BALI vs XYLD: Which Covered Call ETF Is Better?

BALI and XYLD are both covered call ETFs tracking the same benchmark, but with different approaches. BALI offers a 7.83% yield, while XYLD provides a 10.41% yield. Compare their scores, yields, and performance metrics to find the best fit for your portfolio.

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Compare covered call ETFs with the same benchmark side by side

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Step 2: Select ETFs to Compare

BALI

iShares U.S. Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF

S&P 500Inception: Oct 18, 2022

7.26

Overall Score

XYLD

Global X S&P 500 Covered Call ETF

S&P 500Inception: Jun 24, 2013

5.79

Overall Score

CriteriaBALIXYLD
Overall Score
7.26
5.79
Total Return (25%)
9.07
3.79
Downside Protection (25%)
3.93
5.90
Upside Participation (25%)
8.88
6.45
Consistency (15%)
7.19
7.61
Expense Ratio (5%)
9.38
5.00
Liquidity (5%)
4.90
7.23
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Key Metrics

MetricBALIXYLD
Expense Ratio0.350%0.600%
Inception DateOct 18, 2022Jun 24, 2013
IssuerBlackRockGlobal X
Distribution FrequencyMonthlyMonthly
Maturity Rating3/5 stars5/5 stars

Verdicts

BALI

Keeps 89% of S&P 500 upside for a 7.8% yield, but with 36 months of history and 80% down capture the downside protection is modest.

Investor Profile:

BALI is an actively managed BlackRock fund run by its Systematic Active Equity team (Robert Fisher, Travis Cooke, Raffaele Savi). It holds about 203 large-cap U.S. stocks, with technology at 36.8% of assets. It sells call options on a large-cap equity index to collect premium and pays monthly. Its benchmark is the S&P 500.

XYLD

Cut volatility to 9.0% (SPY 15.7%), but its worst drawdown (-23.4%) was only 0.5 points better than SPY's.

Investor Profile:

XYLD tracks the Cboe S&P 500 BuyWrite Index. It holds the S&P 500 stocks, 507 positions, and sells one-month at-the-money call options on the whole portfolio. The rules are mechanical and it pays monthly. PBP tracks the same index.

Full scores for these funds

See where these rank against every SPY fund

Both funds are scored on total return, downside protection, upside participation, distribution consistency, cost and liquidity, against the same benchmark and the same window.

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