Data as of Sep 4, 2026. Both funds on the fields they both publish, from the same sources.
APLY vs QQQ
YieldMax(R) AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust.
What they hold in common
By the books each fund has filed, APLY and QQQ hold 0% of their money in the same securities at the same weight.
| Only in APLY | Only in QQQ |
|---|---|
| TREASURY BILL 27.23% | NVIDIA Corp. 8.16% |
| TREASURY BILL 19.97% | Apple Inc. 7.29% |
| TREASURY BILL 19.80% | Microsoft Corp. 5.32% |
| TREASURY BILL 19.47% | Micron Technology, Inc. 4.80% |
| TREASURY BILL 13.52% | Amazon.com, Inc. 4.62% |
| Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 3.70% | |
| Alphabet Inc. 3.52% | |
| Tesla, Inc. 3.46% |
Weight overlap is an ETFIQ calculation: for every security both funds hold, the smaller of the two weights, summed. Above 50%, holding both is close to holding one of them twice. Holdings as filed for Apr 30, 2026 and May 31, 2026.
| APLY YieldMax(R) AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF | QQQ Invesco QQQ Trust | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | Income desk | Core fund |
| Issuer | YieldMax | Invesco |
| What it is | synthetic covered call, vs AAPL | Nasdaq-100, book from QQQM |
| Total return, 1 year | +18.6% | +25.6% |
| S&P 500 over the same days | +33.9% | +20.0% |
| Gap to the S&P 500 | −15.3 pts | +5.6 pts |
| Cash paid, 1 year | 30.9% | not an income fund |
| Expense ratio | 1.04% | 0.18% |
| Holdings | n/a | 101 |
APLY in plain words
Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, APLY paid 30.9% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price fell 14.8%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +18.6%. Apple (AAPL) returned +33.9% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 15.3 pts. At its price on Sep 4, 2026 the latest distribution annualises to 26.2%, paid weekly. YieldMax estimates that 92% of the distribution paid Sep 4, 2026 was a return of capital (19a-1 notice, estimated, a tax characterisation rather than a measure of erosion).
QQQ in plain words
QQQ is a index equity fund tracking Nasdaq-100, book from QQQM. Over the year to Sep 4, 2026 it returned +25.6% with distributions reinvested, against +20.0% for the S&P 500 and +25.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.18% a year. By its holdings filed for May 31, 2026, 97% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 101 positions, with the top ten at 47.5%. It sat 3.5% below its high of Jun 2, 2026 on Sep 4, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, APLY or QQQ?
- In the year to Sep 4, 2026, with distributions reinvested, APLY returned +18.6% and QQQ returned +25.6%, so QQQ returned more. One year is one year; the longer windows are in the table.
- Which is cheaper, APLY or QQQ?
- APLY charges 1.04% a year and QQQ charges 0.18%, so QQQ is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
- Are APLY and QQQ the same kind of fund?
- No. APLY is an option-income ETF and QQQ is an index ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.
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Where these figures came from
ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement.
Cite this page. ETFIQ, APLY against QQQ, data as of Sep 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/APLY-QQQ.html Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.
A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources