As of October 21, 2026, 106 of the 431 buffer ETFs tracked across 8 issuers had reached their cap, meaning the index tied to those funds has no further upside for the current period. That is 25% of the universe. Another 273 funds, or 63%, remained open, with room to move before either the cap or the buffer comes into play. A further 51 funds, 12% of the total, had their buffer already absorbing losses, and one fund had its buffer exhausted.
Across all funds, the median one could still gain 6.0% from its current price before hitting its cap, and could fall 3.9% before its buffer starts to apply, based on the issuers' own published data. These numbers vary by issuer. Innovator's 138 funds had a median remaining gain of 7.0% and a median cushion of 5.1% before the buffer engages, with 39 of its funds at cap and 20 with buffers already working. First Trust's 104 funds showed a median remaining gain of 6.3% and a 5.2% cushion, with 28 at cap. AllianzIM's 57 funds had less room on both sides, a 4.9% median remaining gain and a 3.3% cushion, with 7 at cap. PGIM's 44 funds showed a 4.3% median remaining gain and a 3.7% cushion, with 16 at cap. Corgi's 36 funds had no funds at cap, a 1.4% median cushion, and 14 funds with buffers working, the highest share of buffer activity of any issuer shown. Calamos's 32 funds had 14 at cap and a 3.9% cushion. TrueShares, with 12 funds, had none at cap and none with buffers working. iShares' 8 funds showed a 5.8% median remaining gain and a 3.8% cushion, with 2 at cap.
The pattern across reset months shows a clear progression: funds resetting soonest carry the least remaining cap room, since their reference index has had the most time to climb toward it, while funds with resets further out still carry fresh, wider caps. For periods ending in October 2026, the median fund could still gain just 0.8%, with 8 of 18 funds already at cap, after the underlying index moved up 13.3% since the period began. November and December 2026 show similar patterns, with median remaining gains of 1.5% and 2.9% and a large share of funds already at cap. By contrast, periods ending further out, such as August 2027 and September 2027, show median remaining gains of 13.6% and 14.3%, with only 0 and 1 funds at cap respectively, reflecting index moves since period start of just 0.8% and 1.4%.
Readers can check any individual fund's current cap, buffer level, and reset date on ETFIQ's fund pages.