How $10,000 in QQQ, TQQQ and SQQQ Fared Over Five Years

An investment of $10,000 placed five years ago in exchange-traded funds tied to the Nasdaq 100 would now be worth roughly $20,500 in Invesco QQQ, $24,200 in ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ) and about $500 in ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ). Those amounts correspond to five‑year total returns of about +105% for QQQ, +142% for TQQQ and -96% for SQQQ.

QQQ tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index and holds large technology names including Nvidia, Apple, Micron, Microsoft, Amazon and AMD. QQQ has about $476 billion in assets under management and a 0.18% expense ratio. The fund is rebalanced quarterly and reconstituted annually. QQQ’s price rose roughly 99% over the period; its five‑year total return, which includes dividends, was about 105%.

TQQQ is a 3x daily leveraged ETF that seeks three times the Nasdaq 100’s daily performance. It has more than $35 billion in assets and a net expense ratio near 0.82%. Over five years TQQQ’s price rose about 131% and its five‑year total return was about 142%.

SQQQ is an inverse 3x daily leveraged ETF designed to gain when the Nasdaq 100 falls. Over the five years SQQQ lost about 96%, reducing a $10,000 position to roughly $500. SQQQ rallied about 90% in 2022 during a market decline and can move sharply in single sessions when the index swings.

The gap between TQQQ’s return and a simple three‑times multiple of QQQ reflects daily leverage and compounding. Leveraged ETFs reset exposure each trading day, so multi‑year outcomes can diverge from a fixed multiple of the index’s cumulative move.

Investors often use QQQ for long-term exposure to large U.S. technology names. TQQQ and SQQQ are structured for short-term trading and carry additional risks related to daily leverage, compounding effects and higher expense ratios. Figures are gross and exclude taxes. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.