Total return by calendar year: a Nasdaq index fund vs a Nasdaq covered call fund
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 2026-08-01, from Covered Call ETFs: the Real Tradeoff.
| regime | index_fund_total_pct | covered_call_total_pct |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 decline | -32.8 | -18.7 |
| 2023 rebound | 53.6 | 21.2 |
| 2024 advance | 26.6 | 18.5 |
| 2025 advance | 20 | 7.9 |
- Rows × columns
- 4 × 3
- Computed
- Completeness
- No missing values
- Source
- US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
- Licence
- Strasmore terms · free, no signup
What each column holds
| Column | Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
regime |
text | 4 distinct values (2022 decline, 2023 rebound, 2024 advance…) | |
index_fund_total_pct |
number | -32.8 to 53.6 | percent |
covered_call_total_pct |
number | -18.7 to 21.2 | 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 , and the query below is what returned them.
the exact SQL behind every number
WITH ranges AS (
SELECT arrayJoin([('2022 decline', toDate('2022-01-03'), toDate('2022-12-30')),
('2023 rebound', toDate('2023-01-03'), toDate('2023-12-29')),
('2024 advance', toDate('2024-01-02'), toDate('2024-12-31')),
('2025 advance', toDate('2025-01-02'), toDate('2025-12-31'))]) AS r
),
px AS (
SELECT r.1 AS regime,
m.ticker AS ticker,
argMin(m.close, m.window_start) AS p0,
argMax(m.close, m.window_start) AS p1
FROM ranges, global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs AS m
WHERE m.ticker IN ('QYLD', 'QQQ')
AND toDate(toTimeZone(m.window_start, 'America/New_York')) BETWEEN r.2 AND r.3
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(m.window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(m.window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY regime, ticker
),
dv AS (
SELECT r.1 AS regime,
d.ticker AS ticker,
sum(d.cash_amount) AS dist
FROM ranges, global_markets.stocks_dividends AS d
WHERE d.ticker IN ('QYLD', 'QQQ')
AND d.cash_amount > 0
AND d.ex_dividend_date BETWEEN r.2 AND r.3
GROUP BY regime, ticker
)
SELECT px.regime AS regime,
round(maxIf((px.p1 - px.p0 + dv.dist) / px.p0 * 100, px.ticker = 'QQQ'), 1) AS index_fund_total_pct,
round(maxIf((px.p1 - px.p0 + dv.dist) / px.p0 * 100, px.ticker = 'QYLD'), 1) AS covered_call_total_pct
FROM px
INNER JOIN dv ON px.regime = dv.regime AND px.ticker = dv.ticker
GROUP BY regime
ORDER BY regime
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