PAPR vs PSMO

PAPRCInnovator U.S. Equity Power Buffer ETF

PSMOBPacer Swan SOS Moderate (October) ETF

In short

PAPR Innovator's April door. PAPR takes the first 15% of losses on the S&P 500 fund it references and caps your upside in exchange. The buffer resets every April 1, so the deal is rewritten once a year. Running since 2019.

PSMO A 15% cushion against SPY's first losses, reset every October, for 0.49% a year. Most defined-outcome funds charge more, and the trade is a cap on the upside that gets set fresh at the start of each period.

Stated mandate

PAPR The Fund uses a defined-outcome strategy tied to SPY over the April 1, 2026–March 31, 2027 Outcome Period, seeking to limit upside at a cap while protecting the first 15% of underlying losses before fees and expenses.

PSMO The fund seeks to track the returns of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust up to a stated cap while buffering the first 15% of losses during an approximately one-year outcome period.

Why people hold it

• PAPR Buffers the first 15% of the reference fund's losses over each April-to-March outcome period, before fees and expenses. Downside cushion without leaving equities.innovatoretfs.com
• One of twelve monthly Power Buffer siblings, so you can enter in April or ladder across start months instead of hanging everything on one reset date.
• Live since April 2019, it has reset through real drawdowns rather than backtests, and it grades out in the upper tier of a crowded buffer peer group.

• PSMO Charges 0.49% a year versus a 0.79% median across its 15%-buffer peer group, one of the lower-cost ways to own this structure.
• Pacer's moderate SOS funds (PSMD, PSMR, PSMJ) all price at 0.49%, while the Innovator power-buffer lineup (POCT, PJUL, PJAN) runs 0.79%.
• The reference asset is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust itself, not an abstract index, so what's being buffered is a fund you can watch tick by tick.paceretfs.com

Worth knowing

• PAPR The cap is what pays for the buffer. Upside for each period is limited, and the 15% cushion is measured before the 0.79% fee, so a hot market year leaves gains on the table.
• Buy mid-period and you inherit whatever cap and remaining buffer are left, not the headline terms. The full stated deal belongs to holders from the April 1 start.
• At 0.79% it is priced like its Power Buffer siblings, while the laddered BUFF spreads the same style of outcomes across all twelve months for 0.10%.

• PSMO Buffer and cap are engineered for the full one-year outcome period running October through September. Buy or sell mid-period and you may get neither in full.paceretfs.com
• Upside stops at a cap reset each October. A runaway rally in the S&P 500 is the scenario this structure hands back in exchange for the 15% cushion.paceretfs.com
• One of the quieter tickers in the buffer aisle, so spreads and order type matter more here than with the category's household names.

Full PAPR profile⁠

Full PSMO profile⁠