HCOW vs RDVI

HCOWBAmplify COWS Covered Call ETF

RDVIAFT Vest Rising Dividend Achievers Target Income ETF

In short

HCOW Most option-income funds write calls on a broad index. HCOW writes them on cash cows: the free-cash-flow-rich dividend payers inside Amplify's COWS strategy, roughly 80 names, with the premium paid out monthly.

RDVI Two engines in one wrapper: roughly 50 rising-dividend stocks on the equity side, and calls sold on the S&P 500 (not on those stocks) for the income, targeting 8 points above the index's dividend yield, paid monthly.

Stated mandate

HCOW HCOW seeks current income through equity securities held by the COWS ETF together with written covered call options that reference those securities.

RDVI The Fund seeks current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation. It primarily invests in U.S.-traded equities in the Nasdaq US Rising Dividend Achievers Index and sells U.S.-traded calls on the S&P 500 Index or ETFs tracking it.

Why people hold it

• HCOW The call writing sits on top of a screened basket of about 80 cash-flow-focused dividend payers, not a broad market index.amplifyetfs.com
• 0.65% a year, comfortably under the median fee for actively managed option-income ETFs.
• The income plan is written down, not improvised: a stated 10% annual target distribution rate, paid monthly.amplifyetfs.com
• Launched in 2023 and lands in the upper half of a crowded field of active option-income funds on our review.

• RDVI The income target is written into the mandate: annualized distributions aimed at 8 percentage points above the S&P 500's dividend yield, paid monthly.
• Calls are written on the S&P 500, not on the fund's own holdings, so no individual dividend grower in the portfolio gets called away when it runs.ftportfolios.com
• A concentrated equity sleeve of about 50 US dividend growers, not a 500-name index clone wearing an options overlay.
• Billion-dollar-plus asset base and active daily trading, which puts it among the easier funds to move in and out of in this crowded category.

Worth knowing

• HCOW Small and thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the category's household names.
• Covered calls swap away part of any upside in the underlying stocks for premium today. That is the deal.amplifyetfs.com
• Amplify discloses that distributions may include return of capital, meaning part of a payout can be your own principal coming back.amplifyetfs.com

• RDVI At 0.75%, it runs above the typical S&P 500 income fund, and cheaper overlays exist in the same lane (IVVW at 0.25%, GPIX at 0.35%).
• The prospectus discloses distributions can include return of capital, so part of a monthly payment may be your own money coming back.
• Stocks and options sit on different benchmarks. When the S&P 500 outruns the dividend-grower sleeve, the short calls give back more than the holdings pick up.

Full HCOW profile⁠

Full RDVI profile⁠