JEPI vs JEPQ vs QQQI vs SPYI: they paid out 8% to 14% last year, and AMD shows the upside they give away

JEPI, JEPQ, QQQI and SPYI are covered-call ETFs: they own large US stocks, sell call options against them, and pay the money out every month. Over the past 12 months they paid out 8.0% to 14.3% of their value. Their share prices barely moved. JEPQ rose 0.5% in the year to October 23, 2026, while QQQ rose 15.4%.

The income comes from selling away part of the market's best stretches, and the accounts we track showed what that costs. In March 2026, the accounts with a graded track record made 19 bullish calls on AMD and no bearish ones while it was a quiet name. AMD then rose 154% in two months. Over those same two months, QQQ rose 27.9% and JEPQ returned 12.4%.

JEPI vs JEPQ vs QQQI vs SPYI

JEPI and JEPQ are J.P. Morgan's funds, and QQQI and SPYI are NEOS's. JEPI and SPYI are built on the S&P 500. JEPQ and QQQI are built on the Nasdaq-100. The J.P. Morgan pair charges less and pays less. The NEOS pair charges more, pays more, and NEOS estimates that almost all of what it pays out is return of capital.

The 12-month and SEC figures for JEPI and JEPQ are from October 22 and 23. NEOS's are from September 30, the latest it has published. Both 12-month figures add up the last 12 payments and divide by the fund's value, with small differences in method. The SEC yields differ for a reason explained in distribution rate vs SEC yield.

JEPI vs JEPQ, for a long-term holder. JEPI owns a spread of about 135 lower-volatility large companies, with no stock above 2% of the fund. It pays less, and it fell less in both 2022 and the spring 2025 sell-off. JEPQ owns mostly Nasdaq-100 names, with Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft about a fifth of the fund between them, and pays about half as much again. Both charge 0.35% and pay on the same dates.

SPYI and QQQI against the J.P. Morgan pair. The NEOS funds cost 0.33 points a year more, or $33 on every $10,000. Over the past year they paid 12.09% and 14.34%. They hold the whole index, where J.P. Morgan picks a portfolio, and they write options on the index directly.

How covered-call ETFs make their income

A call option gives its buyer the right to buy at a set price, the strike. A covered-call fund owns stocks and sells calls against them. It collects the buyer's payment, the premium, up front, and in return gives up any gain above the strike until the option expires. Do that every week or every month and the premiums add up to a steady stream of cash.

The cost is the cap. When the market climbs past the strike, the fund keeps the premium but not the climb. When the market falls, the fund still owns the stocks and takes most of the drop, cushioned only by the premium. So these funds tend to lag in strong rallies, hold up better in flat or choppy markets, and fall with everything else in a sharp drop.

J.P. Morgan (JEPI and JEPQ): equity-linked notes. Each fund holds a stock portfolio picked by its managers and puts up to 20% of its assets in equity-linked notes, or ELNs. These are notes issued by banks that pay the fund the premium from call options sold on the S&P 500 (for JEPI) or the Nasdaq-100 (for JEPQ). On October 23, ELNs were 13.9% of JEPI and 16.9% of JEPQ. J.P. Morgan says JEPI sells its calls every week and aims for a large share of the S&P 500's return with less volatility.

NEOS (SPYI and QQQI): index options. Each fund holds every stock in its index and sells call options on the index itself, SPX options for SPYI and NDX options for QQQI, at times buying calls above them to make a call spread. NEOS calls it a data-driven option strategy. Because index options like these count as Section 1256 contracts, NEOS says their gains are taxed 60% long-term and 40% short-term, whatever the holding period.

Taxes on the monthly payments

The two issuers' payouts are taxed differently. In a taxable account, check how before you compare headline rates.

• JEPI and JEPQ. J.P. Morgan records every payment in the past year as an income dividend. Its prospectus says distributions are taxable as ordinary income or capital gains unless held in an account like an IRA or 401(k), and that the option strategy can mean more ordinary income.
• SPYI and QQQI. NEOS's notices estimate that 99% of SPYI's October payment and 100% of QQQI's was return of capital, and 96% and 100% of everything they paid in 2026 so far. Return of capital is generally not taxed when you receive it. It lowers your cost basis instead, so more of the tax shows up as a gain when you sell. NEOS notes these are estimates, and the final split comes on each year's Form 1099-DIV.

JEPI dividend: yield, history and ex-dividend date

JEPI paid $4.56 a share over the past 12 months, an 8.02% 12-month yield as of October 23, 2026, per J.P. Morgan. Its 30-day SEC yield was 7.25% on October 22. JEPI pays monthly. The ex-dividend date and the record date are the same day, the first business day of the month, and the money arrives about two business days later. Going by that pattern, the next ex-dividend date falls on Monday, November 2, 2026. J.P. Morgan had not announced it as of October 26.

The January 2026 payment went ex-dividend on December 31, so December had two ex-dates and January none. The amount changes every month with the premiums the options bring in: it ranged from $0.34 to $0.45 over the year. JEPI's price ended October 23 at $56.85, 1.1% below where it was a year earlier.

