Shares of the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) are having a good week, coinciding with a surge in retail investor sentiment on Reddit and X. The fund now carries a social sentiment score of 90, one of the highest readings tracked across all ETFs and stocks. This optimism centers on aggressive options positioning, particularly in the 3x leveraged ProShares UltraPro QQQ (NASDAQ:TQQQ), where traders are betting on near-term upside.

A Viral Win Fuels the Frenzy

Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets has become ground zero for QQQ enthusiasm, driven by a single viral post that racked up over 4,000 upvotes in 48 hours. The post details a trader turning $800 into $49,000 in just over an hour using zero-day-to-expiration (0DTE) call options on QQQ. “Was annoyed I missed the boat on the Greenland rally but seemed to get offered the second chance so swung on the 0dtes,” the trader wrote. “100 x QQQ $615 purchased for $0.08 Sold for $5.03 just over an hour later. CALLS GOD.”

$800 > $49k in one hour.

by u/Cold-Cash-1842 in wallstreetbets

The post sustained a sentiment score of 90 across 11 consecutive data snapshots from Wednesday evening through Friday morning. Options activity on TQQQ has been extraordinary, with daily volumes ranging from 241,000 to 392,000 contracts over the past week, and call options dominating at ratios as high as 66%.

The bullish case for QQQ rests on three pillars:

Frankly, the bulls may have a point here. 

• QQQ delivered 17% returns over the past year and 92% over five years, outpacing the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY), which returned 13% and 80% respectively.
• The fund’s 50.9% allocation to Information Technology and heavy concentration in AI infrastructure (NVIDIA and other AI infrastructure companies) positions it to capture growth in the dominant secular trend.
• With a net expense ratio of 0.18% and $407 billion in assets under management, QQQ offers liquidity and cost efficiency that active managers struggle to match.

Performance, Concentration, and What’s Next

QQQ’s top three holdings (NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) at 8.84%, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at 7.55%, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) at 6.85%) represent 23% of the portfolio, creating meaningful concentration risk. Apple has declined 8.6% year-to-date, while NVIDIA is up just 0.6%.

The key question is whether leveraged options positioning can sustain upward momentum or if the concentration in 0DTE trades signals frothy speculation. Either way, retail traders are betting big that QQQ remains the perfect vehicle for growth exposure right now.