XYLD vs QYLD: The Income Journey

Introduction

XYLD and QYLD both generated substantial distributions over this eight-year period, but their income paths looked very different. This visualization tracks annual yield on cost from 2018 through 2025, showing how each fund's distributions changed relative to its original 2018 purchase price.

Key insights

• QYLD started with a large income advantage

  QYLD began at a 10.01% yield on cost in 2018, compared with 5.50% for XYLD. By 2025, however, QYLD's yield on cost was 9.61%, slightly below where it started.

• XYLD closed the gap

  XYLD's annual distribution increased from about $2.77 per share in 2018 to $5.46 in 2025. That lifted its yield on cost from 5.50% to 10.85%, representing 97.34% cumulative distribution growth and a 10.20% CAGR over the period.

• The paths were not smooth or directly comparable throughout

  XYLD's distributions climbed through 2022, declined in 2023 and 2024, and rebounded in 2025. Its strategy also changed in 2020 from a 2% out-of-the-money call strategy to its current buy-write strategy. QYLD's distributions ended 3.99% below their 2018 level, and the fund was reorganized under Global X in December 2018 with predecessor history retained.

Methodology

Yield on cost is calculated as each year's annual distribution divided by the original starting share price, multiplied by 100. The starting prices are $50.31 for XYLD and $24.76 for QYLD. Annual distributions are grouped by payment date. Yield on cost therefore measures distributions relative to the original purchase-price basis; it is not the fund's current market yield. This visualization focuses only on cash distributions relative to the starting purchase price. It does not include share-price appreciation or dividend reinvestment. Historical distribution growth should not be interpreted as an indication of future income growth.

Related links

• Blog article
• YouTube video