JEPQ dividend: yield and stock price

JEPQ paid $6.88 a share over the past 12 months, an 11.72% 12-month yield as of October 23, 2026, per J.P. Morgan, with a 30-day SEC yield of 11.61% on October 22. The JEPQ stock price closed at $58.43 on October 23, 2026, against $58.14 a year earlier. JEPQ pays on the same dates as JEPI: ex-dividend on the first business day of each month.

JEPQ's payment moves more than JEPI's, because Nasdaq-100 options pay more when the index is volatile and less when it is calm. October's $0.567 was 20% below August's $0.705. If you live on the income, plan around the year's range, $0.47 to $0.71 a share.

JEPQ's largest stock positions on October 23 were Nvidia (7.06%), Apple (6.91%), Microsoft (5.52%), Alphabet (4.56%), Micron (4.22%), Amazon (3.85%) and AMD (3.46%), out of 109 holdings. It also holds SpaceX, at about 1.7% of the fund. More on that in our SpaceX ETF guide.

QQQI dividend history and yield

QQQI paid $7.63 a share over the past 12 months, a 14.34% trailing 12-month distribution rate as of September 30, 2026, per NEOS. Its distribution rate, the latest payment times 12 divided by the fund's value, was 14.28%, and its 30-day SEC yield was -0.06%. QQQI pays monthly. It goes ex-dividend on a Wednesday, usually in the third or fourth week of the month, and pays two days later on the Friday. NEOS has set the next two ex-dividend dates: November 18, 2026, paid November 20, and December 16, paid December 18.

QQQI's monthly payment has been steadier than JEPQ's, between $0.61 and $0.66 all year. Its price has not held up as well: QQQI closed at $52.59 on October 23, 3.4% below a year earlier.

QQQI holds the whole Nasdaq-100, so its top weights match QQQ's: Apple and Nvidia at 8.06% each, Microsoft 6.20%, Micron 4.34%, Amazon 4.25% and AMD 3.71% on October 26, per NEOS.

SPYI dividend history, yield and ex-dividend date

SPYI paid $6.32 a share over the past 12 months, a 12.09% trailing 12-month distribution rate as of September 30, 2026, per NEOS. Its distribution rate was 12.21% and its 30-day SEC yield 0.45%. SPYI's ex-dividend date is on the same calendar as QQQI's: a Wednesday late in the month, paid on the Friday. The next is November 18, 2026, paid November 20, then December 16, paid December 18.

SPYI closed at $52.64 on October 23, 0.8% above a year earlier. Its October payment, $0.5087, was the smallest of the year. It holds the whole S&P 500, with Nvidia (7.77%), Apple (7.69%) and Microsoft (5.90%) the largest on October 26.

NEOS is being bought by Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs Asset Management agreed on August 12, 2026 to acquire NEOS for up to $2.25 billion, with the deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. NEOS ran $30 billion across 19 options-income ETFs at June 30, per the announcement.

Distribution rate vs SEC yield

A distribution rate counts what a fund paid. A 30-day SEC yield counts only the dividends and interest it earned in the last 30 days, minus expenses, annualized. The SEC formula is the same for every fund, which makes it the like-for-like measure, but it leaves out option premiums and capital gains.

The gap between the two issuers comes from how each collects its option income:

• JEPI and JEPQ collect their option income through ELNs, and the notes pay it to the fund as interest. Interest counts in the SEC formula, so their SEC yields, 7.25% and 11.61%, sit close to what they pay out.
• SPYI and QQQI sell index options directly, and the premiums are not dividends or interest. The SEC yield picks up only the stocks' own dividends after the 0.68% fee, so it lands at 0.45% for SPYI and slightly below zero for QQQI, while they pay out 12% and 14%.

Neither number is a promise. The distribution rate tells you what came out of the fund last year. How much of it you keep depends on what the fund's price did.

Returns vs SPY and QQQ: what the income costs

Over the past year, all four funds returned less than the index they are built on, once dividends are counted. Their prices went almost nowhere, so nearly all of the return was the monthly payments.

Since each fund's first trading day, the gap is wider:

The cushion shows up in down markets, and mostly for JEPI. In 2022, JEPI's total return was -3.5% against -18.2% for SPY and -32.6% for QQQ. In the spring 2025 sell-off, from February 19 to April 8, JEPI's price fell 14.4% while SPY's fell 19.0%. The Nasdaq-100 funds gave less shelter: JEPQ fell 21.6% and QQQI 21.9%, against 22.9% for QQQ.

For a long-term holder, start from what the income is for. If you need cash every month and value a smoother ride, these funds trade part of the market's long-run growth for that. If you are still building wealth, the past year and the years since launch show the price of that trade: the index funds grew more, and their payouts could be reinvested or sold down for income instead. On a long horizon, the strongest stretches of the market do much of the work, and those are the stretches a covered-call fund sells.

