BALQ vs GPIQ: Grades, Fees and Holdings Compared

iShares Nasdaq Premium Income Active ETF

BALQANasdaq

Goldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Premium Income ETF

GPIQANasdaq

Overlap

63.6%by weight

Expense ratio

GPIQ −0.06pt a year

BALQ0.35%GPIQ0.29%

Avg volume · 30D

GPIQ 115.5×the volume

BALQ13.6KGPIQ1.57M

BALQ vs GPIQ Performance

Dec 31, 2025 – Oct 30, 2026

+15.9%BALQ+12.1%GPIQ

Expense ratio: BALQ 0.35%; GPIQ 0.29%, better
Fund size: BALQ $42M; GPIQ $6.52B
1Y total return: BALQ No data; GPIQ +11.4%
Yield (12M): BALQ No data; GPIQ 10.62%
Holdings: BALQ 112; GPIQ 102
Avg volume (30D): BALQ 13.6K sh; GPIQ 1.57M sh, better
NAV per share: BALQ $52.87; GPIQ $56.04
52W range

ETF.net Grade

Pillar letters and Scores for BALQ, GPIQ, with each pillar’s weight
Pillar	BALQ	GPIQ
Cost30% weight	A82	A92Higher
Mission25% weight	A100	A100
Risk15% weight	C48	C52Higher
Tradability15% weight	B64	A73Higher
Holdings10% weight	C46	A85Higher
Durability5% weight	B56	A79Higher

Rank among Nasdaq-100 Option Income funds

How we build Categories ›

Same Category. BALQ and GPIQ are both graded against the same 30 Nasdaq-100 Option Income funds, so their Grades compare head to head.

Nasdaq-100 Option Income⁠

Category · 30 funds

See all 30 ›

GPIQ ranks 1st and BALQ 7th of 30 funds in the Nasdaq-100 Option Income Category.

Rank 1AGPIQGoldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Premium Income ETFScore 83
Rank 2AQQAInvesco QQQ Income Advantage ETFScore 82
Rank 6AQQQINEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETFScore 74
Rank 7ABALQiShares Nasdaq Premium Income Active ETFScore 73
Rank 7AFTQIFirst Trust Nasdaq BuyWrite Income ETFScore 73

Our read on each fund

ETF.net Research

BALQAiShares Nasdaq Premium Income Active ETF

GPIQAGoldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Premium Income ETF

In short

BALQ BlackRock's late entry into the crowded Nasdaq-100 income ring, and it competes on price at 0.35% a year. Holds stocks, sells index calls for premium, then buys index futures to keep some of the upside those calls give away.

GPIQ Goldman's take on the Nasdaq-100 income trade: it owns the index but sells calls on only 25% to 75% of the portfolio, reset monthly, so part of the upside stays uncapped. Fee is 0.29% net of a waiver through April 30, 2027.

Stated mandate

BALQ The Fund seeks current income while considering capital appreciation. Its actively managed strategy holds equities, writes Nasdaq-100 Index call options, and buys Nasdaq-100 Index futures.

GPIQ The Fund seeks current income while maintaining prospects for capital appreciation. It provides Nasdaq-100 equity exposure and dynamically sells call options while seeking participation in rising markets.

Why people hold it

BALQ 0.35% a year sits well under the typical Nasdaq-100 income fund and matches the cheapest large names in the group, GPIQ and JEPQ.
The futures sleeve is the twist: it writes Nasdaq-100 calls for premium, then buys Nasdaq-100 futures to add back exposure those calls sold off.ishares.com
Actively managed, not a fixed monthly formula. Managers set the option book and the equity sleeve, roughly 110 positions.
Income is the stated first job, with capital appreciation a secondary consideration, and the fund's income policy is monthly.

GPIQ The overwrite is a dial, not a switch: calls cover 25% to 75% of the equity portfolio, reset each month, leaving a slice of Nasdaq-100 upside uncapped by design.gsam.com
0.29% net of a waiver through April 30, 2027 undercuts JEPQ at 0.35% and QYLD at 0.60%, and matches QQA, which is 0.29% net of a waiver through August 31, 2027.
Calls are written on index-level exposure, not individual names, and the stock sleeve tracks Nasdaq-100 weights. Pays monthly.sec.gov
A multi-billion-dollar, actively traded fund and one of the strongest implementations in a crowded Nasdaq-100 income group.

Worth knowing

BALQ Launched December 2025, so there is no long record of how this option book behaves through a real Nasdaq drawdown.
Small and thinly traded next to the established names here, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads.
The fund discloses that payouts can include return of capital, meaning part of a distribution may be your own money coming back.ishares.com

GPIQ Goldman's filing flags that a significant portion of distributions may be return of capital, which trims your cost basis rather than adding to it.sec.gov
Full exposure to Nasdaq-100 drawdowns stays; premium cushions the ride but does not offset a selloff, and gains on the overwritten slice are capped.sec.gov
Gross fee is 0.35%. If the waiver is not extended past April 30, 2027, the cost steps up to that level.

