RDVI vs YMAX

RDVIAFT Vest Rising Dividend Achievers Target Income ETF

YMAXDYieldMax Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs

In short

RDVI Two engines in one wrapper: roughly 50 rising-dividend stocks on the equity side, and calls sold on the S&P 500 (not on those stocks) for the income, targeting 8 points above the index's dividend yield, paid monthly.

YMAX The whole YieldMax lineup in one ticker: roughly 40 option income ETFs bundled together, paying weekly. Income comes first here, and upside is capped by design inside every underlying fund.

Stated mandate

RDVI The Fund seeks current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation. It primarily invests in U.S.-traded equities in the Nasdaq US Rising Dividend Achievers Index and sells U.S.-traded calls on the S&P 500 Index or ETFs tracking it.

YMAX YMAX is an actively managed fund of funds seeking current income. It primarily invests in affiliated YieldMax ETFs whose options strategies generate premiums while seeking long or short exposure to various reference assets, with partial participation in gains.

Why people hold it

• RDVI The income target is written into the mandate: annualized distributions aimed at 8 percentage points above the S&P 500's dividend yield, paid monthly.
• Calls are written on the S&P 500, not on the fund's own holdings, so no individual dividend grower in the portfolio gets called away when it runs.ftportfolios.com
• A concentrated equity sleeve of about 50 US dividend growers, not a 500-name index clone wearing an options overlay.
• Billion-dollar-plus asset base and active daily trading, which puts it among the easier funds to move in and out of in this crowded category.

• YMAX One ticker spreads across about 40 affiliated YieldMax option income funds, so no single reference stock's covered call outcome runs the whole show.
• Distributions land weekly, a cadence very few income ETFs run, and the issuer publishes each declaration ahead of the ex-date.yieldmaxetfs.com
• The mechanism is spelled out plainly: underlying funds write calls against synthetic long exposure built with options, using Treasuries as collateral.yieldmaxetfs.com
• Live since January 2024 and actively traded, so it has a real operating record rather than a backtest.

Worth knowing

• RDVI At 0.75%, it runs above the typical S&P 500 income fund, and cheaper overlays exist in the same lane (IVVW at 0.25%, GPIX at 0.35%).
• The prospectus discloses distributions can include return of capital, so part of a monthly payment may be your own money coming back.
• Stocks and options sit on different benchmarks. When the S&P 500 outruns the dividend-grower sleeve, the short calls give back more than the holdings pick up.

• YMAX Total cost runs 1.33%, above the option income peer median and several times cheaper premium-income rivals like PAPI (0.29%) or DIVO (0.56%). Fund-of-funds fees stack.
• Capped gains are the trade for the premium: when a reference stock rips, the underlying funds only partly participate.
• YieldMax discloses that payouts can include return of capital, meaning part of a distribution may be your own money coming back rather than income earned.yieldmaxetfs.com

Full RDVI profile⁠

Full YMAX profile⁠