The leveraged side was very active today: $Direxion Daily MRVL Bull 2X ETF(MRVU.US), $T-Rex 2X Long Alphabet Daily Target ETF(GOOX.US), and $Tradr 2X Long NBIS Daily ETF(NEBX.US) all rose by seven to ten points, $Direxion Daily AVGO Bear 1X Shares(AVS.US) gained +12%, while the one for $GraniteShares 2x Long QCOM Daily ETF(QCML.US) fell against the trend by five points. The stories of the underlying companies are actually far apart—AI chips, cloud computing power, and internet platforms each have their own trajectory, with some rising and some falling on the same day. Yet, the leveraged side is being concentratedly bet on by capital as the same "AI semiconductor" direction.

Retail investors are unwilling to take only 1x exposure to the underlying stock; what they want is the return symmetry of amplified directional bets, even going leveraged on short positions. This kind of concentration usually gets calibrated within two weeks: either retail investors start switching themes, or the underlying fundamentals can't keep up with the expected returns overdrawn by the leveraged side. The focus is on when this concentration will recede.