What GPIQ Is
GPIQ, the Goldman Sachs Nasdaq-100 Premium Income ETF, owns the stocks in the Nasdaq-100 and sells call options on part of the portfolio. Selling a call option means collecting cash now in exchange for giving up any gains above a set price. That option cash funds a monthly payout that has run at about 10–11% a year.
GPIQ is popular, and online it gets pitched with eye-popping return figures. One widely shared claim put it at about “100% a year.” The real number is +91.4% total return from its first close on Oct 26, 2023 through Nov 4, 2026, or about 23.9% a year. Over the same dates, QQQ, which holds the same index with no options, returned +104.8%. That gap is the cost of the option income, and it is how the fund is built to work. It was also nearly 19 points at the early-October high, before the recent sell-off narrowed it.
Performance and yield figures are historical and may change. Total return includes price movement and distributions where available. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Yield is not the same as total return.
GPIQ at a Glance
| Metric | GPIQ |
| Latest monthly distribution | $0.47145 per share (ex-dividend Nov 2, 2026) |
| Annualized run-rate (latest payout × 12 ÷ $53.94 close) | 10.49% |
| Trailing-12-month distributions | $5.7634 per share, a 10.68% TTM yield (12 monthly payments, Dec 2025 – Nov 2026) |
| Share price (Nov 4, 2026 close, Tiingo) | $53.94 |
| 52-week range | $47.96 – $59.52 (closing prices) |
| Expense ratio | 0.29% net (0.35% before Goldman’s fee waiver) |
| Net assets | About $6.3–6.4 billion (early Nov 2026) |
| Inception | Oct 24, 2023 (first traded Oct 26) |
Distributions vary from month to month and are not guaranteed. Yields are trailing figures as of early November 2026.
The Claim vs. the Record
The “100% a year” figure does not match the fund’s own reported returns and appears to stem from a third-party data error. Goldman reports a since-inception NAV return of 25.17% a year (standardized, through Sept 30, 2026). Our calculation from GPIQ’s first close to Nov 4, 2026 is +91.4% total, or about 23.9% a year. The two figures cover different dates. Goldman measures from the Oct 24, 2023 inception date through Sept 30, 2026. Ours runs from the first close on Oct 26, 2023 through Nov 4, 2026. The dates pull in opposite directions: the Nasdaq-100 fell about 4% between Oct 24 and Oct 26, 2023, which gives our calculation a lower starting point, while the October 2026 sell-off lowers ours at the far end. Both put GPIQ at roughly 24–25% a year, which is still a high return in absolute terms.
The second common mistake is double counting: adding the 10–11% yield on top of price growth. Total return already includes the payout. Over the window, GPIQ’s share price rose 39.5% and it paid out cash equal to 40.7% of its starting price. With the payouts reinvested, those two pieces together make the 91.4%. Adding the yield again counts the same dollars twice.
The Scoreboard: GPIQ and Three Peers
To put GPIQ’s return in context, we lined it up against three funds:
- QQQ holds the same Nasdaq-100 stocks with no options. It is the baseline.
- JEPQ (JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income) is the largest Nasdaq covered-call rival.
- QYLD (Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call) is the original version of the strategy and sells calls on essentially the whole portfolio.
| Fund | Total return | Per year | Price change | Cash paid (% of Oct 2023 price) | Expense ratio |
| QQQ (Nasdaq-100, no options) | +104.8% | 26.7% | +101.4% | 2.6% | 0.18% |
| GPIQ | +91.4% | 23.9% | +39.5% | 40.7% | 0.29% net (0.35% gross) |
| JEPQ | +77.2% | 20.8% | +26.6% | 41.3% | 0.35% |
| QYLD | +58.9% | 16.6% | +10.3% | 39.5% | 0.60% |
Window: Oct 26, 2023 – Nov 4, 2026. Total returns assume reinvested distributions.
