As of September 25, 2026, the buffer ETF landscape covered 429 funds across 8 issuers. Of these, 139 funds, or 32%, sat at their cap, meaning the underlying index has already risen far enough that those funds have no further upside for the current period. A further 261 funds, or 61%, remained open, with room to move before hitting either their cap or their downside buffer. Separately, 29 funds had their buffer already absorbing losses, and within that group one fund's buffer was exhausted according to the band-state table.
Looking across the whole set, the median fund could still gain 4.9% from its current price before reaching its cap, and could fall 5.0% before its buffer would begin absorbing losses. These numbers are the issuers' own, stated in fund-price terms net of fees.
The issuer breakdown shows meaningful spread. Innovator, the largest issuer by fund count with 138 funds, had 50 at cap and 11 with buffers working, a median remaining gain of 5.3% and a median fall-before-buffer of 6.2%. First Trust, with 104 funds, had 36 at cap and a similar median fall-before-buffer of 6.2%, alongside a slightly higher median remaining gain of 5.6%. AllianzIM and PGIM showed lower median remaining gains, at 4.2% and 3.7% respectively, with PGIM having no funds in buffer-working status among its 44 funds. Corgi, Calamos, TrueShares, and iShares rounded out the roster, with Corgi and TrueShares showing dashes where median remaining gain wasn't available, and Corgi notably having 8 of its 36 funds in buffer-working mode with the lowest median fall-before-buffer number in the table, at 1.3%.
The reset-month table illustrates a pattern in the data: funds resetting soonest tend to show less remaining cap room, since their reference index has had more time to climb toward the ceiling. Periods ending in September, October, and November 2026 show median remaining gains of just 0.3%, 1.3%, and 2.1%, alongside median index moves since period start of over 12% in each case. By contrast, periods ending further out, such as May through August 2027, show median remaining gains climbing to between 11.4% and 14.1%, with far smaller median index moves so far, ranging from 0.6% to 3.3%. This reflects that funds with more time left in their period have had less opportunity for the index to approach their cap.
Expense ratios across issuers ranged from 0.30% for Corgi to 0.80% for Innovator, First Trust, and TrueShares, based on the median numbers reported.
Readers can check the live desk for the current band state and remaining cap or buffer distance on any individual fund, since these numbers move daily with the underlying index and the time remaining in each fund's period.