Full BALQ profile⁠

Full GPIQ profile⁠

BALQ vs GPIQ Holdings

How BALQ and GPIQ differ

Overlap by weight

63.6%

Shared holdings make up 71.8% of BALQ and 65.3% of GPIQ.

Level by level

Holdings23 in both63.6%
Countryby domicile97.6%
Asset classEquity100%

Sector

No Sector split for BALQ.

Country, concentration and asset class

Country by domicile

Country weights in BALQ and GPIQ, widest gap first
Country	More in BALQMore in GPIQ	BALQ	GPIQ
United States	BALQ +2.2 points	99.6%	97.4%
Canada	GPIQ +1.1 points	0.0%	1.1%
Netherlands	GPIQ +0.7 points	0.0%	0.7%
Other countries (4)	GPIQ +0.4 points	0.4%	0.8%

Concentration

Weight in the 10 largest Holdings

BALQ51.0%
GPIQ46.4%

Securities held

BALQ110
GPIQ101

Asset class

BALQ: Equity
GPIQ: Equity

Holdings

Only in BALQ87
In both23
Only in GPIQ78

Only in BALQ

87 securities, 23.0% of BALQ by weight

Goldman Sachs Group0.80%
Valero Energy Corp0.80%
Verizon Communications Inc0.72%
Lockheed Martin0.64%
Morgan Stanley0.61%
Merck & Co Inc0.58%
Tjx0.55%
Abbott Laboratories0.46%
Transdigm Group0.45%
Phillips 660.43%
Mks0.43%
Procter & Gamble0.42%
Neurocrine Biosciences0.42%
United Parcel Service Inc Class B0.42%
Ss and C Technologies Holdings0.39%
Eastman Chemical0.39%
Rtx0.38%
Caterpillar Inc0.38%
Viking Holdings Ltd0.38%
Dell Technologies Inc Class C0.38%
Onto Innovation0.37%
Exelixis Inc0.37%
Texas Roadhouse Inc0.37%
Sentinelone Inc Class A0.34%
Insmed0.34%
Incyte Corp0.31%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise0.30%
Boston Scientific0.30%
Pfizer0.30%
Dow0.30%
Formfactor Inc0.28%
Oracle0.28%
Cirrus Logic0.27%
Arista Networks0.26%
AbbVie0.26%
Nutanix Class A0.25%
Lattice Semiconductor0.25%
Cardinal Health0.25%
Avnet0.25%
Rockwell Automation Inc0.25%
New York Times Class A0.24%
Dynatrace Inc0.24%
Ionis Pharmaceuticals0.24%
Jabil0.23%
UnitedHealth Group0.22%
Union Pacific0.22%
Archer Daniels Midland0.22%
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd0.22%
Salesforce0.21%
International Business Machines Co0.21%

Only in GPIQ

78 securities, 35.0% of GPIQ by weight

Texas Instruments Inc.1.56%
Palo Alto Networks Inc.1.39%
Analog Devices Inc.1.32%
Crowdstrike Holdings, Inc.1.22%
Linde PLC1.06%
Amgen Inc.1.05%
Marvell Technology, Inc.1.01%
Shopify Inc.0.90%
Pepsico, Inc.0.90%
Gilead Sciences0.88%
Netflix, Inc.0.87%
Sandisk Corporation0.79%
T-Mobile Us, Inc.0.78%
American Electric Power Inc0.76%
Intuitive Surgical, Inc.0.72%
Kla Corp0.65%
Automatic Data Processing Inc0.64%
Starbucks Corp.0.59%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated0.58%
Marriott International, Inc0.56%
Asml Holding N.v.-Adr0.56%
Seagate Technology Holdin PLC0.54%
Lumentum Holdings Inc.0.53%
Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.0.52%
Western Digital Corporation0.50%
Fortinet, Inc.0.50%
Teradyne Inc0.49%
Nxp Semiconductors N.v.0.48%
Microchip Technology Incorporated0.44%
Synopsys Inc.0.44%
Cadence Design Systems Inc0.44%
Mondelez International, Inc.0.43%
Datadog, Inc.0.43%
Airbnb Inc.0.43%
Moderna, Inc.0.42%
Cintas Corporation0.39%
Booking Holdings Inc.0.39%
Csx Corporation0.39%
Ross Stores Inc0.38%
O'reilly Automotive, Inc.0.38%
Fastenal Company0.34%
Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc0.34%
Mercadolibre, Inc.0.33%
Arm Holdings Plc-Adr0.33%
Pdd Holdings Inc-Adr0.31%
Constellation Energy Corp0.30%
Monster Beverage Corporation0.28%
Doordash Inc0.28%
Rocket Lab Corporation0.28%
PayPal Holdings, Inc.0.28%

Weight gaps

All 23 Holdings in both funds, largest gap first.

