TQQQ Investment Strategies

Intro

TQQQ seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to three times (3x) the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index® (QQQ ETF)

Many investors will avoid it like the plague, claiming that on the downside, you could be wiped out due to the 3x leverage, and will provide a mathematical example of how if the QQQ ETF goes down by 25%, then the TQQQ will go down by 75%.

While mathematically this is true and possible, in reality, the long term ATR (Average True Range) of the QQQ is 8, which is about 1.4% and for TQQQ is 4.2%, this is where as an investor you can look at market conditions and what is the trend, look at the VIX and other indicators and just use stop loss.

You don’t have to be ALL-In all the time and you can also take some profits along the way.

Here’s a Graph comparing TQQQ to SPY ETF (following the S&P 500 Index). You can judge for yourself!

Here’s a Graph comparing TQQQ to some of the biggest stocks in the market.

TQQQ Investment Strategies Comparison

This table compares 5 TQQQ trading strategies over a 10-year period (2015–2025) with an initial investment of $100.

1. Buy and Hold – holds throughout, yielding ~$2,000 (+1,900%) but with high risk (81.7% drawdown).

2. Bollinger Bands – buy at lower band [20-period, 2 SD], sell at upper, achieve ~$2,856 with more trades.

3. RSI (buy at RSI[14] < 30, sell > 70) reaches ~$3,246.

4. RSI and Bollinger Bands combine for ~$4,112, reducing drawdowns.

5. RSI, Bollinger Bands, and ATR adds ATR(14) volatility and trailing stops of 2 ATR, yielding ~$4,568 (+4,468%) with the lowest drawdown (29.4%) and fewest trades (58).

This table summarizes the outcome of the 5 strategies for an initial investment of $100, 10 Years ago.

Strategy	Final Value ($)	Total Return (%)	Max DrawDown (%)	Number of Trades
Buy and Hold	2000.0	1900.0	81.7	0
Bollinger Bands	2856.4	2756.4	45.2	156
RSI	3245.7	3145.7	38.9	89
RSI and Bollinger Bands	4112.3	4012.3	32.1	62
RSI, Bollinger Bands, ATR	4567.9	4467.9	29.4	58