QSPT vs QTR

QSPTCFT Vest Nasdaq-100 Buffer ETF - September

QTRBGlobal X Nasdaq 100 Tail Risk ETF

In short

QSPT The September stop on First Trust's quarterly Nasdaq-100 buffer carousel: it absorbs the first 10% of a QQQ price drop over a one-year stretch, and hands back everything above a cap reset each September.

QTR QTR owns the Nasdaq-100 and buys puts 10% below the index, so it wears the first leg of a selloff and passes the deep-drop risk to the options market. Insurance you pay for, not a capped buffer.

Stated mandate

QSPT The Fund seeks to track the price return of the Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1, subject to a 16.97% upside cap and protection against the first 10% of losses during the stated outcome period.

QTR QTR seeks to buffer market selloffs through a protective-put strategy that owns Nasdaq-100 stocks and buys 10% out-of-the-money puts on the Nasdaq-100 Index. It aims to generally track the Nasdaq-100 Quarterly Protective Put 90 Index's price and yield performance before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• QSPT The deal is written down, not implied: absorb the first 10% of QQQ's price decline over the outcome period, give up gains above a cap set at each September reset.ftportfolios.com
• The reference asset is the QQQ ETF itself rather than a bespoke index, so the security your buffer keys off trades in public view all day.
• Running since 2021, so it has cycled through multiple complete September-to-September outcome periods, cap resets and all.

• QTR Protection is bought outright rather than funded by selling upside calls, so the trade-off is the running cost of the puts instead of a ceiling on gains.globalxetfs.com
• 0.25% a year, a fraction of the going rate in its Nasdaq-100 downside-protection peer group, where 0.50% (PGIM's Buffer 12 series) to 0.79% (QBUF) is typical.
• The puts roll on the quarterly schedule set by its index, so there is no defined outcome period to time an entry around.
• Holds the Nasdaq-100 stocks directly, roughly 100 names, and sits among the stronger implementations in its peer group.

Worth knowing

• QSPT 0.90% a year sits above the Nasdaq-100 buffer median of 0.79%. PGIM's PQAP and PQJA charge 0.50%, Innovator's QBUF 0.79%, for similar shallow-buffer builds.
• Price return only. QQQ's dividends don't pass through, and the fund isn't built as an income payer.
• Thinly traded next to the category's giants, so limit orders earn their keep. Buy mid-period and you inherit whatever cap and buffer are left, not the September terms.

• QTR The puts sit 10% out of the money. The first 10% of an index drop is fully yours; the hedge only engages past that.
• You pay put premiums whether or not markets fall, a standing cost that weighs on results in calm and rising markets.
• A small fund that trades thinly next to the big buffer franchises, so spreads can run wider. Limit orders help.

Full QSPT profile⁠

Full QTR profile⁠