Which paid more, APLY or QQQI?

Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, APLY paid 30.9% of its starting price in cash and QQQI paid 14.4%, so APLY paid more. Cash paid is not the same as money made: the price change matters too.

Which returned more once distributions are counted, APLY or QQQI?

With every distribution reinvested, APLY returned +18.6% and QQQI returned +18.7% over the year to Sep 4, 2026, so QQQI returned more.

Which is cheaper, APLY or QQQI?

APLY charges 1.04% a year and QQQI charges 0.68%, so QQQI is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Data as of Sep 4, 2026. Every figure is the income desk's own, on published data.

APLY vs QQQI

Name: ETFIQ comparison of APLY and QQQI
Creator: ETFIQ

YieldMax(R) AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF and NEOS Nasdaq-100(R) High Income ETF, side by side on the income desk.

Open the live comparison on ETFIQ

APLY and QQQI on the income desk fields, as of Sep 4, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	APLY YieldMax(R) AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF	QQQI NEOS Nasdaq-100(R) High Income ETF
Issuer	YieldMax	NEOS
Strategy	synthetic covered call	covered call
Benchmark	Apple (AAPL)	Nasdaq-100 (QQQ)
Pays	weekly	monthly
Payout rate, annualised	26.2%	14.3%
Expense ratio	1.04%	0.68%
Cash paid, 1 year	30.9%	14.4%
Price change, 1 year	−14.8%	+3.1%
Total return, 1 year	+18.6%	+18.7%
Benchmark return, 1 year	+33.9%	+25.6%
Ahead or behind	−15.3 pts	−6.9 pts
Return of capital, latest estimate	92%	98%
Age	1235 days	948 days

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).

QQQI in plain words

Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, QQQI paid 14.4% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price rose 3.1%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +18.7%. Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) returned +25.6% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 6.9 pts. At its price on Sep 4, 2026 the latest distribution annualises to 14.3%, paid monthly. NEOS estimates that 98% of the distribution paid Jun 18, 2026 was a return of capital (19a-1 notice, estimated, a tax characterisation rather than a measure of erosion).

Questions people ask

Which paid more, APLY or QQQI?: Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, APLY paid 30.9% of its starting price in cash and QQQI paid 14.4%, so APLY paid more. Cash paid is not the same as money made: the price change matters too.
Which returned more once distributions are counted, APLY or QQQI?: With every distribution reinvested, APLY returned +18.6% and QQQI returned +18.7% over the year to Sep 4, 2026, so QQQI returned more.
Which is cheaper, APLY or QQQI?: APLY charges 1.04% a year and QQQI charges 0.68%, so QQQI is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Other comparisons

Cite this page. ETFIQ, APLY against QQQI, data as of Sep 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/income/APLY-QQQI.html Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.

ETFIQ is an independent publisher of exchange-traded fund data. It is not a fund issuer, broker-dealer or investment adviser, and it makes no recommendations; every figure here is stated arithmetic on published data. Standards and sources