SOXL max drawdown: 86.9%
Direxion Semiconductor Bull 3x. From its 2021-12-31 peak, SOXL fell 86.9% to the 2022-09-30 trough and needed 4.3 years to make a new high (2026-04-30). Computed from 197 months of history starting 2010-03-31, including extended pre-ETF data where available.
3x daily semiconductors, drawdowns past 90 percent are part of its normal behavior.
SOXL drawdown statistics
2021-12-31 peak to 2022-09-30 trough.
New high reached 2026-04-30.
Share of all months spent below a prior high.
Rolling year ending 2022-12-31.
For context, SPY (the S&P 500 baseline) had a maximum drawdown of 23.9% over the same kind of monthly-close analysis.
The biggest SOXL drawdowns on record
| Depth | Peak | Trough | Recovered | Peak to trough | Total underwater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -86.9% | 2021-12-31 | 2022-09-30 | 2026-04-30 | 9 mo | 4.3 years |
| -65.8% | 2011-02-28 | 2011-09-30 | 2013-12-31 | 7 mo | 2.8 years |
| -65.5% | 2019-12-31 | 2020-03-31 | 2020-11-30 | 3 mo | 11 months |
| -51.8% | 2010-04-30 | 2010-08-31 | 2010-12-31 | 4 mo | 8 months |
| -51.7% | 2018-01-31 | 2018-12-31 | 2019-04-30 | 11 mo | 15 months |
Methodology: monthly closing prices, peak-to-trough on total return where available. History extends before the ETF's launch via documented proxy chains (index funds, indices, and academic series), the same data that powers BestFolio's strategy backtests. Educational information, not investment advice.
Drawdowns are the reason tactical strategies exist
Buy-and-hold SOXL means living through every number on this page. BestFolio tracks published TAA strategies whose whole job is cutting these drawdowns, with out-of-sample track records.