iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond BuyWrite Strategy ETF
$20.88−0.26 (−1.21%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.35%
- Fund size
- $1.8B
- 1Y return
- +0.6%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 10.62%
- Volume · 30D
- 1.3M sh
- NAV per share
- $21.13
- 52W range
The ETF.net TLTW Grade
Score 76 of 100 sits in the A 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.AScore 88Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 95Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.DScore 28Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 95Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 76Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 97Category rank
Our read on TLTW
AOwns the long Treasury ETF, sells calls against it monthly, and passes the premium out as income. A 2022 launch that brought the covered-call playbook to 20+ year bonds, priced below the niche's usual fee.
The Fund tracks an index that holds the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF and writes monthly covered calls to generate income, while offering income in addition to dividends.
Why people hold it
- Fee runs 0.35% a year, under the going rate in its options-income Treasury niche, and no higher-graded peer here undercuts it.
- Plumbing is refreshingly simple: hold TLT, write monthly covered calls on it, send the premium out monthly.
- Follows its index closely, and it is an actively traded, multi-billion-dollar fund rather than a thin novelty.
- One of the stronger implementations in a small peer group of Treasury option-overlay funds.
Worth knowing
- The written calls cap upside: in a sharp long-bond rally, gains above the strike belong to the option buyer.
- Duration still rules underneath. This is a 20+ year Treasury position, so rate moves drive the price whatever the income does.
- Payouts track option premiums and may include return of capital, so the monthly distribution is not a fixed coupon.
TLTW Holdings
- Bonds
- —
- 41%
- TREASURY BOND 4.75% 05/15/2055
Geography
- United States100.00%
TLTW 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 | TLTW |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −1.0% |
| 1 month | +0.3% |
| 3 months | −3.1% |
| 1 year | +0.6% |
| 3 years | +2.3% |
| 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 | TLTW |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −1.0% | |
| 2025 | +11.4% | |
| 2024 | −2.2% | |
| 2023 | +0.8% | |
| 2022 | −10.8% |
TLTW in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on TLTW yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
TLTW Dividends
- 10.62%
- $2.24
- $0.13 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2, 2026 | Sep 8, 2026 | $0.13 |
| Aug 4, 2026 | Aug 7, 2026 | $0.15 |
| Jul 2, 2026 | Jul 8, 2026 | $0.13 |
| Jun 2, 2026 | Jun 5, 2026 | $0.22 |
| May 4, 2026 | May 7, 2026 | $0.12 |
| Apr 2, 2026 | Apr 8, 2026 | $0.21 |
| Mar 3, 2026 | Mar 6, 2026 | $0.20 |
| Feb 3, 2026 | Feb 6, 2026 | $0.17 |
| Dec 23, 2025 | Dec 29, 2025 | $0.19 |
| Dec 2, 2025 | Dec 5, 2025 | $0.19 |
| Nov 4, 2025 | Nov 7, 2025 | $0.38 |
| Oct 2, 2025 | Oct 7, 2025 | $0.14 |
TLTW Risk
- 10.3%
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.
- −0.26
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.
- −18.6%
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.
- 1.68
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
TLTW Cost
- The middle half of Treasury Option Income funds
- Median 0.65%
No Treasury Option Income fund charges less.