CAIQ Calamos Nasdaq Autocallable Income ETF
Option income on QQQ, paying monthly
Since its launch on Nov 20, 2025, CAIQ paid 13.7% in cash and still finished 6.5 points behind QQQ.
Key facts
What a holder got
Over the year to Sep 11, 2026, CAIQ returned +16.0% with distributions reinvested and Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) returned +22.5%, so a holder came out behind it by 6.5 points. The lighter segment is the 13.7% that arrived as cash rather than as price.
Period by period
| Window | Cash paid | Price | Total return | QQQ | Ahead or behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 4.3% | −4.7% | −0.4% | −0.8% | +0.4 pts |
| 6 months | 9.4% | +4.6% | +14.2% | +20.7% | −6.5 pts |
| Since launch | 13.7% | +1.6% | +16.0% | +22.5% | −6.5 pts |
When CAIQ pays
CAIQ pays monthly. The last distribution was $0.382 a share, which went ex on Sep 1, 2026 and was paid on Sep 9, 2026. The next has not been declared. On its own cadence of about 30 days the ex-date falls near Oct 1, 2026; that date is an ETFIQ projection, not the issuer’s.
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | Oct 8, 2026 | $0.382 | ETFIQ projection from the fund’s own cadence |
Every distribution ETFIQ holds for CAIQ (9, most recent first)
| Ex-date | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2026 | $0.382 |
| Aug 3, 2026 | $0.3808 |
| Jul 1, 2026 | $0.3779 |
| Jun 1, 2026 | $0.3786 |
| May 1, 2026 | $0.3787 |
| Apr 1, 2026 | $0.3785 |
| Mar 2, 2026 | $0.3809 |
| Feb 2, 2026 | $0.375 |
| Dec 23, 2025 | $0.3935 |
Every income ETF going ex-dividend in the next fortnight
In plain words
Since it launched on Nov 20, 2025, CAIQ has returned +16.0% with distributions reinvested, against +22.5% for Nasdaq-100 (QQQ), and has paid out 13.7% of its starting value in cash along the way. It pays monthly, and at its current price the latest distribution annualizes to 18.1%. No Rule 19a-1 notice has been published for this fund, so there is no issuer estimate of how much of its distributions was a return of capital.
| Strategy | option income |
|---|---|
| Benchmark | Nasdaq-100 (QQQ) |
| Pays | monthly |
| Net assets (SEC filing, whole fund, as filed for Apr 30, 2026) | $167m |
| Latest payout, annualized (ETFIQ) | 18.1% |
| Expense ratio (485BPOS XBRL, Nov 5, 2025) | 0.74% |
| Cash paid, last 12 months, over today’s price (ETFIQ) | 13.5% |
| Launched | Nov 20, 2025 |
| Pays | monthly |
| Typical gap between ex-dates | 30 days |
| Typical wait from ex-date to payment | 7 days |
| Last paid, per share | $0.382 ex Sep 1, 2026 |
| Sum of the last 9 distributions | $3.4259 |
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 CAIQ paid over the last year?
- Over the period from its launch on Nov 20, 2025 to Sep 11, 2026, CAIQ paid 13.7% of its starting price in cash distributions, while the price rose 1.6%.
- Is CAIQ ahead of QQQ?
- Over the period from its launch on Nov 20, 2025 to Sep 11, 2026, with every distribution reinvested, CAIQ returned +16.0% against +22.5% for Nasdaq-100 (QQQ), so a holder was behind it by 6.5 points.
- How often does CAIQ pay, and how much?
- CAIQ pays monthly. The latest distribution annualizes to 18.1% at its price on Sep 11, 2026, which is not a promise; the next one can differ.
- When does CAIQ next pay a distribution?
- CAIQ pays monthly. The last distribution went ex on Sep 1, 2026 at $0.382 a share. The next is not declared; on a cadence of about 30 days the ex-date falls near Oct 1, 2026, which is an ETFIQ projection. Payment usually follows the ex-date by 7 days.
- What does CAIQ cost?
- The prospectus expense ratio is 0.74% 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.
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Cite this page. ETFIQ, CAIQ, income ETFs, data as of Sep 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/caiq Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.