JULT vs XTR

JULTBAllianzIM U.S. Equity Buffer10 Jul ETF

XTRCGlobal X S&P 500 Tail Risk ETF

In short

JULT A 10% cushion on an S&P 500 tracker, reset every July 1. JULT trades unlimited upside for a defined buffer across each 12-month window, and it has been running that trade since 2020 at a fee below the shallow-buffer norm.

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

JULT The Fund seeks to match the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust’s share-price returns at the end of the Outcome Period, subject to an upside Cap, while buffering the first 10% of losses in that underlying 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

• JULT The deal is written down in advance: match the S&P 500 tracker's share-price return to June 30, absorb the first 10% of its losses, and give up upside above a cap.
• 0.74% a year prices under the median fund in its shallow-buffer group and under 0.79% July rivals such as BJUL.
• Live since June 2020, so it has already rolled through multiple full July-to-June outcome periods instead of asking you to trust a fresh launch.
• Measured against dozens of dated shallow-buffer funds on the same reference, it lands among the stronger implementations in the group.

• 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

• JULT The cap is what pays for the cushion. Upside is capped, and the new level is struck from option pricing each July 1, so it differs from period to period.
• Protection stops at 10%: losses beyond that pass through. The reference is share-price return, so tracker dividends are not part of the payoff.
• Trading is thin next to the largest buffer ETFs, so bid-ask spreads weigh more, and buying mid-period means different terms than the stated cap and buffer.

• 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 JULT profile⁠

Full XTR profile⁠