Buoyed by my early success...

I have now mastered the art of buying high and selling low!

I have also noted several observations:

• The leveraged funds lose value over time due to high expense ratios and the simple math that 10% and 10% up doesn't mean you're in the same position. These need to be day-traded, not held - and you need a stomach for big market moves.
• Futures tend to overreact; while they may predict the outcome for the day, buying pre-market or post-market exacerbates the sentiment. I think this can be taken advantage of by being "anti-sentiment".
• Don't count your chickens before they've hatched. If you feel that giddy about your position, take the profit now.

I’ve also learned that my experiment with day-trading has reduced my average amount of sleep from 8 to 5 hours a night. It has very quickly become an obsession with very little (if any) personal gain. While there is an unrealized (!) potential for monetary gain, a different obsession would be a better investment of my time. Nontheless, I am not abandoning this obsession just yet…