Most Income Investors Have Never Heard of These 3 ETFs. One Pays 14% Monthly

John Seetoo

Tue, May 19, 2026 at 1:45 PM EDT 7 min read

Quick Read

• NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (QQQI) — 14.1% distribution rate with 27% annual total return and $11.9B in assets.

• Amplify CWP Growth & Income ETF (QDVO) returned 29% annually by using tactical covered calls on individual names rather than index overlays.

• YieldMax Target 12 Big 50 Option Income ETF (BIGY) offers 12% target yield but uses synthetic replication, introducing counterparty risk and higher fees.

• The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and BIGY wasn't one of them. Get them here FREE.

Income investors have spent the last two years quietly migrating away from traditional dividend stocks toward a newer category of fund that generates cash flow from options premiums rather than corporate payouts. The three NASDAQ-flavored options-income ETFs most yield hunters still overlook are the NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (NASDAQ:QQQI), the Amplify CWP Growth & Income ETF (NYSEARCA:QDVO), and the YieldMax Target 12 Big 50 Option Income ETF (NYSEARCA:BIGY).

Each pays monthly. Each leans on large-cap, tech-heavy exposure. And each one solves the same problem with a different mechanical recipe. Digging into the fact sheets revealed a much wider gap between the funds than the marketing language suggests, especially around how much upside an investor actually keeps when the NASDAQ rallies.

The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and BIGY wasn't one of them. Get them here FREE.

How options income actually works

The short version: instead of buying high-yield dividend stocks, these funds hold (or synthetically mimic) growth equities and then sell call options against them. The buyer of that call pays a premium for the right to take the stock if it rises above a set price. The fund keeps the premium, distributes most of it to shareholders, and gives up some of the upside if the underlying surges past the strike.

That premium is real cash, which is why distribution rates on these products can run several times higher than the S&P 500 dividend yield. The catch is symmetrical: in a powerful rally, the fund trails its underlying index because the calls cap returns. In a flat or choppy tape, the premiums compound nicely. Knowing where each fund sits on that spectrum is the entire game.

QQQI: the purest NASDAQ-100 play and the standout of the three

QQQI from NEOS is the cleanest expression of the theme. It owns a NASDAQ-100 replicating basket and sells call options on the index itself, then layers in a tax-management overlay that uses Section 1256 contracts (taxed 60/40 long-term/short-term regardless of holding period). For a high-bracket investor in a taxable account, that structure matters more than another twenty basis points of yield.