SMH
VanEck Semiconductor ETF
stock NASDAQ ETF

wtf just go buy SMH before the whole semiconductor perma bull run

I'd wait if it were me, still alot of time left. But then again I tend to run my CC's down to the wire. I'm sitting on 2 580's on SMH expiring tomorrow currently. The premium is nice but the swings in share price are wild, almost just want to be done with this one honestly.

Leverage unwind is painful.
Situational Awareness, $45 Billion blowout, just a Trailer
“Margin Call”, Rev 2, new movie after Trillion AI crash, wait to see next.
$WDC $SNDK $HUBS $DDOG $MU $AMD $STX $INTC $TSM $SKHY & many in $SMH $QQQ have extremely concentrated leverage

DATA NOTE
Prior-session closes came from Realtime Finance Data daily history for August 04, 2026, with August 03 comparison closes; percentage changes are computed from those exact closes. All 23 tracked symbols returned prices. Investing.com supplied the pre-market page: it reported overall top movers but did not provide price or percentage-change values for the semiconductor most-active list. Context came from Investing.com’s economic calendar, Barchart/AP and CNBC Asia coverage, CNBC and Reuters AMD coverage, and an Investing.com analyst roundup.
PRIOR SESSION
SOXX $542.21 \[+6.80%\] | SMH $575.71 \[+5.55%\]
The complex had a broad risk-on session: all 23 tracked names finished higher, with equipment, memory, and communications names leading the move. SOXX outpaced SMH, while NVDA (+2.56%) and TSM (+2.72%) lagged the group’s strongest rallies.
PRE-MARKET (as of \~7:15am ET)
Showed a semiconductor-led pre-market: ANET was the overall top gainer at +12.44% and AMD was the overall top loser at -8.42%. Its semiconductor most-active list included MU, AMD, NVDA, and INTC, but the page supplied no price or percentage-change values for those names.
Top movers: ANET +12.44% | AMD -8.42%
TOP MOVERS (PRIOR SESSION)
ENTG gained 15.46% to $144.56, the largest tracked move; the read was a strong catch-up advance in semiconductor materials and equipment.
WOLF rose 11.13% to $27.06, reflecting high-beta participation in the sector-wide rebound.
INTC advanced 10.84% to $100.86 as the AI, memory, and semiconductor complex repriced higher across Asia and the U.S.
No tracked name declined. The three smallest gains were ON +0.47% at $80.78, NVDA +2.56% at $211.94, and TSM +2.72% at $417.17, making them relative laggards in an otherwise uniformly positive list.
PRE-MARKET OUTLOOK
Asia extended the overnight AI and semiconductor bid: the KOSPI rose 4.40%, SK hynix gained 6.70%, Samsung Electronics rose 4.10%, TSMC added 3.50%, Tokyo Electron gained 3.64%, and Kioxia advanced 6.34%; the Nikkei 225 rose 3.30%. The common thread was follow-through from the U.S. semiconductor rally, with memory and equipment leading.
Today’s U.S. calendar is concentrated in services, labor, and energy: ADP Employment Change at 7:15am ET, forecast 68K versus 98K prior; S&P Global Services PMI at 8:45am ET, forecast 53.6 versus 51.2 prior; ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI at 9:00am ET, forecast 54.5 versus 54.0 prior; EIA crude inventories at 9:30am ET, prior -7.167M barrels; and Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaking at 3:05pm ET. Friday’s larger macro risk is payrolls: forecast 70K versus 57K prior, with the unemployment-rate forecast and prior both 4.2%.
NEWS DRIVING THE TAPE
AMD reported Q2 revenue of $11.54 billion versus the $11.28 billion estimate, adjusted EPS of $1.66 versus $1.62 expected, and Data Center revenue of $6.72 billion, up 107% year over year. Q3 revenue guidance was $13.00 billion plus or minus $0.30 billion versus the $12.52 billion LSEG estimate; the stock closed at $518.58, up 7.00%, then fell 8.8% in extended trading as the bar for AI growth remained high.
The Asia bid also reflected memory and AI-infrastructure news: SK hynix and SanDisk released a High Bandwidth Flash standard, while Kioxia and SanDisk announced QLC 3D NAND with bit density up to 60% higher than their eighth-generation products. The tape is therefore rewarding AI compute, memory, and equipment exposure, while still penalizing guidance that does not clear the highest expectations.
The earnings schedule showed ENTG reported on August 04. VIAV’s schedule is inconsistent: it lists a 4:30pm ET event on August 05, while the accompanying preview says August 06; verify the company calendar before posting any timing claim.
ANALYST WATCH
The latest rating roundup reviewed for AMD had Susquehanna raising its price target from $450 to $500 and Mizuho raising its target from $615 to $625; Benchmark maintained Buy with a $685 target, while Morgan Stanley maintained Hold with a $410 target. The analytical read across the four pillars is constructive on AI compute, memory, and equipment demand, but AMD’s after-hours reversal shows that a beat is not enough when expectations are elevated. No same-day verified rating change was identified in the morning scan for ASML, LRCX, AMAT, NVDA, INTC, TSM, or the other tracked pillars.
DISCLAIMER
For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. We do not recommend nor do we advise any buy/sell tickers.Ever.

It really depends on the index and sector. XRT (the retailers ETF) running hard looks very different than SMH or SOXX.

