Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
APLY vs QQQ: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, APLY returned +18.2% to QQQ's +15.2%, and QQQ charges 0.18% to APLY's 1.04%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $112m for YieldMax AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF and $483.0bn for Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1.
Pair scorecard
QQQ costs 0.86 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 3.0 points; QQQ is far larger, $483.0bn against $112m.
| Measure | APLY | QQQ |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +18.2% | +15.2% |
| Price change, 1 year | fell 14.2% | rose 14.6% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 20.9% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 4.5%, high on Oct 6, 2026 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Benchmark: Apple (AAPL) | Nasdaq-100 Index |
| Against its benchmark, same days | behind by 10.1 pts | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 1.04% | 0.18% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $112m | $483.0bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 0% | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 96% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 46.7% | |
Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Oct 28, 2026. Method
Risk and return
Apr 28, 2023 to Oct 23, 2026 · 182 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: APLY against AAPL, Apr 28, 2023 to Oct 23, 2026; QQQ against QQQM, Oct 23, 2020 to Oct 23, 2026.
QQQ returned more: +122.7% to +61.3%. QQQ swung slightly less: 19.1% to 21.0%. QQQ fell less at its worst: −21.3% to −24.1%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | APLY | QQQ | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +61.3% | +122.7% | QQQ | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +14.6% | +25.7% | QQQ | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | −41.2% | +118.4% | QQQ | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 21.0% | 19.1% | QQQ (slight) | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 15.5% | 12.2% | QQQ | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −24.1% | −21.3% | QQQ | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 66.1% | 100.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 91.8% | 100.2% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.78 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.94 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.54 | 1.05 | QQQ | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.73 | 1.65 | QQQ | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.145 | 0.145 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.61 | 1.20 | QQQ | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | AAPL | QQQM | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −4.1% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −1.45 | −0.58 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −9.7% to +1.5% | −0.4% to +0.2% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −1.09 | −0.10 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 7.8% | 0.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 182 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
What they share
By the books each fund has filed, APLY and QQQ hold 0% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Oct 28, 2026.
half
0% in common
Only in one fund ↓
Side by side
APLY and QQQ on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ. Cash paid: distributions over the window, as a share of the starting price.
APLY and QQQ do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. APLY is measured against Apple (AAPL) and QQQ follows Nasdaq-100 Index.
- Holdings in common. 0% of the weight is in the same securities (holdings dated Oct 28, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026).
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 APLY returned +18.2% and QQQ +15.2% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 3.0 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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APLY
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, APLY paid 28.6% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price fell 14.2%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +18.2%. Apple (AAPL) returned +28.3% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 10.1 pts. At its price on Oct 28, 2026 the latest distribution annualizes to 20.9%, paid weekly.
QQQ
QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +15.2% with distributions reinvested, against +15.2% for its benchmark, the Nasdaq-100 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.18% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 96% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 103 positions, with the top ten at 46.7%. It sat 4.5% below its high of Oct 6, 2026 on Oct 28, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Are APLY and QQQ in the same category?
- APLY is an option-income ETF and QQQ is a stock ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, APLY or QQQ?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, APLY returned +18.2% and QQQ +15.2%.
- Which is cheaper, APLY or QQQ?
- QQQ is cheaper, by 0.86 percentage points a year. That is about $86 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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How this is computed
Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.
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ETFIQ, APLY against QQQ, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/aply-vs-qqq
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). APLY against QQQ. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/aply-vs-qqq
[APLY against QQQ (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/aply-vs-qqq)
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