The ETF Trade: Gold, Tesla, Mag 7 Stocks, AI and More!

Well, 2025 has already been a historic year.

We've seen records shattering daily swings in financial markets.

We've also seen a boom in the use of leveraged and inverse ETFs.

So, how are ETF traders positioning themselves for the market's next big move?

Helping us to get to the bottom of this is Douglas Yonas, CEO at Direction.

Thank you so much for being here.

It's great to see you.

Yeah, Thalia.

Uh, it's exciting to be here.

Thanks for having me on.

Let's begin with trade war uncertainty which has drastically increased the daily swings and prices of stocks.

It's also put S&P 500 linked ETFs into the spotlight.

The daily trading volume has skyrocketed for ETFs like the direction daily S&P 500 bull 3x shares ticker SPXL and the direction daily S&P 500 bear 3x shares ticker SPXS.

So, how have ETF traders been playing trade war uncertainty?

Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, right, th this is this has been a volatile year.

I think in 2025 alone, we've had more 2% or more moving days than probably any time in near-term history.

So, volatility is here.

It's probably here to stay as a result of many of the headlines we're seeing.

And you're right, we're we're seeing that turn into what we call direction weather.

I mean the markets right now are really direction focused.

Why do I say that?

If you look at our lineup of ETFs, the sheer majority are leveraged and inverse daily reset vehicles.

You mentioned two of them uh with a focus on S&P 500.

So we'll talk a little bit about that.

Now, I mean, even today, as we're recording this, the market's making another historic move, but short-term traders, those that are looking to to really try and take advantage of those momentum swings, we're seeing them continue to to really use those vehicles uh as part of their trading strategies.

And and not only are we seeing it, we're seeing it in record record volumes.

I the direction lineup of ETFs hit hit an all-time record last week in terms of total volume traded.

We're seeing it in terms of record cash flow.

Uh we've, you know, with with all-time records last month in terms of net cash flow coming into the complex.

So, uh you know, products like SPXL, XPSX, they provide short-term traders the ability to to make those short-term investments on on the marketplace.

Now, it's really important.

We always say education comes first.

It's very important that investors recognize these are daily reset vehicles.

They need to be looking at these positions every single day and making sure they're comfortable with the leverage they're taking on as a result of of market volatility.

Makes sense.

Gold mining stocks along with gold have thrived in the midst of sky-high volatility.

The direction daily gold miners index bull 2x shares ticker nug and direction daily bear 2x shares ticker dus offer two different ways to participate.

Why has the interest in gold miners been so robust?

Yeah, first you have to give credit to the team here at Direction to come up with uh ticker symbols like nugget and dust.

Easy to remember when we're talking about gold.

Gold's been so interesting this year, right?

You know, it doesn't matter what side you're on.

Uh when you think about gold and gold as an investment, it tends to do better when it's treat traded as a safe haven.

And and that's what we've seen this year, right? with all the volatility, uh, gold has been as a commodity vehicle one one of the best performers in the market.

It's hit it's hitting all new highs.

I think today as we're recording it's it's up at a new high again.

What's really interesting though is these ETFs, as you mentioned, uh, Nugget and Dust, they're actually they're not buying gold.

They're buying the mining companies that are going out and mining gold.

What a lot of people don't realize is even with the performance that gold has had this year, gold miners have actually done even better.

I I think the last I looked it was something like double the returns of gold has been in the gold mining space.

So those that are playing that short-term trend, these are great vehicles to do.

So again, daily reset, same thing.

You have to understand how they work.

But when you when you think about um those that are looking for volatility, those that are looking to trade, the beta is much higher in in mining securities than it is in the underlying commodity itself of gold.

So that's why we talk about those those ETFs.

So we're seeing a lot of traction there, a lot of activity.

The volumes have been has been quite high as well as AUM movements as you would expect into and out of both of those products.

For those that want even more volatility though, I'll I'll at least mention it.

We have junior minor versions.

So basically, if you want to play the small cap space in the mining uh air, you know, part of the industry, you can do it.

You could do it with guess what?

Junior Nugget, Jay Nug, and and uh you know, Junior Dust, JDST.

So, I'll mention those as well for those that are looking for even more volatility than we have in the in the current products that that we're talking about today.

Shifting gears, no matter which way you think they're headed, MAG7 stocks like Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, among others, are some of the most actively traded stocks on the market.

Direction offers lots of single stock ETF choices or what we might call surgical trades on the Magnificent 7.

Can you explain that for us?

Yeah, it's an interesting way to to put it, Dalia.

And and you know, the the single stock space has been interesting for us, right? is a firm that's known for short-term investors, short-term traders that are looking to make uh those those sort of quick trades, trade momentum, or even just hedge themselves.

Single stock ETFs have been a place to do it.

So, we have 16 pairs right now of bull bear combos.

That's 2x leverage to the upside and then negative -1 leverage to the downside.

So, uh those that are seeking volatility, of course, you have the bull.

