CPSA vs CPSN

CPSACCalamos S&P 500 Structured Alt Protection ETF – August

CPSNBCalamos S&P 500 Structured Alt Protection ETF – November

In short

CPSA The August start line in Calamos's laddered protection series: hold the full one-year outcome period and the structure aims to return 100% of capital before fees even if the S&P 500 ETF it references falls. The trade is a hard cap on the upside.

CPSN A one-year airbag strapped to the S&P 500: CPSN aims to shield 100% of index price losses over its outcome period, before fees, in exchange for a hard cap on the upside that resets every November.

Stated mandate

CPSA The fund seeks point-to-point participation in the positive price return of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust up to a predetermined cap, while providing 100% capital protection over the one-year outcome period before fees and expenses.

CPSN The fund seeks positive S&P 500 price-return exposure up to a defined cap while protecting against 100% of losses over its one-year outcome period, before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• CPSA A full floor, not a partial buffer: the structure targets 100% of capital back before fees if the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust is down over the one-year outcome period.calamos.com
• 0.69% a year, right at the median for its protection cohort and below the 0.79% charged by older defined-outcome names like TJUL and TAPR.
• Part of a monthly ladder (CPSJ for July, CPST for September), so a fresh one-year period opens somewhere in the lineup every month rather than once a year.calamos.com
• Sits in the upper half of a 16-fund protection cohort, and has stuck closely to the outcome its own documents describe.

• CPSN Aims to protect against 100% of S&P 500 price losses over its one-year outcome period, before fees and expenses. Not a partial buffer that can be used up.calamos.com
• 0.69% expense ratio, level with the median for S&P 500 full-protection funds, and it sits in the upper half of that peer group overall.
• Calamos runs the same structure across the calendar (CPSJ, CPSM, CPSP, CPSA), so a November start is one entry point among many rather than a single make-or-break date.
• Every November a fresh one-year period opens with a newly set cap, so the terms re-price to current market conditions instead of locking in indefinitely.

Worth knowing

• CPSA The floor buys a ceiling. Upside stops at a cap reset each August, and the payoff follows price return only, so the index fund's dividends sit outside the deal.
• Protection is point-to-point. Step in mid-period and your personal floor and cap land at different levels than the ones struck on August 1.
• Small and thinly traded, so the spread can matter as much as the fee, and the 100% figure is stated before that 0.69% expense ratio.

• CPSN The upside is capped, and the cap is reset each period from options pricing. Exposure is to S&P 500 price return, so index dividends are not part of the deal.calamos.com
• The protection is stated before fees and expenses and applies to a full period held start to finish. Buy mid-period and your own cap and protection look different.calamos.com
• A small, thinly traded fund inside a crowded family of monthly siblings. Spreads can be wider than at the household-name outcome ETFs, so limit orders matter.

Full CPSA profile⁠

Full CPSN profile⁠