Data as of . Every figure is the income desk's own, on published data.
ISPY vs YMAX
ProShares S&P 500 High Income ETF and YieldMax(R) Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs, side by side on the income desk.
Open the live comparison on ETFIQ| ISPY ProShares S&P 500 High Income ETF | YMAX YieldMax(R) Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs | |
|---|---|---|
| Issuer | ProShares | YieldMax |
| Strategy | covered call | synthetic covered call |
| Benchmark | S&P 500 (SPY) | S&P 500 (SPY), used as a default proxy |
| Pays | monthly | weekly |
| Payout rate, annualised | 5.8% | 40.6% |
| Expense ratio | not published | 1.33% |
| Cash paid, 1 year | 5.7% | 40.0% |
| Price change, 1 year | +10.8% | −38.7% |
| Total return, 1 year | +16.9% | +3.5% |
| Benchmark return, 1 year | +20.0% | +20.0% |
| Ahead or behind | −3.1 pts | −16.5 pts |
| Return of capital, latest estimate | not published | 43% |
| Age | 989 days | 961 days |
ISPY in plain words
Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, ISPY paid 5.7% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price rose 10.8%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +16.9%. S&P 500 (SPY) returned +20.0% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 3.1 pts. At its price on Sep 4, 2026 the latest distribution annualises to 5.8%, paid monthly.
YMAX in plain words
Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, YMAX paid 40.0% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price fell 38.7%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +3.5%. S&P 500 (SPY), used as a default proxy returned +20.0% over the same days, so a holder was behind by 16.5 pts. At its price on Sep 4, 2026 the latest distribution annualises to 40.6%, paid weekly. YieldMax estimates that 43% of the distribution paid Sep 3, 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, ISPY or YMAX?
- Over the year to Sep 4, 2026, ISPY paid 5.7% of its starting price in cash and YMAX paid 40.0%, so YMAX paid more. Cash paid is not the same as money made: the price change matters too.
- Which returned more once distributions are counted, ISPY or YMAX?
- With every distribution reinvested, ISPY returned +16.9% and YMAX returned +3.5% over the year to Sep 4, 2026, so ISPY returned more.
Other comparisons
Cite this page. ETFIQ, ISPY against YMAX, data as of Sep 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/income/ISPY-YMAX.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