Three years of total return, split into price change and distributions: July 2023 to June 2026
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.
| ticker | start_price | end_price | price_return_pct | distribution_return_pct | total_return_pct | payments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QQQ | 369.95 | 735.76 | 98.9 | 2.4 | 101.2 | 13 |
| SPY | 442.7 | 746.32 | 68.6 | 4.9 | 73.4 | 12 |
| JEPQ | 48.07 | 61.45 | 27.8 | 34.7 | 62.6 | 35 |
| SPYI | 49.77 | 53.1 | 6.7 | 36.8 | 43.5 | 36 |
| QYLD | 17.76 | 18.43 | 3.7 | 36.1 | 39.8 | 36 |
| XYLD | 41.07 | 40.81 | -0.6 | 31.5 | 30.9 | 35 |
| JEPI | 54.81 | 56.49 | 3.1 | 23.7 | 26.8 | 35 |
| RYLD | 17.93 | 15.99 | -10.8 | 32.1 | 21.3 | 36 |
- Rows × columns
- 8 × 7
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
ticker |
text | 8 distinct values (JEPI, JEPQ, QQQ…) | |
start_price |
number | 17.76 to 442.7 | US dollars |
end_price |
number | 15.99 to 746.32 | US dollars |
price_return_pct |
number | -10.8 to 98.9 | percent |
distribution_return_pct |
number | 2.4 to 36.8 | percent |
total_return_pct |
number | 21.3 to 101.2 | percent |
payments |
number | 12 to 36 |
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 px AS (
SELECT ticker,
argMin(close, window_start) AS start_price,
argMax(close, window_start) AS end_price
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker IN ('QYLD', 'XYLD', 'RYLD', 'JEPI', 'JEPQ', 'SPYI', 'QQQ', 'SPY')
AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) BETWEEN toDate('2023-07-03') AND toDate('2026-06-30')
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY ticker
),
dv AS (
SELECT ticker,
sum(cash_amount) AS distributions,
count() AS payments
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE ticker IN ('QYLD', 'XYLD', 'RYLD', 'JEPI', 'JEPQ', 'SPYI', 'QQQ', 'SPY')
AND ex_dividend_date BETWEEN toDate('2023-07-03') AND toDate('2026-06-30')
AND cash_amount > 0
GROUP BY ticker
)
SELECT px.ticker AS ticker,
round(px.start_price, 2) AS start_price,
round(px.end_price, 2) AS end_price,
round((px.end_price - px.start_price) / px.start_price * 100, 1) AS price_return_pct,
round(dv.distributions / px.start_price * 100, 1) AS distribution_return_pct,
round(((px.end_price - px.start_price) + dv.distributions) / px.start_price * 100, 1) AS total_return_pct,
dv.payments AS payments
FROM px
INNER JOIN dv ON px.ticker = dv.ticker
ORDER BY total_return_pct DESC
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