SOXL Tops SPXL Over One Year as Five-Year Drawdowns Underscore Leverage Risks

Daily leverage with semiconductor concentration produces faster one-year returns for SOXL at the cost of much steeper multi-year losses.

Overview

As of Dec. 18, 2025, SOXL returned 38.6% over one year versus 27.2% for SPXL.
Five-year max drawdowns diverged sharply, at 90.51% for SOXL and 63.84% for SPXL, with $1,000 growing to $1,280 in SOXL versus $3,078 in SPXL over the period.
SOXL manages more assets at $13.9 billion compared with $6.0 billion for SPXL, reflecting stronger recent interest in the semiconductor trade.
Both Direxion funds use 3x daily-reset leverage that can magnify compounding effects over time, making them tools for tactical trading rather than long-term holding.
SOXL is a concentrated semiconductor bet with top weights in Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and Nvidia, while SPXL delivers diversified S&P 500 exposure led by Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.