Tracks 3x the daily return of the S&P 500.
Prices as of 2026-10-23. Source: Data via FinanceDataReader · Policy rate via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
UPRO is ProShares' 3x S&P 500 ETF, launched in June 2009. It targets three times the daily return of the 500 largest US companies. Direxion's SPXL tracks the same index at 3x; the two differ mainly in fees and trading volume.
Because the S&P 500 mixes every sector, UPRO swings less than most leveraged funds. Even so, when the 1x index fell more than 30% in about a month during the February–March 2020 crash, the 3x fund lost over 70% from its high. Short, steep drops can recover quickly, but in a slow grind like 2022 volatility drag accumulates and the 3x fund loses more than three times the index.
For split buying, small daily moves mean fewer days that trigger a buy (a fall of a set percentage from the prior close). With SOXL-style triggers most of the seed sits idle, so a lower trigger or fewer tranches is the place to start. The long-run picture using the S&P 500 back to 1993 is covered in the index-based history guide.
Using real closing prices only (adjusted for splits and dividends) from 2009-06-25, UPRO's worst peak-to-trough fall was -76.8%, from the 2020-02-19 high to the 2020-03-23 low over 23 trading days. It took another 202 trading days (about 0.8 years) to get back above that high, on 2021-01-08. The last close is 8.7% below the all-time high.
A fall of 76.8% needs a 331% gain to get back to even. Any strategy on UPRO 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 3.21% over the whole history
and 2.40% 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) | +243.98% | -59.40% | +12.14% | 1217 | 74.7% |
| A1 Defensive, base rules | +171.02% | -33.29% | +9.69% | 1224 | 86.4% |
| A3 Aggressive, base rules (no defence signal) | +150.14% | -67.23% | +8.88% | 1147 | 73.7% |
| Buy and hold | +1338.99% | -76.81% | +28.06% | - | - |
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 UPRO 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 | +12.53% | -13.23% | +23.33% | -26.69% |
| 2025 | +31.13% | -23.05% | +31.25% | -48.74% |
| 2024 | +17.34% | -8.86% | +64.28% | -24.34% |
| 2023 | +12.10% | -17.46% | +68.72% | -30.26% |
| 2022 | +29.18% | -15.43% | -57.54% | -63.68% |
| 2021 | +23.07% | -11.28% | +106.54% | -15.20% |
| 2020 | -5.81% | -42.16% | +6.64% | -76.35% |
| 2019 | +10.07% | -12.58% | +100.43% | -19.54% |
| 2018 | -37.13% | -47.31% | -27.18% | -50.31% |
| 2017 | +20.09% | -5.02% | +67.37% | -7.94% |
Across these 10 years the strategy beat buy and hold in 1 and trailed it in 9. It lost money in 2 years; buy and hold lost in 2. In UPRO's worst year here, 2022, holding returned -57.5% while the strategy returned +29.2%. In its best year, 2021, holding returned +106.5% and the strategy +23.1%. Giving up much of the best years is the price of the smaller drawdowns.
UPRO listed on 2009-06-25, and every number on this page uses real prices only. In the backtest tool you can go back to 1993, but the years before listing are index-based: UPRO listed on 2009-06-25. Prices from 1993-01-01 to the day before listing are converted from the 1x index, not real trades: the daily return of S&P 500 Index (^GSPC; the 1x ETF SPY with dividends reinvested from 1993) multiplied by 3, minus the fund fee (0.91%/yr), borrowing cost (2x the 13-week T-bill rate) and an extra 1.6%/yr tracking cost. Treat that range as an estimate. Even close-only strategies such as A and D can shift by 1–2 points a year over this range depending on the conversion assumptions (dividends, costs, index differences). See how the index-based history is built and checked.
Only for a single day. Over longer stretches volatility drag pulls the result below 3x in choppy markets and above it in a sustained trend. The arithmetic is here.
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.