u/samuelpile

I see a lot of people complaining about high templar (especially from terrans!), and I think the criticisms are very fair.. but I think high templar is a little weak, personally. Here is how I would fix the unit!!

First, they are still very squishy, only 40/40 (that is like two (2) zerglings worth of hp!). I would give them at least 60/65 to help them be a little tankier. They are light units after all!!

Second, high templar are very slow, with a ms of 2.62. They are hard to control, and often fall behind my army. I would make them faster.. about 4 movement speed is fair imo, I mean they are floating for goodness sakes!

Third, their damage is very low. I know that they have spells (more on those later!) but it is very annoying when zerglings or zealots get on top of them and pick them off. Instead of 4 damage at 1.25 attack speed, I am thinking something like 10 damage at 1 attack speed, and maybe +10 damage vs light to help versus zerglings? Also, it won't make much of a difference but I think they should be able to shoot air also.

Still, they might be caught out alone sometimes.. maybe give them a new cloaking ability to use in a pinch if they really need it (I know they aren't dark templar, but this ability should not be too OP)

Now.. for their most controversial part of their kit: their spells! I think feedback is a little weird to use... I am going to split up it's effects. First, I will keep the damage part of feedback but change it where it channels and just does 130 damage ignoring armor to 1 unit. Now, obviously it could only deal damage to energy units before.. so I will say it can only target biological units to not make it too powerful (should make high templar better in PvZ, too!).

Feedback did drain energy before, but since it is doing damage now let's take the energy drain and put it on Psi Storm instead. I know a lot of people complain about psi storm, so let's make it so that when you are psi stormed the bad experience is over quicker. Psi Storm damage will be instant, and it will deal ~40% max hp (up to a max of 100 health), but now enemy hp cannot be reduced below 60% by psi storm. Also now it will take the Feedback trait where it also removes energy. Also, let's have it remove cloak (because cloak is annoying). Also, let's remove the friendly fire (I always thought that part was annoying, too).

I have been thinking about this new ability too.. I think you should be able to spend 100 minerals and 100 gas to call down a mothership purifier beam that deals up to 500 damage to units and structures in a huge radius. I don't think it'd be used that often but it would be soooo fun! Would be VERY fun to pair with their new cloaking ability!

Anyways.. now that I type it out.. I am thinking this unit sounds too OP?? Maybe we should make it 3 supply? On second thought, let's keep it 2

Anyways let me know your thoughts!! I don't think this unit is OP at all and it should make PvZ and PvT much healthier. Curious to hear what zerg players think of this new unit!

Still only about 2 months in LETFs in particular, and there is a question that keeps coming popping back up in my mind regarding a portfolio's leveraged exposure and its relationship to volatility decay.

My understanding is that the consensus is 1.5x - 2x leverage is optimal for the long run, as anything greater will succumb to excessive volatility decay over time. I will see a lot of people run (using cute numbers for clarity), 50% of their portfolio in a 3x fund, and claim it is an effective 1.5x leveraged rate.

The formula for returns is something like the below:

LETF CAGR ≈ (L * r) - [((L^2 - L) / 2) * v^2] - expense ratio

Where:

L = leverage factor (e.g. 2 for 2x, 3 for 3x)

r = expected annual return of underlying asset (decimal form, so 10% = 0.10)

v = annual volatility of underlying asset (decimal form, so 20% = 0.20)

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/LETFs/comments/1dqzier/beautiful_and_model_free_1_line_formula_for/

If leverage is being raised to an exponent, doesn't that make the formula exponential and therefore you cannot compare 2x or 3x? Essentially, you cannot 'cut' the 3x -> 1.5x with a 50% position (formula would be 0.50 * 3 = 1.5x)? I guess taking it to the extreme, if you have a 50x leveraged position that represents 3% of your portfolio (0.03 * 50 = 1.5x), that would obviously not be equivalent to a 1.5x leveraged position because any drop of 2% would wipe out the leveraged portion.

Obviously that is an extreme - is the difference in 2x and 3x so nominal that they can be compared like this? It just seems like it is imprecise to call it 1.5x, since a 3x portion carries a disproportionate risk of volatility decay to a 1.5x.

