GDXY paid 50.1% in cash. Its price fell 33.1%, so 66% of what you were paid came back out of your own capital.
Was the payout funded by returns, or by your own capital?
Against its benchmark
4.3% of the 173 sit at or below GDXY on this measure.
What happened to the principal
10.7% of the 173 sit at or below GDXY on this measure.
Weighted evenly, those two positions are what the score combines, across the 173 income ETFs writing on an index or proxy. 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.
Over the year to Sep 18, 2026, GDXY returned +18.4% with distributions reinvested and Gold miners (GDX) returned +39.8%, so a holder came out behind it by 21.4 points. The lighter segment is the 50.1% that arrived as cash rather than as price.
Since it launched on May 21, 2024, GDXY has returned +68.9% with distributions reinvested, against +163.4% for Gold miners (GDX), and has paid out 86.5% of its starting value in cash along the way. It pays weekly, and at its current price the latest distribution annualizes to 50.0%. YieldMax estimates that 95% of the distribution paid Sep 18, 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.
GDXY (YieldMax(R) Gold Miners Option Income Strategy ETF), income ETFs fields as of Sep 18, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
Strategy
synthetic covered call
Benchmark
Gold miners (GDX)
Pays
weekly
Net assets (issuer page, as of Sep 18, 2026)
$329m
Latest payout, annualized (ETFIQ)
50.0%
Expense ratio (485BPOS XBRL, Feb 24, 2026)
1.00%
Cash paid, last 12 months, over today’s price (ETFIQ)
74.9%
Launched
May 21, 2024
Return of capital, latest distribution (YieldMax 19a-1 estimate)
94.8%
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 GDXY paid over the last year?
Over the year to Sep 18, 2026, GDXY paid 50.1% of its starting price in cash distributions, while the price fell 33.1%.
Is GDXY ahead of GDX?
Over the year to Sep 18, 2026, with every distribution reinvested, GDXY returned +18.4% against +39.8% for Gold miners (GDX), so a holder was behind it by 21.4 points.
How often does GDXY pay, and how much?
GDXY pays weekly. The latest distribution annualizes to 50.0% at its price on Sep 18, 2026, which is not a promise; the next one can differ.
Is the GDXY distribution return of capital?
YieldMax estimates 95% of the distribution paid Sep 18, 2026 was return of capital. That is a tax characterization from the fund's own 19a-1 notice, not a measure of erosion.
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.
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.
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.
GDXY, Income ETFs, ETFIQ, data as of Sep 18, 2026. Every figure is calculated from a named public source; the method is at etfiq.com/methodology. ETFIQ is an independent publisher, is not a fund issuer, broker-dealer or investment adviser, and makes no recommendations.
Cite this page. ETFIQ, GDXY, income ETFs, data as of Sep 18, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/gdxy Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.