QQQI review: total return vs QQQ, JEPQ and SPYI, measured

What QQQI is

QQQI is the NEOS Nasdaq 100 High Income ETF. It holds the Nasdaq-100 stocks and sells call options on the Nasdaq-100 index against them, at times buying further-out calls so it keeps part of a rally. The option premium is paid out as a monthly distribution. It launched at the end of January 2024.

Because it sells index options rather than options on QQQ, the fund points to their tax treatment, and much of what it has paid so far has been classified as return of capital. That changes when tax is due, not whether the money was earned. The fund's own page has the current expense ratio and tax notes.

The distribution is not the return

Over the last twelve months QQQI paid out about 14.9% of its share price. Since launch, its share price on its own rose only about 0.9% a year. Almost all of what an owner earned came from the distributions, which is the covered call shape: the calls it sells turn most of the index's growth into cash paid out each month.

So the number to compare is total return, the price change plus the distributions reinvested. From its first close on January 30, 2024 to the close on November 11, 2026, QQQI returned about 16.2% a year. QQQ returned about 19.0% a year on the same days. QQQI kept a little over 80% of QQQ's return in a market that mostly went up.

Year by year, and in the 2025 sell-off

2024 from launch: QQQI +19.8% against QQQ +20.9%. 2025: +18.6% against +20.8%. 2026 to mid November: +6.8% against +11.1%. It trailed QQQ in every period, by one to four points.

In the sell-off from February 19 to April 8, 2025, QQQI fell 20.0% close to close while QQQ fell 22.8%. Its worst drawdown since launch is that same 20%. On monthly returns it caught about 80% of QQQ's up months and about 75% of its down months. That is the honest summary: a little less of the fall, a little less of the rise, and a large monthly payout in between.

QQQI vs JEPQ, GPIQ and SPYI

On the same window from January 30, 2024, a year: GPIQ +17.8%, QQQI +16.2%, SPYI +15.5%, JEPQ +14.6%, against QQQ +19.0% and SPY +18.0%. Worst drawdowns: GPIQ -21.1%, JEPQ -20.1%, QQQI -20.0%, SPYI -16.5%, QQQ -22.8%, SPY -18.8%.

The funds that kept more upside, GPIQ and QQQI, earned more and fell about as far as QQQ. JEPQ, which pays out less of its price but also keeps less of the rally, earned the least of the Nasdaq group. SPYI is the S&P 500 version and fell less, because the S&P fell less. Our JEPI vs JEPQ guide has the longer JPMorgan history.

What ten years of older funds say

QQQI's whole history is under three years of a mostly rising market, so it says little about a long flat or falling stretch. Older covered call funds on the same index show the long-run cost of selling away the upside. QYLD, which sells at-the-money calls on the Nasdaq-100 every month, returned about 9.1% a year from 2016 against 19.3% for QQQ, and its share price fell about 2.3% a year while it paid out. In 2020 it returned 8.7% while QQQ returned 48.4%.

QYLD did fall less in 2022, -19.1% against -32.6%, which is the cushion working. Over a decade the capped rallies cost far more than the cushions saved. QQQI keeps more upside than QYLD by design, so it should land between the two, but there is no long record yet to say where.

Is QQQI a good investment?

It depends on what the money is for, and this is not advice for anyone's account. If you need cash from the portfolio now and would otherwise sell shares each month, QQQI turns the Nasdaq into a monthly paycheck at the cost of part of the upside, and the payout itself will move with volatility. If you are reinvesting every distribution for decades, you are paying a fee to have growth converted to income and then converted back, and the record so far says you keep about 80% of the index's return in up markets.

Two checks before buying any income fund: compare total return on the same days, never the yield, and model a year where the market and the payout fall together, because that is when income is needed most and when the fund has already given away the rally that preceded it.

QQQI vs selling puts yourself

A covered call fund and a cash-secured put on the same index are close to the same trade. We use QQQI as the benchmark our own option-selling book has to beat on the same dollars and the same days, because it is the honest no-effort alternative. Over this rising window, a fully invested fund beat a put book that holds cash between trades. The covered call ETFs vs selling puts guide has the comparison and when running the trade yourself is worth it.

How we measured

Daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance through the November 11, 2026 close. Total return reinvests each distribution on its ex-date. Each fund is compared with its index ETF on exactly the same days, starting from the fund's first close. No taxes or trading costs are included, and past returns do not predict future ones. The numbers are percentages only and are re-pulled each quarter.