If you think buying a stock on the first day it trades is risky, check out leveraged ETFs: There are about a dozen tied to SpaceX that are teed up to launch in the wake of the company's expected stock market debut tomorrow.

Why it matters: It's an extreme example of the risk-maxxing mindset that's swept through the formerly staid world of exchange-traded funds — and through the investing culture writ large with the rise of prediction markets and other kinds of gambling.

By the numbers: There are 25 SpaceX ETFs that have registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, per data from Bloomberg Intelligence.

• Of those, 12 are either specifically "2x long" or "2x short" — inverse ETFs. There are even two filings for 3x funds, though it's likely the SEC won't approve them, says James Seyffart, a senior ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
• It's an unusually large number and a reflection of the SpaceX fever in the market.

The big picture: Traders "love" these levered ETFs, Seyffart says. But they are costly and not meant as buy-and-hold investments.

• "We call them power tools because you can really injure yourself if you don't understand how these things work."

Catch up quick: ETFs started out decades ago as a simple and ultra-low-cost way for investors to buy funds that track the big stock indexes. The biggest one, Vanguard's VOO, simply tracks the S&P 500.

• ETFs are now so popular that they outnumber public companies, or, as Apollo Global Management's Torsten Slok recently put it, "there are now more ways to trade the market than there are stocks in the market."

The intrigue: In recent years, and especially after the SEC formalized some rules in 2022, ETFs have become more exotic — weird even. You can buy one that purports to invest in stocks that would benefit if the government confirms that aliens exist, as WSJ's Jason Zweig recently noted.

Zoom in: Around 27% of the ETFs launched over the past year were leveraged, and three-quarters of them single stock, according to a June report from JPMorgan.

• They've seen explosive growth — assets under management in levered ETFs totaled more than $190 billion, as of mid-May, per the bank.

How it works: A single-stock leveraged ETF doubles or even triples a stock's performance. So if you invest $1,000 on a SpaceX 2x long ETF and the stock jumps 10% on day one, you're up 20% to $1,200.

• The catch is, it rebalances every day: If on day two, the stock falls 10% — you'd lose $240 (or 20% of $1,200).
• Suddenly, you have $960, a 4% loss. If you'd just bought normie stock, you'd be basically flat for the two days.

Friction point: Because of that daily rebalancing, these things are for day traders.

Follow the money: Leveraged ETFs have higher fees than the index ETFs and hidden costs that eat into returns, as research from Hendrik Bessembinder, a finance professor at Arizona State University, has found.

• Basically, the ETFs don't typically buy any stock. Instead, they buy what's called a swap from a bank, which then hedges its own risks often by buying shares or futures.
• The bank charges for that, and that gets passed along to the investor.
• The upshot is, returns don't always pencil out the way you'd think.

Zoom out: None of that seems to bother the traders piling in. For many, it's all about what Bessembinder calls "keeping the dream alive."

• "We all like to dream about the possibility of being rich."

The colossal sums of money being spent on building out AI data centers can still put investors on edge. Oracle's results yesterday are the latest example.

Why it matters: Investors are increasingly antsy about seeing at least some indication that the hundreds of billions of dollars now being spent on data centers will eventually turn into profitable investments. Oracle's results late yesterday didn't offer them much. The stock dropped sharply after hours.

• In the hyperscaler's fourth fiscal quarter, which ended May 31, the company spent a higher-than-expected $16.5 billion on capital expenditures, eating deeply into the company's — admittedly — fast-growing revenues.

The fine print: Free cash flow — the cash the company generates from its core business, after backing out the costs of equipment, real estate and other investments — was a negative $1.87 billion during the quarter, bringing the sum of the cash it has burned over the last year to roughly $23.7 billion.

Yes, but: The company's numbers weren't a disaster.

• It beat Wall Street analyst expectations for sales and earnings per share.

The bottom line: Still, when your business burns through that much money, you often have to raise more.

• Oracle raised $43 billion in debt and equity raises during the fiscal year that finished in May.
• And it said it would likely raise another $40-odd billion over the next year, inclusive of a previously announced plan to sell about $20 billion more in equity.
• Investors didn't seem to like the sound of that. The stock tumbled in after-hours trading.

Flash drive prices have exploded, ending a decades-long deflation in the ubiquitous devices often referred to as thumb drives.

Why it matters: The spike shows how AI investment continues to seep into some of the more mundane corners of the economy.

Driving the news: Prices for "computer software and accessories" jumped a record 14.5% in May compared with the previous year, according to data released in yesterday's Consumer Price Index report.

• It was the highest since a quarter-century-long deflationary trend for this category suddenly came to an end last November.

What they're saying: "These price rises are in large part a byproduct of the data center investment boom," economists at the Federal Reserve wrote in an analysis of the spike published late last month.

• "The massive data storage requirements for AI training are largely met by solid state drives (SSDs), which contain Flash memory."

Our thought bubble: This is part of the reason memory stocks like Sandisk, Micron, Seagate Technology and Western Digital have been some of the best-performing shares in the market over the last year. Their prices and profits are soaring.

Yes, but: Few Americans are going to cite the cost of flash drives for breaking their budget, at least compared with gasoline and groceries.

The bottom line: The sudden leap in the price of something that had previously only seemed to get cheaper underscores the big changes consumers are facing in the AI era economy.