The growing popularity of exchange-traded funds is expanding beyond the U.S. stock market’s official hours, with investors in pre-market and after-hours sessions using the securities as a way to play broader-sector trends.

The easy money already has been made. Anyone who is only now considering an investment back into the stock market is late to the game. Smart money investors wait for Johnny-come-lately's to enter the market again, and then they sell into those weak hands.

Minyan Christian writes:"I’ve been having the problem of getting stopped out in the first hour of almost everyday before the market reverses my way. It seems whenever I try to set a lower stop I get punished for doing that too. I’ve considered completely removing my stops until 10:30 Do you view this as a viable approach? For example I bought on Monday the Proshares Ultra Long Financials (UYG) shortly before the close at 5.52. My stop was first at 5.48 on Tuesday morning. I raised it to 5.59 (which was $0.02 below the intraday low) when the market ...

Unfortunately, the growing popularity of leveraged ETFs is coming at a painful price.

Your primary objective should always be to exploit your competitive advantages. Because we are individual investors, we have the ability to control our risk much better than institutions ever could.