What the accounts we track say about covered calls

Covered calls come up often in the communities we track, almost always as a trade people run on their own shares. In the 12 months to October 23, 2026, about 200 posts and comments mentioned covered calls, most of them on Reddit. Only five named JEPI, JEPQ, QQQI or SPYI, so the funds themselves are less discussed among the accounts we track.

When a fund did come up, the commenters knew the trade-off. In a June thread comparing SPYI with Strategy's preferred shares, one commenter summed SPYI up as keeping the S&P 500's downside while giving up part of its upside for the monthly payment.

The single-stock posts tell the same story in personal terms. Through the spring and early summer, people who had sold calls on their own AMD, Arm, Rocket Lab and Intel shares described watching them get called away below the market price. One AMD holder wrote in early May that the calls had cost them $8,000 to $9,000 of gains.

AMD: the run the graded accounts saw coming

AMD is 3.46% of JEPQ and 3.71% of QQQI. In March 2026 it was a quiet name, with 38 mentions across the accounts we track all month. The accounts with a graded track record were not quiet about it: they made 19 bullish calls on AMD that month and no bearish ones, from seven different graded accounts.

AMD closed March at $203.43. By April 30 it was at $354.49, up 74%, and by May 29 at $516.10, up 154% in two months. The crowd caught up in May, with 567 mentions. Over the same two months, the funds holding AMD returned:

JEPQ and QQQI owned AMD the whole way. They also had calls sold on the Nasdaq-100, and when the index rose 28% in two months, the losses on those calls took back much of what the stocks gained. JEPQ kept less than half of QQQ's rise.

What this tells an income investor

A covered-call fund sells the next stretch of upside every week or month, whether a run like AMD's is coming or not. The graded accounts were early on AMD, which is what made March worth noticing. The index funds kept that gain, and the income funds traded most of it for their monthly payment. More on the stock is in our AMD sentiment read.

Monthly dividend stocks and funds

Most US stocks pay dividends every quarter, so the monthly payers are mostly funds, including all four on this page, and a small group of companies, such as some real estate investment trusts. The best known is Realty Income, which raised its monthly dividend to $0.2715 a share in September 2026 and says it has declared 675 consecutive monthly dividends.

A monthly schedule changes when the cash arrives. A fund that pays monthly and a fund that pays quarterly can hand you the same amount over a year. When you compare monthly-paying funds and stocks, compare what each paid over 12 months, what its price did over the same stretch, and how the payment is taxed. A high payout from a fund whose price keeps slipping can leave you with less than a lower payout from one that grows. This is not a list of what to buy.

Common questions

JEPI vs JEPQ: what is the difference?

Both are J.P. Morgan covered-call ETFs that charge 0.35% and pay monthly on the same dates. JEPI is built on the S&P 500 and holds about 135 lower-volatility stocks. JEPQ is built on the Nasdaq-100, is more concentrated in large technology companies, and paid more over the past year: 11.72% against 8.02%.

What is JEPI's dividend yield?

JEPI's 12-month yield was 8.02% as of October 23, 2026, and its 30-day SEC yield 7.25% on October 22, per J.P. Morgan. It paid $4.56 a share over the past 12 months.

What is JEPQ's dividend yield?

JEPQ's 12-month yield was 11.72% as of October 23, 2026, and its 30-day SEC yield 11.61% on October 22. It paid $6.88 a share over the past 12 months.

When is the JEPI and JEPQ ex-dividend date?

The first business day of each month, with payment about two business days later. The pattern points to Monday, November 2, 2026 for the next one.

What is QQQI's dividend?

QQQI paid $0.6343 a share in October 2026 and $7.63 over the past 12 months, a 14.34% trailing rate as of September 30, per NEOS. NEOS estimates its 2026 payments so far were all return of capital.

When is SPYI's ex-dividend date?

SPYI and QQQI go ex-dividend on a Wednesday late in the month and pay on the Friday. The next dates are November 18, 2026, paid November 20, and December 16, paid December 18.

What is SPYI's dividend yield?

SPYI's trailing 12-month distribution rate was 12.09% as of September 30, 2026. Its 30-day SEC yield was 0.45%, because the SEC formula leaves out the option premiums that fund most of its payments.

Do covered-call ETFs beat the S&P 500?

Not over the periods we checked. In the year to October 23, 2026, and since each fund launched, all four returned less than SPY or QQQ with dividends included. They fell less in some down markets, JEPI most of all in 2022.

Is JEPI or JEPQ a good investment?

We don't give buy or sell advice. Both trade part of the market's upside for monthly income. Whether that suits you depends on whether you need the cash now, how much a smoother ride matters to you, and how the payments are taxed in your account.

Try it

Open any of the stocks inside these funds in the app, on the web at app.quantral.com, on iOS or on Android, to see its score and every call behind it, with who made each one. Start with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan.

Fund facts, holdings and distributions are from J.P. Morgan Asset Management's JEPI and JEPQ pages and NEOS's SPYI and QQQI pages and notices, checked on October 26, 2026. Prices and total returns are from the Yahoo chart API through October 23. Mentions and graded calls are New York dates.

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