I respect your opinion on all of this, but what is the difference in buying $100k worth of a security that has a 5% average daily volatility on no leverage and buying $100k of security that has 0.5% volatility at 10x leverage? The way I see it, you are putting ~$5k 1 Sigma at risk either way (obviously tail risk need to be accounted for too). I'd rather use the remaining $90k in my account to diversify in other leveraged securities, instead of having money that isn't getting any exposure (I'm talking intra-day trading, not investing). Obviously with leverage you have the risk of losing more than the $10k you put up, but that is what hedges, stops, and diversification are for.