stock itself.In all, there are 17 Nvidia-focused single-stock ETFs with $4.5 billion in combined assets. NVDL remains the second-largest single-stock ETF of any kind, behind only the Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares (TSLL), at $3.4 billion.
The saga shows how hard it is for these volatile products to hold on to their gains, and their assets, over time.Since May 24, 2024, through Thursday's close, NVDL is up just 3.5%, essentially flat. Nvidia stock is up 56.5% over the same stretch. In other words, a fund designed to deliver twice the stock's daily return has almost nothing to show for a period in which the stock rose by more than half.
Three things have eaten into returns. The first is volatility decay. Because leveraged ETFs reset their exposure every day, choppy markets erode their value, even when the underlying stock ends up higher. The second is financing costs, since the leverage comes from swaps that charge interest, and borrowing has grown more expensive as rates have climbed. The third is fees, with NVDL charging 1.65% per year. Those factors don't matter as much during a steady rally, when leverage can produce spectacular gains. But over longer periods that include big swings, like the one Nvidia has gone through, the costs add up quickly.For traders making short-term bets, these funds can still do what they're designed to do. For anyone holding them as a long-term way to invest in Nvidia, the past two and a half years are a cautionary tale.
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