Retail Traders Drive Nearly 90% of Leveraged Single-Stock ETF Activity, Study Shows

2026-02-24 18:47:21

Retail traders have poured into leveraged single-stock exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with the number of these products surging by 318% since January 2025. In fact, retail has been responsible for nearly 90% of the trading volume in these ETFs, according to a study by ETF provider Direxion, Vanda Research, and The Compound Insights.

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“The vast number of launches illustrates the market’s growing reliance on speculation,” said Morningstar ETF analyst Bryan Armour.

Retail Demand Drives Spike in Leveraged Single-Stock ETFs

The study shows that trading volume of leveraged single-stock ETFs has risen by 29% annually since late 2022, outpacing the growth of both stocks and options. In addition, the ETFs accounted for 8% of trading volume on all U.S. exchanges last year.

Asset managers have taken notice of the trend, which capitalizes on popular stocks like Nvidia NVDA +0.75% ▲ , Tesla TSLA +1.56% ▲ , and Strategy MSTR +0.96% ▲ . Of the 355 leveraged single-stock ETFs on the market, all but 80 have been launched since the beginning of 2025.

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