Gold is one of this year's best-performing assets. As of Sept. 18, the largest ETF backed by physical holdings of the commodity was beating the S&P 500 by a margin of nearly 3-to-1. The gap between equities and the S&P 500 was even wider at roughly 8-to-1. Impressive showings, to be sure. It's arguably enough to make market participants ignore the fact that gold is essentially a no-income asset. Traditional gold ETFs offer no income streams, while the largest miners ETF sports a small dividend yield of 0.56 ...

ETF Market Trends and Popularity - Option income ETFs have gained significant popularity this year due to investors' demand for high income, leading to a surge in launches [2] - These ETFs aim to provide high yields and lower portfolio volatility, but it's important to remember that there is no free lunch in investing [2] - Option income ETFs tend to perform best in sideways markets, offering some protection during stock falls but underperforming in strong bull runs [3] - Investors are increasingly seeking exposure to high-growth technology stocks through NASDAQ 100-based ETFs, leading to increased popularity compared to S&P 500-based ETFs [5] ETF Strategies and Holdings - JPMORGAN's JEPIQ ETF mirrors the NASDAQ 100 index and uses a data science-driven approach to select stocks, aiming for favorable risk and reward characteristics, and generates income by writing call options using equity-linked notes (ELNs) [7] - NEOS's QQQI ETF also provides exposure to NASDAQ 100 stocks and uses call options, focusing on tax-loss harvesting opportunities [8][10] - AMPLIFY's QDVO ETF focuses on large-cap dividend growth stocks and writes covered calls on individual stocks, with a more concentrated portfolio [12][13] ETF Performance Comparison - Since its inception in August of last year, AMPLIFY's QDVO ETF has returned approximately 25%, outperforming the NASDAQ 100 index (up about 20%), NEOS's product (up about 19%), the S&P 500 index (up about 16%), JEPQ (up about 15%), while GLOBAL X product significantly underperformed (up about 6%) [14][15][16] - Over a longer term (approximately 3 years), option income products tend to underperform broad indexes; during this period, the NASDAQ 100 index surged about 76%, JEPQ delivered performance similar to the S&P 500 index (both up about 55%), while JEPPY was up about 29% [17] ETF Expense Ratios and Yields - JPMORGAN's JEPIQ ETF has an expense ratio of 35 basis points and a 30-day SEC yield of over 11% [7][8] - NEOS's QQQI ETF is the most expensive of the three highlighted, with an expense ratio of 68 basis points [9] - AMPLIFY's QDVO ETF charges 55 basis points [12] ETF Asset Under Management (AUM) - JPMORGAN's JEPIQ ETF has $28 billion in assets, with $8 billion inflows this year [5] - NEOS's QQQI ETF has $34 billion in assets, with $26 billion inflows this year [8] - AMPLIFY's QDVO ETF has $143 million in assets, with $125 million inflows this year [12]