Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SPYI vs SPYM: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SPYI returned +13.6% to SPYM's +13.7%, and SPYM charges 0.02% to SPYI's 0.68%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $12.7bn for NEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF and $185.0bn for State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF.
Pair scorecard
SPYM costs 0.66 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 0.1 points; SPYM is 14.6 times larger.
| Measure | SPYI | SPYM |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +13.6% | +13.7% |
| Price change, 1 year | rose 0.8% | rose 12.5% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 11.4% | |
| Return of capital, issuer estimate | 99% of the Oct 23, 2026 payment | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Benchmark: S&P 500, measured through SPY | S&P 500 Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.68% | 0.02% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $12.7bn | $185.0bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 98% | |
| 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
Sep 9, 2022 to Oct 23, 2026 · 215 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SPYI against SPY, Sep 9, 2022 to Oct 23, 2026; SPYM against IVV, Nov 25, 2005 to Oct 23, 2026.
SPYM returned more: +98.3% to +74.4%. SPYI swung less: 11.8% to 14.8%. SPYI fell less at its worst: −14.8% to −16.8%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SPYI | SPYM | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +74.4% | +98.3% | SPYM | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +14.4% | +18.0% | SPYM | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +5.4% | +87.1% | SPYM | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 11.8% | 14.8% | SPYI | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 8.1% | 9.8% | SPYI | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −14.8% | −16.8% | SPYI | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 68.0% | 94.1% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 80.6% | 96.9% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.78 | 0.96 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.96 | 0.95 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.81 | 0.89 | SPYM (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.19 | 1.34 | SPYM | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.123 | 0.106 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.97 | 1.07 | SPYM (slight) | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SPY | IVV | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.6% a year | +0.4% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.53 | 0.53 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −2.8% to +1.6% | −1.2% to +2.0% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.87 | 0.00 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 4.0% | 3.8% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 215 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
What they share
By the books each fund has filed, SPYI and SPYM hold 98% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Oct 27, 2026 and Oct 28, 2026.
half
98% in common
Only in one fund ↓
Side by side
SPYI and SPYM 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.
SPYI and SPYM do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SPYI is measured against S&P 500 through SPY and SPYM follows S&P 500 Index.
- Cost. SPYI charges 0.68% of assets a year and SPYM 0.02%, a gap of 0.66 points.
- Size. SPYI has $12.7bn in net assets and SPYM $185.0bn (net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026); SPYM is 14.6 times larger.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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SPYI
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SPYI paid 11.9% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price rose 0.8%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +13.6%. S&P 500 (SPY) returned +13.6% over the same days, so a holder was about even. At its price on Oct 28, 2026 the latest distribution annualizes to 11.4%, paid monthly. NEOS estimates that 99% of the distribution paid Oct 23, 2026 was a return of capital (its 19a-1 notice). That is a tax label, not a measure of erosion.
SPYM
SPYM tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.7% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.02% 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 506 positions, with the top ten at 38.1%.
Questions people ask
- Are SPYI and SPYM in the same category?
- SPYI is an option-income ETF and SPYM 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, SPYI or SPYM?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPYI returned +13.6% and SPYM +13.7%.
- Which is cheaper, SPYI or SPYM?
- SPYM is cheaper, by 0.66 percentage points a year. That is about $66 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, SPYI against SPYM, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spyi-vs-spym
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