IVVW vs TSPY

IVVWAiShares S&P 500 BuyWrite ETF

TSPYBTappAlpha SPY Growth & Daily Income ETF

In short

IVVW BlackRock's version of the covered call: hold the whole S&P 500 through the iShares Core fund, sell one-month index calls struck 1% out of the money, pay the premium out monthly. All for a quarter-point fee.

TSPY TappAlpha writes S&P 500 calls that expire the same day, harvesting premium daily instead of monthly, and distributes monthly. An actively run take on the covered-call trade that still chases capital appreciation, not just yield.

Stated mandate

IVVW The fund seeks to track an index strategy that holds the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and sells one-month call options primarily on the S&P 500 Index to generate income. The short option position is intended to be offset by the fund’s long position in the underlying ETF.

TSPY The Fund seeks current income and capital appreciation while obtaining exposure to the S&P 500® Index through an actively managed covered-call strategy. It sells primarily daily or 0DTE call options against its long S&P 500 exposure to generate option-premium income.

Why people hold it

• IVVW Costs 0.25% a year against a category median near 0.60%. On an income strategy, that is less of the option premium quietly leaking out the door.
• The calls sit 1% out of the money, so a slice of each month's rally still belongs to shareholders before the cap bites. At-the-money writers give that up.cboe.com
• Rules over hunches: it tracks a Cboe index that pairs a long position in the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF with a short monthly S&P 500 call, rolled on a set schedule.cboe.com
• Inside a crowded covered-call field where fat fees are the norm, this is one of the tighter builds in its peer group.

• TSPY Sells primarily daily (0DTE) calls against its S&P 500 exposure, so strikes reset with the market instead of locking in a month-old view.
• The label is the strategy: US S&P 500 equity exposure with calls written on top, actively managed, no drift into other benchmarks.
• Pays monthly, and sits in the upper half of a crowded 51-fund S&P 500 options-income cohort.
• Standard 1940 Act ETF wrapper, so no K-1 and no exotic legal structure behind the options sleeve.

Worth knowing

• IVVW Covered calls trade upside for income. Above the strike, the month's gain is capped, and the premium cushions losses rather than blocking them.cboe.com
• Monthly payouts come from option premium, so they move with volatility instead of arriving as a fixed amount.
• Launched in 2024 and moderately traded, so the live record is short and spreads can run wider than the category's biggest names.

• TSPY At 0.77% it runs above the cohort's median fee and well above rules-based S&P 500 overwriters like IVVW (0.25%) and GPIX (0.35%).
• The fund discloses that distributions can include return of capital, which is your own money coming back and lowers your cost basis.
• Launched in 2024, so the track record is short. Writing calls every day also gives up part of the upside on sharp rally days.

Full IVVW profile⁠

Full TSPY profile⁠