Holding weights in BALQ and GPIQ, widest gap first
Holding	More in BALQMore in GPIQ	BALQ	GPIQ
Costco Wholesale CorpCOST	BALQ +1.39 points	3.39%	2.00%
MicrosoftMSFT	BALQ +1.11 points	7.36%	6.25%
Alphabet Class CGOOG	BALQ +0.81 points	2.40%	1.59%
Lam ResearchLRCX	BALQ +0.71 points	1.67%	0.96%
Amazon.com IncAMZN	BALQ +0.71 points	4.76%	4.05%
Space Exploration Technologies CorSPCX	GPIQ +0.68 points	1.97%	2.65%
Cisco Systems IncCSCO	BALQ +0.63 points	2.30%	1.67%
WalmartWMT	BALQ +0.53 points	2.89%	2.36%
Advanced Micro DevicesAMD	BALQ +0.47 points	4.21%	3.74%
Alphabet Class AGOOGL	GPIQ +0.46 points	2.70%	3.16%
Micron TechnologyMU	BALQ +0.42 points	4.83%	4.41%
Tesla IncTSLA	GPIQ +0.38 points	2.85%	3.23%
Adobe IncADBE	BALQ +0.34 points	0.71%	0.37%
IntuitINTU	BALQ +0.31 points	0.70%	0.39%
NVIDIANVDA	BALQ +0.30 points	8.12%	7.82%
QualcommQCOM	BALQ +0.23 points	1.17%	0.94%
Broadcom IncAVGO	BALQ +0.15 points	2.89%	2.74%
Applied Material IncAMAT	GPIQ +0.07 points	1.72%	1.79%
Palantir Technologies Class APLTR	BALQ +0.07 points	2.09%	2.02%
Intel CorporationINTC	GPIQ +0.07 points	1.82%	1.89%
Meta Platforms Class AMETA	GPIQ +0.05 points	3.02%	3.07%
Strategy Inc Class AMSTR	BALQ +0.02 points	0.27%	0.25%
AppleAAPL	Same weight	7.99%	7.99%

All 110 BALQ holdings⁠All 106 GPIQ holdings⁠

How we measure overlap

Each holding counts at its smaller weight in the two funds, summed over the full Holdings. Sector, country and asset class use the same rule on each fund’s split. Cash, FX and derivative lines stay out of the counts. Two bond funds get no overlap figure.

BALQ vs GPIQ Cost

Overpaying BALQ vs GPIQ

$1,174

On $10,000 over 30 years. 7% growth a year before fees, expense ratio only.

BALQ 0.35%
$7,126
GPIQ 0.29%
$5,952

Amount$10,000

Years30 years

Cost over time

BALQ 0.35%
GPIQ 0.29%
Overpaying

Year by year

Year	BALQ	GPIQ	Overpaying
10	$634	$527	$107
20	$2,454	$2,044	$410
30	$7,126	$5,952	$1,174

Expense ratio

0.35%BALQ
0.29%GPIQ, cheaper

GPIQ0.29%BALQ0.35%

0.00%1.20%

Middle half of Nasdaq-100 Option Income funds
Median 0.71%

GPIQ 2nd cheapest of 30 funds

BALQ 4th cheapest of 30 funds

BALQ vs GPIQ Dividends

Last 12 months to Oct 30, 2026

Yield (12M): BALQ No data; GPIQ 10.62%
Payout (12M): BALQ No data; GPIQ $5.77
Last payment: BALQ $0.37; GPIQ $0.51
Ex-dividend: BALQ Oct 1, 2026; GPIQ Oct 1, 2026
Paid on: BALQ Oct 6, 2026; GPIQ Oct 7, 2026
Frequency: BALQ Monthly; GPIQ Monthly

Distribution history

Per share, 2023 to 2026, same scale for both

BALQMonthly · 10 paymentsAll BALQ payments⁠

GPIQMonthly · 35 paymentsAll GPIQ payments⁠

BALQ vs GPIQ Risk

Fall from peak · 5 years

This chart needs five years of history for both funds.

Risk facts

VolatilityStd dev, 3 years: BALQ No dataGPIQ 14.5%
Return per unit of riskSharpe ratio, 3 years: BALQ No dataGPIQ 1.21
Worst fallMax drawdown, 5 years: BALQ No dataGPIQ −21.1%since Oct 2023
Market sensitivityBeta, 5 years: BALQ 1.40GPIQ 1.16; Market = 1

BALQ and GPIQ in the news

All news⁠

ETF Filings
Franklin Templeton files two PayDay ETFs that would pay every two weeks
Oct 16, 2026GPIQ
Income Watch
BlackRock estimates 86% of the iShares Nasdaq Premium Income Active ETF's October check was return of capital
Oct 11, 2026BALQ
ETF Filings
Motley Fool files five Fool 100 ETFs, three for options income
Oct 9, 2026GPIQ
Category Review
The four largest Nasdaq-100 income funds trailed the stocks by 0.9 to 5.8 percentage points
Updated Oct 2, 2026GPIQ

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