If you actually want to reduce volatility, you can use the bear.

And we see we've seen that in the MAG 7 on both sides.

We'll see these, you know, short-term dips in in those securities might be a headline news about uh chips or semiconductors.

Could be headline news around some of the EV vehicles like Tesla.

That tends to be one of the more popular ETFs that that uh direction investors trade.

If you're looking for the long, you know, you're you're trying to trade the long version.

You've got the 2x in there.

But we've also seen interest from those that are owning the Mag 7.

They might own individual positions, have owned them for a very long time.

They're nervous about the markets.

They might want to take some of that exposure off, but they don't want the capital gain.

They don't they don't want to actually sell the security and and take that tax hit.

So, we're seeing more investors and use use cases where they're using the negative one.

So, you know, you could let's say you have Nvidia and you've been holding it a long time or Tesla, you might want to take some of that exposure off. you can actually buy the inverse bare fund and reduce your exposure with a hedge transaction which is really interesting a new use case we're seeing but that lineup of of single stock pairs as I mentioned you can go to direction.com you can learn about all the different securities we cover all the mag 7 we cover them all in one as well we cover a lot of different names that cross a lot of different industries but for those short-term traders that are watching these markets and saying hey I I'd like to make some short-term um you know transactions I want I on a hedge, those single stock ETFs can be really popular and and we're seeing that in terms of growth in both trading and assets under management.

Over 6 billion has entered that space in the direction lineup this year.

Now, chips from the semiconductor industry are powering everything from our cars to our mobile devices.

The world can't seem to function without the semiconductors. and the direction daily semiconductor bull 3x shares ticker SO XL and the direction daily semiconductor bear 3x shares ticker SOXS have experienced big moves.

Can you tell us more about that?

Yeah, as you mentioned both of those funds I mean SOXL in particular tends to be a flagship fund for us.

It's our largest.

It's our most actively traded ETF.

And then of of course as we mentioned in the single stocks we have the Nvidia pair that's been another really popular one.

The reality is you can't escape headlines on semiconductors and and on both sides of the fence you'll see positive headlines around uh growth in this in the area growth of of shipments uh the demand as AI continues to expand as these as these uh investments are happening in data centers right all of that relies on on semiconductors and so there's there's been a lot of investment in the space some investors are saying hey these short-term dips this is where I want to get in others investors are saying, "I want to take exposure off the table." They could do it by hedging.

They can hedge individual components.

The reality is at direction, we're building the tools for short-term traders.

So, uh, for those that want to trade in those markets, they're looking for short-term moves.

They can come to direction.com.

They can learn a lot about our ETFs, but as mentioned, I mean, those tend to be the ones that that are most wellknown globally.

A lot of investors use them to trade into and out of the market shortterm.

And uh look, there's no shortage of headlines.

Every day we wake up to to news, whether it be tariff driven, whether it be earnings driven.

Uh and so there's a lot of volatility.

As I always caution, if you're not sure how leverage works, please come to our website.

We've got free tools, use the education center, use the university.

Very short investment in yourself and your time, and you'll you'll see exactly how this works. because you're talking about taking adding volatility to the most volatile part of the markets.

It's most important you understand how they work.

If you're not sure how daily leverage works, please don't don't use these ETFs until you learn.

And one final question before you take off.

At the end of March, direction introduced four new tracking ETFs linked to the performance of Eli Lillian Company along with Palo Alto Networks.

Both companies operate in two of the most dynamic sectors, pharmaceuticals and cyber security.

What's the strategy behind these ETFs?

Yeah, I mean you mentioned that and and thanks Dalia for for bringing that up.

Those are our more recent bull bear combos in the single stock space.

You know, both both companies are sort of I don't know, you know, the the the major names when you think about either the pharmaceutical industry or you think about cyber security.

Both of those industries continue to make headlines.

I mean, these are the bellweather names.

So, for those individuals that are maybe looking for targeted exposure or they want to make a targeted trade to the bull side or even the bare side, it just felt like those were natural additions to our lineup.

And so, that's why we launched them.

We've been a little lucky on timing.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than right.

Uh where where it's just seems like both of those those companies continue to make headline moves and so we've seen a lot of initial trading right out of the gate.

Uh again, anyone who wants to learn more or understand how they work, please go to direction.com, especially when we're talking about leverage.

But yeah, that you know uh the the the direction lineup of single stocks, you can expect that to continue.

We're continuing to see a lot of success.

Our investors are asking for these tools for either hedging purposes or for the ability to trade to the bull side.

And so, uh you can if you want to subscribe to our email list, we'll we'll you'll be the first to know when we launch these ETFs.

You can do it all at our website, direction.com.

Douglas, thanks so much for your timely insights, and we'll see you again soon.

Thanks so much for having me.

It's always a pleasure.

Be sure to visit direction.com to learn more about direction's ETF lineup, new updates, and education for traders.

I'm Thalia Hayden.

Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.