Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SEPI vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SEPI returned +18.0% to SPY's +13.6%, and SPY charges 0.09% to SEPI's 0.54%.
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Net assets: $152m on Jun 30, 2026 for Shelton Equity Premium Income ETF, and $814.8bn on Oct 27, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.45 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 4.4 points.
| Measure | SEPI | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +18.0% | +13.6% |
| Price change, 1 year | rose 8.4% | rose 12.4% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 8.4% | |
| Return of capital, issuer estimate | 99% of the Sep 30, 2026 payment | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Benchmark: S&P 500, measured through SPY | S&P 500 Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.54% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, SEPI as of Jun 30, 2026 and SPY as of Oct 27, 2026 | $152m | $814.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 39% | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | |
Holdings in common uses holdings dated Jun 30, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026. Method
Risk and return
Sep 19, 2025 to Oct 23, 2026 · 57 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SEPI against SPY, Sep 19, 2025 to Oct 23, 2026; SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
SEPI returned more: +20.4% to +15.7%. SEPI swung less: 10.2% to 12.0%. SEPI fell less at its worst: −6.6% to −8.4%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SEPI | SPY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +20.4% | +15.7% | SEPI | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +18.5% | +14.3% | SEPI | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +10.6% | +14.5% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 10.2% | 12.0% | SEPI | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 5.7% | 7.1% | SEPI | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −6.6% | −8.4% | SEPI | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 83.6% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 75.2% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.80 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.88 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 1.34 | 0.85 | SEPI | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 2.42 | 1.43 | SEPI | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.171 | 0.133 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 2.79 | 1.70 | SEPI | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SPY | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +5.5% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 1.63 | −0.51 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −1.3% to +12.2% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.82 | −0.15 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 4.2% | 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, 57 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
What they share
By the books each fund has filed, SEPI and SPY hold 39% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Jun 30, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026.
half
39% in common
Only in one fund ↓
Side by side
SEPI 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.
No client brief for this pair: the two funds' holdings are dated 119 days apart.
SEPI
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SEPI paid 8.7% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price rose 8.4%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +18.0%. S&P 500 (SPY) returned +13.6% over the same days, so a holder was ahead by 4.4 pts. At its price on Oct 28, 2026 the latest distribution annualizes to 8.4%, paid monthly. Shelton estimates that 99% of the distribution paid Sep 30, 2026 was a return of capital (its 19a-1 notice). That is a tax label, not a measure of erosion.
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 SEPI and SPY in the same category?
- SEPI 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, SEPI or SPY?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SEPI returned +18.0% and SPY +13.6%.
- Which is cheaper, SEPI or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.45 percentage points a year. That is about $45 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.
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ETFIQ, SEPI against SPY, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/sepi-vs-spy
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). SEPI against SPY. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/sepi-vs-spy
[SEPI against SPY (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/sepi-vs-spy)
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