In a sideways up and down market these leveraged ETFs will show some rebalancing losses. However, in upgoing or down going markets the leverage is an advantage. So, for example, when Gold is 20% up within a month like in July, then the leveraged ETFs will profit more than a position made of 2x or 3x the amount of unleveraged ETFs. Same for big monthly drops. Here in fact your losses are limited on the value of the ETF. I would say that most of the time using leverage is an advantage.