Best way to leverage the S&P 500?

Which way would you recommend and why?

 

in options, you should make a choice between short premium and long premium. They provide two different kind of leverages.

 

You missed options on futures (my favorite leveraged vehicle for ES/SPX/SPY).

 

Well, the assumption was long, but point taken.

 

I was considering the leveraged ETFs since they don't have the following two problems:

1) Can't blow up margin account, since leverage is already 'in' the instrument.

2) Don't expire like options do. And no strike price needs to be chosen in order to gain leverage.

What are the downsides to ETFs like SSO and BGU? It seems that once BGU becomes popular enough, liquidity won't be a big issue at least for swing trading.

 

The amount of leverage really isn't the issue. As long as it's a bit more volatile than the S&P 500 (this thing is really a dinosaur).