Covered call on SMH near max profit. 8/14 expiration, 590 strike. SMH currently 575. Debating a roll up and out or playing chicken looking for a down day. Not sure I’ve run one down to 8 DTE before. Can roll out 2 weeks and up to 615 for small credit.

How do you invest in the hottest sector of the hottest stock market this century and still lose money? Grab an index fund ETF, even VGT, QQQM or SMH. AI has made my early retirement possible, and I didn’t even have to pick the right companies. Just bought the market and sectors.

I did add more, slowly, but recently got burned by CLS too many times, kinda losing faith in it and reminding myself to sell when it comes back up
I may as well play SMH/SOXX/SOXL instead, or if I want to YOLO - Memory names 2X, ha ha

$NVDA. Can crash 10-20% at earnings, even earnings flat and low outlook
5 Trillion, 20% crash means 1 Trillion wipes, imagine margin call 3-4 Trillion
See all semi in $SMH

Not for all of them. SMH isn't 10+ years old.

WIth you being young my thoughts are (not investment advice blah blah blah)...
1. Time is your biggest ally. The market will take multiple hits inevitably. Treat the ETFs as clearance sales. You have a time horizon where it will recover and that's where the money is made. (As long as you have good long term investments). Your BIGGEST advantage over other investors is your age.
2. With your age...stay away from bonds unless you're using them as an emergency fund/savings. $VBIL or $SGOV both will have better yields than a regular bank savings account. Some people like High Yield Savings, those are fine too. $SGOV/$VBIL you can put "DRIP" on though, and your dividends will buy more of the funds. The advice people give on having 6 months of emergency savings is great for $VBIL/$SGOV/High yield savings.
3. You can also put DRIP (dividend reinvestment) on with all your funds in your portfolio.
4. Watch out for expense ratios. Vanguard is incredible with how low they are. If any are .25ish or more they're too high for the most part. $SMH is .35. I have shares of $SMH just because I don't want to go through and individually select all the semiconductors.
5. If the market crashes. As long as you have sound investments. Do not sell. That's where people lose money from being emotionally invested. You should be happy to see $VTI or $VOO etc. go down even 50% because it means you can buy more at a discount and average down. A lot of people lose money in crashes when they sell NOT when the market crashes. A lot of portfolios recovered and people made profit eventually after historical crashes. It's the best time to buy.
6. Your portfolio is tech heavy which is fine for your age and time horizon. If tech cycle shifted, it could even be back in the tech cycle (and most likely will) eventually and you're still fine. If you wanted to balance it a little more keep focusing on $VOO, but it's also largely tech at the moment.
7. Calls and puts are a good way to make a lot of money OR lose a lot of money. Please don't do these unless you're really a pro. I don't touch them personally.
8. Don't over-trade it's a good way to lose money. A lot of great investers are lazy. They never look at their portfolio and let the funds do their thing.
9. If you wanted small cap as well you could replace $VOO with $VTI for more diversity. $VOO is S&P500/large capped focused. I wouldn't recommend holding both, just one or the other. VTI already contains VOO.
10. Watch out for capital gains tax when selling. If you're investing long term this shouldn't be a problem.
11. I see some advice on here about buying leveraged funds. Do not do this without being more experienced, and even then be careful with it.
12. $VGT is great for tech sector. $VEA for international exposure. Most of your portfolio should be one of $VTI or $VOO or $VT depending on who you ask. It's mostly preference at this point. If you're doing $VT, ignore $VEA.

I would consider SPY/VOO/VTI and QQQ/QQQM to be the conservative approach at weights of 70/30 to 80/20.
More aggressive options would be SPMO SCHG VGT and SMH or SOXX. I personally would supplment SP500 and NAS100 with some mix of these, but that would not be "full aggressive mode" if that's what you seek.

vGT or SMH or the semi etf soxx

Most aggressive un leveraged? Probably SMH. Or MAGS - a MAG 7 ETF. That’s super concentrated.
if you want aggressive though I would suggest leverage instead of semiconductor/tech concentration. NTSD is only 1.5x and quarterly reset, 90% SPY and 60% EFA. That’s reasonable, and if the bull market continues, it will handsomely outperform VT. It’s a great ETF for long term holding and young investors, IMO. Not very popular though. It has real diversification compares to MAGS or SMH, which are only 7-25 stocks.

The risk is indeed higher, but the returns have been explosive. We all know VGT is a returns machine, and SMH has returned more than double VGT’s returns in the past five years.

Surprised SMH is so high. I would have thought TJ risk would be much higher, bringing final number lower, but it’s interesting that the gains outweigh the risks so much.

My 5-figure QQQ investment in 2016 is a healthy mid-six figure value today. I originally allocated 70% of my portfolio in 2016 to QQQ but then in 2022 decided to go 100%. Today, my portfolio is 80% QQQ, 10% SMH, and 10% VOO. Going forward, I’m only making contributions each month to VOO in order to diversify given my age (34).

You already have a lot of diversification between VTI and VXUS. If it were my $700, I wouldn't leave it in as cash, I'd put it into VTI VXUS and keep the SMH, SPMO, QQQM as small satellites.

**Ranking by 10-year Sharpe ratio:**
**SMH** (2.45)
**VOO** (1.38)
**VGT** (1.33)
**QQQ** (1.11)

SMH had the cleanest breakout lol idk what you’re saying