Unleveraged semiconductor ETF. The plain version of what SOXL levers.
Prices as of 2026-10-23. Source: Data via FinanceDataReader · Policy rate via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
SOXX is iShares' semiconductor ETF, launched in July 2001. It holds roughly thirty US-listed chip companies, very close to the index SOXL tracks at 3x. Think of it as SOXL without the leverage.
It lived through the tail of the dot-com bust and the 2008 crisis, falling more than 70% from its high and taking over a decade to recover. That is the record of a sector that did not always go up. When this site reconstructs SOXL before its listing, it uses SOXX's daily returns from July 2001.
Running split buying on the 1x semiconductor ETF shows the same sector cycle as SOXL without the drag that leverage adds. The gap between the two results is the part leverage made. The reconstruction method and its error against the real SOXL are published in the index-based history guide.
Using real closing prices only (adjusted for splits and dividends) from 2001-07-13, SOXX's worst peak-to-trough fall was -70.5%, from the 2001-08-02 high to the 2008-11-20 low over 1836 trading days. It took another 1339 trading days (about 5.3 years) to get back above that high, on 2014-03-20. The last close is 27.0% below the all-time high.
A fall of 70.5% needs a 239% gain to get back to even. Any strategy on SOXX has to be judged on whether you could have held it through a stretch like this. Why drawdown comes before return.
The standard deviation of daily returns is 2.12% over the whole history
and 2.92% over the last year. By the rough rule
days ≈ (target ÷ daily volatility)², a 1.5% take-profit target needs about
less than one trading day at the recent pace, so most tranches close at the target well before the time cut.
Where the rule comes from.
Three preset strategies run over 2016-01-04 to 2026-10-23 with a $10,000 seed and 0.1% fees, alongside simply holding the same instrument.
| Strategy | Return | Max drawdown | CAGR | Trades | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A2 Standard, base rules (no defence signal) | +315.38% | -18.55% | +14.12% | 1212 | 70.5% |
| A1 Defensive, base rules | +120.17% | -12.87% | +7.59% | 1216 | 86.0% |
| A3 Aggressive, base rules (no defence signal) | +401.52% | -22.48% | +16.13% | 1112 | 70.0% |
| Buy and hold | +1512.31% | -46.24% | +29.42% | - | - |
Read the drawdown column before the return column. Split buying leaves much of the seed in cash, which is the main reason its drawdown is smaller — treat it as lower exposure rather than protection.
Test SOXX with your own settings →The standard (diamond) preset, one calendar year at a time. A strategy worth using should have good years and bad years mixed — if one year made everything, that was the year, not the rules.
| Year | Strategy | Strategy MDD | Buy and hold | B&H MDD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | +5.01% | -13.43% | +51.98% | -28.97% |
| 2025 | +12.64% | -18.39% | +38.55% | -34.28% |
| 2024 | +37.30% | -4.87% | +16.04% | -24.78% |
| 2023 | +11.25% | -12.54% | +66.10% | -18.03% |
| 2022 | +9.76% | -10.52% | -37.08% | -45.95% |
| 2021 | +17.83% | -7.10% | +43.14% | -14.54% |
| 2020 | +22.70% | -10.24% | +47.27% | -33.99% |
| 2019 | +5.81% | -12.44% | +58.45% | -18.11% |
| 2018 | -7.93% | -15.37% | -10.17% | -26.03% |
| 2017 | +10.47% | -4.55% | +38.06% | -10.43% |
Across these 10 years the strategy beat buy and hold in 3 and trailed it in 7. It lost money in 1 year; buy and hold lost in 2. In SOXX's worst year here, 2022, holding returned -37.1% while the strategy returned +9.8%. In its best year, 2023, holding returned +66.1% and the strategy +11.2%. Giving up much of the best years is the price of the smaller drawdowns.
SOXX listed on 2001-07-13, and every number on this page uses real prices only. In the backtest tool you can go back to 1994, but the years before listing are index-based: SOXX listed on 2001-07-13. Prices from 1994-05-04 to the day before listing are converted from the 1x index, not real trades: the daily return of PHLX Semiconductor Index (^SOX) minus the fund fee. Treat that range as an estimate. See how the index-based history is built and checked.
Whole shares only. If a tranche is allocated less than one share's price, it buys nothing. Raise the seed or lower the number of tranches.
The Today's Orders page computes the next session's buy limit and each tranche's sell target from your start date. It is a calculation, not advice, and no orders are placed.