I’m sitting tight on the index swing shorts in my longer-term accounts (even added some more short exposure yesterday) and I went home short in my active trading account as well.

Yes & no, as it depends on how GDX/NUGT is trading during the period you are holding it. During a mostly uni-directional rally the 3x leverage on NUGT can actually work for you (i.e.- returning over 3x what GDX does) instead of against you. The choppier the trend (lots of green & red closes), the worst the decay will be & overall, DUST & NUGT are amongst the worst offenders when it comes to decay on leveraged ETFs. See the FAQ question under the “ETF Related Questions” subcategory that explains how & why that is. (FAQ page located under “Resources” on the main menu).

SQQQ, although also 3x leveraged, doesn’t suffer nearly as bad from decay as NUGT or SOXS because the underlying index for the former is much less volatile than the latter two. SQQQ is usually a good option for swing trading breakouts on the $NDX from chart patterns or other market conditions that indicate that a fairly strong, mostly unidirectional move is likely coming. For shorting longer-term swing trades or even trend trades that are expected to last several months or more, better to use either QID (2x leveraged inverse $NDX) or PSQ (non-leveraged inverse $NDX). For trading longer-term swing or trend trades on the miners or semis, best to stick with the non-leveraged ETFs (GDX or SOXX).

Are you closing out the day short or long?