Over the year to October 21, 2026, 49 of the 160 broad option income ETFs with a full year of trading finished ahead of their benchmark once every cash payment was counted and reinvested. The median fund across the group trailed by 1.1 percentage points. The spread by issuer was wide. Among funds with a full year, Overlay Shares put 5 of 7 ahead of benchmark, Aptus put all 3 of its funds ahead, and NEOS put 6 of 10 ahead. At the other end, Innovator's 13 full-year funds all finished behind, by a median of 10.9 points, and Nicholas's 2 full-year funds trailed by a median of 25.4 points.
The tables point to where the cash behind these payouts came from. YieldMax estimates that its median fund's latest distribution was 88% return of capital, drawn from 43 funds with 19a-1 notices, and 21 of those funds reported return of capital at 90% or more. Other issuers reported similar or higher shares: Roundhill's median across 32 funds was 100% return of capital, with all 32 at 90% or more; GraniteShares' median across 40 funds was 95%, with 27 at 90% or more; Global X's median across 15 funds was 99%, with 11 at 90% or more. First Trust and NEOS also reported medians above 90%. Return of capital is a distribution that is not drawn from income or realized gains; it returns part of an investor's own invested principal and lowers the fund's cost basis for tax purposes, though it does not by itself say whether a fund's price fell.
The data does show a link between the size of a distribution and both price and relative return. Funds paying under 8% a year had a median price change of +0.1% and a median gap versus benchmark of −3.4 points. Funds paying 8% to 15% had a smaller gap, at −0.6 points, with a median price change of −0.3%. Once distribution rates climbed into the 15% to 30% band, median price change turned negative at −12.9%, and in the 30% to 60% band it fell further to −42.6%, with total return at −7.3% and a gap of −2.3 points. Funds paying 60% or more had a median price decline of −63.1% and a median total return of −21.4%. Issuer-level figures move with this pattern: YieldMax's median cash paid was 33.2% against a median price change of −24.7%, GraniteShares' median cash paid was 32.9% against a median price change of −37.1%, and Grayscale's median cash paid of 33.1% came with a median price change of −61.2%. By contrast, First Trust's median cash paid was 8.6% with a median price change of −0.0%, and Innovator's median cash paid was 5.3% with a median price change of +0.0%.
Readers can look up any individual fund's one-year gap against its benchmark, its latest 19a-1 return-of-capital estimate, and its distribution rate on ETFIQ's fund pages.