Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
APLY vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, APLY returned +18.2% to SPY's +13.6%, and SPY charges 0.09% to APLY's 1.04%.
askIQ about this page
askIQ about APLY and SPY
Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $112m for YieldMax AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF and $814.8bn for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.95 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 4.6 points; SPY is far larger, $814.8bn against $112m.
| Measure | APLY | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +18.2% | +13.6% |
| Price change, 1 year | fell 14.2% | rose 12.4% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 20.9% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Benchmark: Apple (AAPL) | S&P 500 Index |
| Against its benchmark, same days | behind by 10.1 pts | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 1.04% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $112m | $814.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 0% | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | |
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; SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
SPY returned more: +90.8% to +61.3%. SPY swung less: 13.9% to 21.0%. SPY fell less at its worst: −16.9% to −24.1%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | APLY | SPY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +61.3% | +90.8% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +14.6% | +20.3% | SPY | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | −41.2% | +82.7% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 21.0% | 13.9% | SPY | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 15.5% | 8.9% | SPY | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −24.1% | −16.9% | SPY | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 66.1% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 91.8% | 100.0% | 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 | 1.07 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.73 | 1.66 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.145 | 0.133 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.61 | 1.20 | SPY | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | AAPL | VOO | 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 | −0.51 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −9.7% to +1.5% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −1.09 | −0.15 | 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 SPY 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 SPY 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 SPY do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. APLY is measured against Apple (AAPL) and SPY follows S&P 500 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 SPY +13.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 4.6 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
The two-page PDF for this pair is coming. Save the comparison to follow its changes. Free. It needs an email sign-in, once.
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.
SPY
SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.6% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 38.1%.
Questions people ask
- Are APLY and SPY in the same category?
- APLY is an option-income ETF and SPY 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 SPY?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, APLY returned +18.2% and SPY +13.6%.
- Which is cheaper, APLY or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.95 percentage points a year. That is about $95 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
How this is computed
Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.
Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown
ETFIQ, APLY against SPY, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/aply-vs-spy
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). APLY against SPY. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/aply-vs-spy
[APLY against SPY (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/aply-vs-spy)
Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.