APLY YieldMax(R) AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF
Synthetic covered call on AAPL, paying weekly
Over the year to Sep 11, 2026, APLY paid 32.4% in cash and still finished 18.6 points behind AAPL.
Key facts
ETFIQ Return Stability Score
45.939th of 61
APLY paid 32.4% in cash. Its price fell 9.6%, so 30% of what you were paid came back out of your own capital.
Was the payout funded by returns, or by your own capital?
9% of the 61 sit at or below APLY on this measure.
82.8% of the 61 sit at or below APLY on this measure.
Weighted evenly, those two positions are what the score combines, across the 61 income ETFs writing on a single company. Neither spread above is the score: a fund can sit further right on one and score lower. A position in this set, not a rating: it moves when the set moves, and it is not a figure to average against another desk's.
| What it measures | This fund | Its percentile | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| against its benchmark | −18.6 pts | 9 | 50% |
| what happened to the principal | −9.6% | 82.8 | 50% |
What a holder got
Over the year to Sep 11, 2026, APLY returned +26.4% with distributions reinvested and Apple (AAPL) returned +45.0%, so a holder came out behind it by 18.6 points. The lighter segment is the 32.4% that arrived as cash rather than as price.
Period by period
| Window | Cash paid | Price | Total return | AAPL | Ahead or behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 8.3% | −0.4% | +8.2% | +14.2% | −6.1 pts |
| 6 months | 18.2% | +2.2% | +21.6% | +33.1% | −11.4 pts |
| 1 year | 32.4% | −9.6% | +26.4% | +45.0% | −18.6 pts |
| 3 years | 69.8% | −37.9% | +52.2% | +91.0% | −38.8 pts |
| Since launch | 74.3% | −41.3% | +55.8% | +102.8% | −47.0 pts |
When APLY pays
APLY pays weekly. The last distribution was $0.0452 a share, which went ex on Sep 10, 2026, with payment about 1 day later. The issuer has set the next ex-date at Sep 16, 2026, payable Sep 17, 2026, but has not declared the amount.
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 16, 2026 | Sep 17, 2026 | $0.0452 | Date set by the issuer, amount not yet declared |
| Sep 23, 2026 | Sep 24, 2026 | $0.0452 | Date set by the issuer, amount not yet declared |
| Sep 30, 2026 | Oct 1, 2026 | $0.0452 | Date set by the issuer, amount not yet declared |
| Oct 7, 2026 | Oct 8, 2026 | $0.0452 | Date set by the issuer, amount not yet declared |
| Oct 14, 2026 | Oct 15, 2026 | $0.0452 | Date set by the issuer, amount not yet declared |
| Oct 21, 2026 | Oct 22, 2026 | $0.0452 | Date set by the issuer, amount not yet declared |
Every distribution ETFIQ holds for APLY (13, most recent first)
| Ex-date | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2026 | $0.0452 |
| Sep 3, 2026 | $0.0583 |
| Aug 27, 2026 | $0.0557 |
| Aug 20, 2026 | $0.0562 |
| Aug 13, 2026 | $0.056 |
| Aug 6, 2026 | $0.0636 |
| Jul 30, 2026 | $0.1415 |
| Jul 23, 2026 | $0.1022 |
| Jul 16, 2026 | $0.0808 |
| Jul 9, 2026 | $0.0618 |
| Jul 2, 2026 | $0.0466 |
| Jun 26, 2026 | $0.1178 |
| Jun 25, 2026 | $0.0463 |
Every income ETF going ex-dividend in the next fortnight
In plain words
Since it launched on Apr 18, 2023, APLY has returned +55.8% with distributions reinvested, against +102.8% for Apple (AAPL), and has paid out 74.3% of its starting value in cash along the way. It pays weekly, and at its current price the latest distribution annualizes to 19.8%. YieldMax estimates that 84% of the distribution paid Sep 11, 2026 was a return of capital. That is the issuer’s own Rule 19a-1 estimate and a tax characterization, made before the fund year closes: it says the payment included money the fund gave back rather than earned, not that the fund is eroding.
| Strategy | synthetic covered call |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Apple (AAPL) |
| Pays | weekly |
| Net assets (issuer page, as of Sep 11, 2026) | $99m |
| Latest payout, annualized (ETFIQ) | 19.8% |
| Expense ratio (485BPOS XBRL, Feb 24, 2026) | 1.04% |
| Cash paid, last 12 months, over today’s price (ETFIQ) | 35.9% |
| Launched | Apr 18, 2023 |
| Return of capital, latest distribution (YieldMax 19a-1 estimate) | 84.2% |
| Pays | weekly |
| Typical gap between ex-dates | 7 days |
| Typical wait from ex-date to payment | 1 day |
| Last paid, per share | $0.0452 ex Sep 10, 2026 |
| Sum of the last 12 distributions | $0.8857 |
Every figure is an ETFIQ calculation from exchange prices and cash distributions (Tiingo end-of-day), total return with distributions reinvested. Return of capital is the issuer’s estimate. How these figures are computed
Questions people ask
- How much has APLY paid over the last year?
- Over the year to Sep 11, 2026, APLY paid 32.4% of its starting price in cash distributions, while the price fell 9.6%.
- Is APLY ahead of AAPL?
- Over the year to Sep 11, 2026, with every distribution reinvested, APLY returned +26.4% against +45.0% for Apple (AAPL), so a holder was behind it by 18.6 points.
- How often does APLY pay, and how much?
- APLY pays weekly. The latest distribution annualizes to 19.8% at its price on Sep 11, 2026, which is not a promise; the next one can differ.
- Is the APLY distribution return of capital?
- YieldMax estimates 84% of the distribution paid Sep 11, 2026 was return of capital. That is a tax characterization from the fund's own 19a-1 notice, not a measure of erosion.
- When does APLY next pay a distribution?
- APLY pays weekly. The last distribution went ex on Sep 10, 2026 at $0.0452 a share. The issuer has set the next ex-date at Sep 16, 2026 but not the amount.
- What does APLY cost?
- The prospectus expense ratio is 1.04% a year.
The words on this page
- Total return
- What a holder actually ended up with: price change plus every distribution, reinvested. The only figure that answers whether you came out ahead.
- Cash paid
- Distributions over the window as a share of what the fund cost at the start. A measure of cash delivered, not of return: a fund can pay a great deal and still lose money.
- Ahead or behind
- The fund’s total return minus the benchmark’s over exactly the same days, in percentage points. Both sides reinvest.
- Return of capital
- The issuer’s own estimate, in a Rule 19a-1 notice, of how much of a distribution was your own money returned. An estimate and a tax characterization, not a measure of erosion.
- Covered call
- Selling call options on shares the fund holds. It collects a premium and gives up the gains above the strike, which is why these funds pay well and lag a rising market.
Every term used here, defined in full on the income ETFs vocabulary page.
Where these figures came from
ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement.
Compare APLY
Also against QYLD, XYLD, RYLD, DIVO, GPIX, GPIQ, TSLY, NVDY, MSTY, CONY, ULTY, YMAX, FEPI, XDTE, QDTE, AIPI, BALI, ISPY, AMZY, GOOY, MSFO, OARK, SDTY, IVV, QQQ, SCHD, SPY, VOO, VTI, VYM.
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Cite this page. ETFIQ, APLY, income ETFs, data as of Sep 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/aply Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.