In June 2008 I think I recall things starting to get pretty volatile. By September, it was making large drops nearly every day. I only owned an oil trust during the wild talk about $300 barrels of oil. I got out before the peak.

I never considered going back in. I didn't feel I knew enough about investing to participate in instruments as complex as stocks. I've experimented with VIXY last year and made some gains but there were quite a few losses. Fortunately the gain was bigger than the losses. I've since learned that large drops won't always corelate to an increase in VIXY. So perhaps I might consider something like PSQ for shorting the Nasdaq.

Timing a collapse like that is hard. Best I can hope for with something like volatility trading, is being aware of VIX levels above 50 and rising a few percent per day. With this I may lose quite some hefty gains but I know the run is here. Last time it bottomed in only about a week. This time.. who knows. Bit like catching a falling knife.

Leveraged ETFs are scary because sometimes they disappear over night, or are really ETNs so I've learned of risks with ETNs in addition to the other risks.

It is a stressful way to speculate I'll say that.