Can you hold leveraged ETFs long term?

You can, but understand what you're signing up for: a 3x fund resets daily, so its long-run return is not 3x the index — volatility drag eats a slice proportional to volatility squared, and drawdowns are savage (TQQQ lost over 80% in 2022). Systematic rules are one honest response: a trend or regime filter that steps aside in downtrends transforms the leveraged ETF from a widow-maker hold into a tool that harvests bull legs. Our backtests of trend filters on TQQQ, SOXL, and QLD show the shape — filtered approaches typically forfeit some peak return versus diamond-handing, in exchange for max drawdowns cut dramatically. Unfiltered long-term holding requires stomaching near-total interim losses.