A 15% cap and 9% buffer, seen from three entry points

Name: A 15% cap and 9% buffer, seen from three entry points
Creator: Strasmore
Published: 2026-08-12
License: https://www.strasmore.com/terms/

Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-12, from How Buffer ETFs Work: Caps and Resets.

as of 2026-08-12 ranking 21×4read in context →

A 15% cap and 9% buffer, seen from three entry points — 21 rows by 4 columns, computed 2026-08-12 from US exchange, SIP and OPRA data.
index_return_pct	bought_at_reset_pct	bought_after_drop_pct	bought_after_rally_pct
-30	-21	-18.6	-24
-27	-18	-15.5	-21.2
-24	-15	-12.4	-18.3
-21	-12	-9.3	-15.4
-18	-9	-6.2	-12.5
-15	-6	-3.1	-9.6
-12	-3	0	-6.7
-9	0	3.1	-3.8
-6	0	3.1	-3.8
-3	0	3.1	-3.8
0	0	3.1	-3.8
3	3	6.2	-1
6	6	9.3	1.9
9	9	12.4	4.8
12	12	15.5	7.7
15	15	18.6	10.6
18	15	18.6	10.6
21	15	18.6	10.6
24	15	18.6	10.6
27	15	18.6	10.6
30	15	18.6	10.6

Rows × columns: 21 × 4
Computed: 2026-08-12
Completeness: No missing values
Source: US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
Licence: Strasmore terms · free, no signup
Formats: JSON · CSV · the SQL below

What each column holds

Column definitions for A 15% cap and 9% buffer, seen from three entry points, derived from the stored result.
Column	Type	Range	Notes
`index_return_pct`	number	-30 to 30	percent
`bought_at_reset_pct`	number	-21 to 15	percent
`bought_after_drop_pct`	number	-18.6 to 18.6	percent
`bought_after_rally_pct`	number	-24 to 10.6	percent

Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on 2026-08-12, and the query below is what returned them.

the exact SQL behind every number

SELECT
    index_return_pct,
    round(fund_nav - 100, 1)              AS bought_at_reset_pct,
    round((fund_nav / 97.0 - 1) * 100, 1) AS bought_after_drop_pct,
    round((fund_nav / 104.0 - 1) * 100, 1) AS bought_after_rally_pct
FROM
(
    SELECT
        index_return_pct,
        100 + multiIf(index_return_pct >  15.0, 15.0,
                      index_return_pct >=  0.0, index_return_pct,
                      index_return_pct >= -9.0, 0.0,
                      index_return_pct + 9.0) AS fund_nav
    FROM
    (
        SELECT toFloat64(arrayJoin(range(21))) * 3 - 30 AS index_return_pct
    )
)
ORDER BY index_return_pct

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