PFEB vs PSMO

PFEBCInnovator U.S. Equity Power Buffer ETF

PSMOBPacer Swan SOS Moderate (October) ETF

In short

PFEB February is the whole point. PFEB restarts each year with a fresh 15% cushion against SPY losses, in exchange for a ceiling on the upside that resets at the same time. Same recipe as its sibling months, different calendar.

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

PFEB The Fund seeks to follow SPY’s return up to a predetermined cap and protect investors from the first 15% of losses during the outcome period.

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

• PFEB The contract is simple: absorb the first 15% of SPY's decline over the outcome period, then follow SPY's gains up to a predetermined cap.innovatoretfs.com
• The reference asset is SPY itself, not a bespoke in-house index. You are hedging the same S&P 500 exposure millions of people already hold.innovatoretfs.com
• At 0.79%, the fee sits right at the middle of its buffer-fund cohort. The options machinery costs what it costs across this group.
• Innovator has run the February lane since 2020, and the fund stands in the upper half of a crowded field of 15% buffer strategies.

• 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

• PFEB Buffer and cap are defined for a full outcome period. Enter mid-period and you inherit whatever cushion and upside are left, not the headline 15%.innovatoretfs.com
• The cap cuts both ways. In a roaring year for the S&P 500, participation stops where the cap stops.innovatoretfs.com
• It trades less actively than the largest buffer ETFs, which can show up as wider bid-ask spreads. Also a price-return vehicle: no distribution stream.

• 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 PFEB profile⁠

Full PSMO profile⁠