--- title: "First Trust charges less than YieldMax, but YieldMax has the payout and the assets" url: "https://etf.net/news/first-trust-charges-less-than-yieldmax-but-yieldmax-has-the-payout-and-the-assets-2026-10-05" published_at: "2026-10-05T21:12:22.155Z" updated_at: "2026-10-05T21:12:22.155Z" byline: "ETF.net Research" --- # First Trust charges less than YieldMax, but YieldMax has the payout and the assets As of September 30, YieldMax's AMD fund showed a 100.87% distribution rate, while First Trust's new funds charge 0.85% and target about 15 percentage points above the S&P 500 forward dividend yield. By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 5, 2026. First Trust's new single-stock income funds charge less than YieldMax, but YieldMax's funds hold nearly all the assets and are the ones that have paid. Six funds began trading on Wednesday, September 23. The stocks are AMD, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Palantir. The fee is 0.85%, dated September 23. First Trust's stated aim is current income, with a rise in the share price second. Vest Financial, the sub-adviser, runs the options. The income figure is a target, not a payment history: an annual distribution about 15 percentage points above the S&P 500's forward dividend yield, before fees and expenses. ## What YieldMax has already paid YieldMax already has an options-income fund on all six stocks. Those funds do not own the shares. They use options, backed by Treasuries and cash, and the issuer lists fees from 1.00% to 1.14%. As of September 30, the distribution rate on the six ran from 24.28% to **100.87%**. YieldMax calculates that rate by annualizing the latest payment and dividing by net asset value. It is what that payment would be if it kept coming, not a promise and not a full year of payouts. Table: Fund, Fee, Assets, Distribution rate On every stock, the cheaper fund is the new one, and it has not paid. The fee gap is 0.15 to 0.29 percentage points. The assets are not close. YieldMax's AMD and Palantir funds hold hundreds of times the new funds on those stocks. The Microsoft and Meta gaps are smaller, still more than 50 times, and Amazon and Alphabet sit near 100 times. Chart: All six First Trust funds together still sit at **$11 million** First Trust dated the 0.85% fee to September 23. YieldMax's fees are as listed by the issuer, and the distribution rates are as of September 30. Assets are the latest reported figures, and this is the picture on Monday, October 5. Owning the shares is a real difference, and it is not a clean one. As of October 4, the stock was about half of XVAD, XVMS and XVPT, and about two-thirds of XVMT, XVAZ and XVGL. The largest position in each fund was a long put on the S&P 500 Mini Index, from about 192% of assets to about 307%. Each fund had also sold a put on its own stock at more than twice assets. Chart: The **half-stock** funds carry the larger index puts First Trust warns that options can add leverage. These positions are where that warning lives. The calls written on the company are a smaller slice. As of September 30, First Trust's average overwrite, the share of assets used to write calls, was 8.30% for XVAD, 12.33% for XVPT, 14.80% for XVMT and 19.97% for XVMS. Those short calls averaged seven days to expiration. What is not overwritten is the upside First Trust says the fund still keeps. YieldMax estimated that 98.04% of the latest AMD payment was return of capital. That is your own money paid back to you, and it reduces the amount invested. Meta, Palantir and Microsoft were mostly return of capital on that payment too. Amazon and Alphabet were not. First Trust warns that its own payouts can include return of capital. None of these income funds promises to absorb a set share of losses. ## Micron, still without the shares YieldMax announced its Micron fund, YieldMax MU Option Income Strategy ETF, MUY, on Tuesday, September 29. It seeks weekly income by selling call spreads on Micron, which limits both the income and the upside given up, and YieldMax says it does not own the shares. The fee is 1.01%, as listed by the issuer, assets are $3.2 million, and YieldMax expects to announce the first distribution on Wednesday, October 14, without guaranteeing one. ## An October buffer, and a reset on October 16 VanEck U.S. Equity Buffer ETF - October, OCT, seeks the price return of SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, SPY, the fund that holds the S&P 500, up to a cap, plus a buffer against the first part of losses. The outcome follows SPY's price, not its dividends. The year runs from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. Lido Advisors, the sub-adviser, may set the buffer between 15% and 20% at each annual reset. VanEck says that, beginning with this fund, the buffer is a choice in that range rather than a fixed level. This year it is 17% before fees, and the cap is 13.75% before fees. After the 0.50% fee, VanEck puts those at 16.50% and 13.25%. The buffer is a target. Losses beyond it belong to the holder, and the stated result is for someone who holds to the end of the year. A buyer now does not get those starting terms. As of Friday, October 2, VanEck showed the fund return at 0.89% and the SPY return at 0.92%, with a remaining cap of **12.74%** before fees and 12.25% after fees. The remaining buffer was 16.87% before fees. VanEck's July buffer, JULV, holds $77 million. OCT holds $616,000. October already has much larger funds, and they cost more. First Trust lists its October buffer, FOCT, at 0.85%, and it holds $1.21 billion. Innovator lists its October power buffer, POCT, at 0.79%, and it holds $982 million. FOCT ends this outcome period on Friday, October 16, and the next set of terms is the one to read. Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/first-trust-charges-less-than-yieldmax-but-yieldmax-has-the-payout-and-the-assets-2026-10-05. Please cite the page URL.