I found a decay factor formula (honestly not sure if it even applies here), which is:

Volatility Decay Factor Formula: Decay Factor = (L^2 - L) / 2, where L is the leverage multiple

And so therefore,

1.5x LETF

(1.5^2 - 1.5) / 2 = 0.375

2x LETF:

(2^2 - 2) / 2 = 1

3x LETF:

(3^2 - 3) / 2 = 3

So that the volatility decay risk of a 3x is 200% more than a 2x, and 700% more than a 1.5x, and therefore you can't really say a 50%, 3x position is effectively 1.5x leverage, because the leveraged sleeve of the portfolio is carrying a disproportionate amount of volatility decay risk (+700%)?

not a math major so REALLY out of my depth here, kindly looking for insight and wisdom on this topic

Corgi Strategies just rolled out 34 new ETFs in the past week, and are using bot accounts to promote their new ETFs. All the posts follow the same structure, usually about 3 paragraphs and they always include the $ in the ticker, which is technically proper but uncommon. The astroturfing is the most barebones lazy attempt I have ever seen... posts talking about when to take profits, one of them mentions holding for a few weeks even though the ETF just launched, etc. I will not be touching any Corgi ETFs on principle - any ETF issuer who is using AI to meaningfully provide misinformation to swindle you into purchasing their investment products is untrustworthy to their core.

I would downvote, report, and move on

Examples:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tarjsn/wr_is_up_since_launch_and_im_not_surprised/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tart9p/added_brew_after_looking_at_the_international/

(both of the above have these bot comments: "This is the kind of positioning that beats the market over 3-5 years." lmao)

this post has some people discussing the bots:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tahscn/why_i_havent_taken_profit_on_dock_yet/

on this one, they didn't even use a different account to make the replies it is just the OP account nonsensically responding to itself:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1taj4eq/dipr_keeps_quietly_moving_up_does_anyone_follow/

more examples:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1taor3o/anyone_else_holding_joul_still_see_more_room/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1taoh28/honest_take_on_euv_after_a_few_weeks_of_holding/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tastql/entered_euv_this_week_sharing_why/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tat0j5/why_wr_belongs_in_a_portfolio_right_now/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tat4x7/why_i_think_wats_is_still_early_despite_the/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tat838/kyc_is_down_but_the_underlying_businesses_are/ (this one has quotes around its own post haha like it was copy/pasted)

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tat9pe/cmag_keeps_quietly_moving_does_anyone_follow_this/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tatfly/anyone_else_holding_av_still_see_more_room/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1tatj7e/yung_has_been_one_of_my_better_performers_sharing/ (also quotes around the post body lmao it is so low effort and shameless)

Between the three big semiconductor ETFs (SMH, SOXX, and PSI), PSI is exhibiting the most momentum - you can look at 1m, 3m, 6m, and 1Y benchmarks to see it is comparatively outperforming. SMH and SOXX have less holdings and are more large-cap oriented (which are already more saturated - e.g. NVIDIA, TSM, Broadcom, AMD, Intel, Micron), whereas PSI is more equally weighted and is benefitting from the small caps having more growth as investors are expanding their scope to capitalize on the AI boom.

That being said, semiconductors aside, DRAM (memory) and HYDR (hydrogen) are actually the ETFs exhibiting the most momentum (excluding any oil/shipping futures ETFs)

godspeed

I am assessing ETFs and am trying to identify key dates that might be influencing the performance of ETFs, and have identified the following dates in recent years:

April 1st: Start of AI supercycle (I use this at a glance to observe how sharp the trendline is to see how heavily the holdings are weighted in AI/semis/memory, e.g. EMEQ is a 'Nomura-focused emerging market', but looking at the trendline shows strong correlation to the current AI supercycle, and so digging deeper holdings show it is just a Korea/Taiwan/China tech ETF

February 28, 2026: Iran War start date (important for oil/energy markets)

April 2025: Liberation Day, Trump introduced tariffs which reshaped the status quo for some domestic markets (e.g. US steel, see SLX)

Obviously the crashes/bear markets are important (dot com, 2008, COVID crash, 2022 bear market)

Does anyone have any others that they use?

want to say I appreciate everyone in here, although LETFs are incredibly risky and we are all a little crazy, everyone here seems very well-read and educated, and are diligent in backtests and always earnest in discussing different strategies.

have been getting recommended different investment subs and it is straight brainrot. 20 year olds DCAing into yieldmax ETFs in taxable brokerages. everyone asking what the next ___ stock is. VOO and chill'ers absolutely not chill with their 8% YTD and missing all the rewards from the AI supercycle. paper handers selling on the first red day and whining on reddit.

just wanted to say i really appreciate everyone in r/LETFs. y'all have had me reading more academic papers than I read in college, lol