Simplify High Yield ETF
$20.43−0.06 (−0.27%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.50%
- Fund size
- $343M
- 1Y return
- −3.6%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 8.30%
- Holdings
- 235
- Volume · 30D
- 0.1M sh
- NAV per share
- $20.63
- 52W range
The ETF.net CDX Grade
Score 29 of 100 sits in the D band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.DScore 36Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.DScore 30Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.FScore 9Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.CScore 46Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.FScore 7Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.CScore 51Category rank
Our read on CDX
DMost high yield ETFs buy the bonds. Simplify's CDX rents the exposure through swaps and layers a quality-versus-junk hedge on top. An active, derivatives-first route into junk credit, priced like one.
Effective September 2, 2025, the fund's stated objective is to maximize total return. Its strategy continues to obtain primarily high-yield bond exposure through swaps and a credit-hedge derivatives approach.
Why people hold it
- Gets its high yield exposure through swaps rather than a warehouse of individual bonds, a structurally different plumbing than the index funds that dominate this category.
- Pairs that exposure with an advertised quality-versus-junk hedge, an attempt to blunt the weakest end of the credit spectrum instead of owning the whole market as-is.
- Pays monthly and spreads exposure across roughly 240 positions, so income arrives on a regular cadence rather than quarterly.
- Running since 2022, it has a real operating history through a full credit cycle rather than a launch-week track record.
Worth knowing
- It charges 0.50%, above the 0.40% typical for high yield ETFs and many multiples of index peers like SCYB and SPHY, which run on a few basis points.
- The hedge sleeve costs something to carry. Derivatives-based credit exposure also behaves differently than a bond portfolio, especially in fast-moving markets.
- The stated objective was reset to maximizing total return in September 2025, so the fund's older record predates its current mandate.
CDX Holdings
- Bonds
- 235
- 239%
- SBIL
Sectors
Geography
CDX Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | CDX |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −3.1% |
| 1 month | −0.3% |
| 3 months | −1.7% |
| 1 year | −3.6% |
| 3 years | +6.7% |
| 5 years | — |
| 10 years | — |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | CDX |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −3.1% | |
| 2025 | +9.5% | |
| 2024 | +7.7% | |
| 2023 | +12.8% | |
| 2022 | −8.1% |
CDX in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on CDX yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
CDX Dividends
- 8.30%
- $1.70
- $0.13 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 26, 2026 | Aug 31, 2026 | $0.13 |
| Jul 28, 2026 | Jul 31, 2026 | $0.13 |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.13 |
| May 26, 2026 | May 29, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Apr 27, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | $0.14 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.15 |
| Feb 24, 2026 | Feb 27, 2026 | $0.15 |
| Jan 27, 2026 | Jan 30, 2026 | $0.15 |
| Dec 23, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.15 |
| Nov 21, 2025 | Nov 28, 2025 | $0.15 |
| Oct 28, 2025 | Oct 31, 2025 | $0.15 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.15 |
CDX Risk
- 5.1%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.44
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −13.3%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.56
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
CDX Cost
- The middle half of US High Yield funds
- Median 0.43%
52 of the 84 US High Yield funds charge less.