DECT vs XTR

DECTBAllianzIM U.S. Equity Buffer10 Dec ETF

XTRCGlobal X S&P 500 Tail Risk ETF

In short

DECT A December-dated buffer fund built on SPY's own share price, not the index behind it. It absorbs the first 10% of a year's decline in exchange for a cap on the upside, then resets every December 1.

XTR Most downside-protection ETFs sell away your upside to pay for it. XTR pays cash instead: it owns the S&P 500 stocks and buys 10% out-of-the-money puts every quarter, leaving the upside uncapped.

Stated mandate

DECT The Fund seeks to match the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust’s share-price return at the end of each annual outcome period, subject to an upside cap, while buffering the first 10% of losses. It uses FLEX Options referencing that ETF.

XTR The Fund seeks to track the performance of the Cboe S&P 500 Tail Risk Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• DECT The deal is written into the prospectus, not left to a manager's judgment: buffer the first 10% of the reference ETF's price loss over a one-year outcome period, capped on the upside, reset each December 1.
• A registered 1940 Act ETF holding FLEX options on SPY, so the payoff shape comes in an exchange-traded wrapper rather than a bank-issued note.
• At 0.74% a year it runs slightly under the typical shallow-buffer fund, and cost is one of its stronger suits in a crowded field where fees are the main separator.
• Part of AllianzIM's dated ladder, which lets the December series be paired with other start months. Its six-month siblings (SIXD, SIXJ, SIXZ) carry the same fee but reset twice a year.

• XTR No cap on the gains. The hedge is bought with cash rather than funded by selling calls, so index rallies come through less the put premium and fees.sec.gov
• Costs 0.25%, well under half of what the defined-outcome funds it competes with typically charge for downside protection.
• Owns the roughly 500 S&P 500 stocks themselves, with the put position layered on top, rather than wrapping the index in a stack of options.sec.gov
• Rules-based and mechanical: puts are bought at 10% below the prevailing index level each quarter and held to expiration, with no manager guessing at timing.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• DECT Thinly traded compared with the giants of the buffer world, so bid-ask spread and order size matter more here than with the category's household names.
• The stated 10% buffer and the cap apply to a full outcome period. Buy partway through and you inherit whatever protection and upside room are left, which can be more or less.
• The target is SPY's share-price return, so dividends from the underlying stocks are not part of the payoff, and the fund itself has not been making distributions.

• XTR Protection starts about 10% down and resets quarterly, so garden-variety dips are absorbed in full and the gap widens if the market rallies mid-quarter.sec.gov
• Insurance is not free. The quarterly premium is a steady cost against plain index exposure, and in calm markets the puts expire worthless.sec.gov
• A small fund that trades thinly, so limit orders matter and subscale products carry more risk of being closed than the category's giants.

Full DECT profile⁠

Full XTR profile⁠