GPIX ETF 8% Monthly Yield and S&P 500 Upside at $53

NYSEARCA:GPIX – S&P 500 Income ETF Built for an AI-Led Market

NYSEARCA:GPIX trades around $53.11 with a recent day range of $53.06–$53.32 and a 52-week range of $40.01–$53.50. Fund assets are roughly $2.7B, with average daily volume near 705K shares, which is more than enough liquidity for both retail and size orders. The expense ratio sits at 0.35%, in line with the cheapest covered-call peers, while the trailing yield is about 8%, paid monthly. Structurally, Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Premium Income ETF (NYSEARCA:GPIX) owns S&P 500 names and overlays a systematic covered-call program on the index, targeting an 8.5% yield band and explicitly trying to avoid long-term NAV bleed that plagues many legacy option-income products.

Dynamic Overwrite – How GPIX Generates Income Without Killing NAV

GPIX monetizes volatility by selling at-the-money calls on the S&P 500, but the key is the variable overwrite: management can cover anywhere between 25% and 75% of the notional exposure, instead of being locked at 100% like many old-school covered-call funds. When volatility is high and the fund needs more premium to stay near its ~8.5% target yield, overwrite moves toward the top of the range. When markets grind higher and upside is valuable, overwrite can drop closer to 25%, leaving up to 75% of the portfolio uncovered and able to fully participate in rallies. This is the core design choice that separates GPIX ETF from static overwriters that always sit fully capped. The structure explicitly trades off some protection in drawdowns for meaningful upside capture, aiming to keep distributions funded while still allowing NAV to compound instead of grinding sideways.

Upside/Downside Capture – Why NYSEARCA:GPIX Leads in Bull Phases

On capture metrics versus the S&P 500, GPIX is deliberately the “aggressive income” product in the peer set. Upside capture is about 86%, while downside capture is roughly 85% over the measured window. By comparison, JEPI runs at about 53% upside and 78% downside, SPYI around 73% upside and 74% downside, and XYLD at 52% upside and 46% downside. That profile tells you exactly what you’re buying: GPIX rides most of the S&P 500’s rallies but does not meaningfully mute drawdowns. The payoff is visible when you look at compounding. From November 2023 to December 2025, starting at $10,000, GPIX ends near $15,845 with an annualized return of 23.67%, versus $14,887 and 20.16% for SPYI, $13,519 and 14.93% for XYLD, and $12,995 and 12.85% for JEPI. Standard deviation for GPIX over that window is about 9.77%, lower than the S&P 500’s 11.52%, but clearly higher than JEPI’s 7.49% and XYLD’s 6.19%. Sharpe ratio sits around 1.77, slightly above SPY’s 1.75 and better than all covered-call peers listed. The implication: for investors willing to tolerate equity-like drawdowns, NYSEARCA:GPIX has delivered equity-like risk-adjusted returns while throwing off an 8% cash yield. That is precisely what you want from a “premium income” ETF that is supposed to harvest volatility without suffocating total return.

Total Return Profile – GPIX Versus SPY, SPYI, JEPI and XYLD

Since inception on October 24, 2023, total return numbers underline the same story. GPIX ETF has delivered roughly 62.2% total return, beating SPYI by about 10.25 percentage points and almost doubling JEPI, which sits around 33.5% over the same period. The S&P 500 (via SPY) is still ahead at about 70% total return, as expected for a pure equity tracker with no upside cap. But the gap between ~62% for GPIX and ~70% for SPY is relatively modest, especially considering that investors in GPIX captured that performance while withdrawing around 8% a year in monthly cash. For an income product, that is a very strong outcome. Price-only, GPIX has climbed about 34.5%, lagging SPY more noticeably in capital appreciation because of the call overlay; the rest comes from reinvested distributions. The right conclusion is not “GPIX beats SPY”, but rather: GPIX has proven it can track a strong bull market surprisingly closely while providing a high, regular payout – something many covered-call funds fail to do once you include their structurally low upside capture.

Portfolio Tilt – Magnificent 7 Concentration and Sector Bets

Under the hood, NYSEARCA:GPIX is unapologetically tilted toward the Magnificent 7 and the IT sector. Technology accounts for roughly 33–35% of assets, and the top ten positions sit around 36–37% of the portfolio. Nvidia (NVDA) is the single largest holding at roughly 7.7–8.0%, followed by Apple (AAPL) near 7%, Microsoft (MSFT) around 6%, and other mega-cap growth names including Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG/GOOGL) and Broadcom (AVGO). Magnificent 7 exposure is roughly 31% of the fund versus about 35% for SPYI and only ~4.75% for JEPI. That concentration is not accidental. GPIX is designed for a market where AI capex, data-center build-out, and cloud spending drive the S&P 500’s earnings engine. Gartner expects ~20% YoY growth in data-center-related capex in 2026; if that plays through to revenues and margins for NVDA, AVGO, hyperscalers and cloud platforms, then a Mag 7-overweight fund with dynamic overwrite like GPIX is well positioned. The flip side is obvious: if technology underperforms or AI capex disappoints, the fund’s NAV will feel it quickly because only 25–75% of exposure is covered by calls. This is not a broad, factor-neutral income vehicle; it is an S&P 500 income ETF that leans heavily into the same leadership that has driven index returns in recent years.

Income Engine – 8% Yield, Monthly Distributions, Return of Capital

On the cash-flow side, GPIX ETF targets a 7–9% annual distribution band and is currently paying close to 8%, via monthly payouts. Distributions are variable because they depend on realized option premium, index path, and volatility. Over the last twelve months, total return was roughly 16.25%, while price gained about 6.77%, which means a significant portion came through distributions. Importantly, a large chunk of those distributions is classified as return of capital (ROC) for tax purposes; a recent Section 19(a) notice showed about 89.9% ROC in one payment. That makes NYSEARCA:GPIX particularly attractive in taxable accounts, because ROC defers tax by reducing cost basis rather than being taxed as ordinary income in the current year. For retirees or income-focused investors outside qualified accounts, that structure is a real edge versus REITs, BDCs, or debt CEFs that often distribute heavily taxed interest income. The trade-off is that distributions can and will fluctuate in stressed markets. During the early-2025 drawdown triggered by U.S. tariff headlines, monthly payouts trended lower for several months as the S&P 500 sold off and the option program could not fully offset index weakness. Once the index recovered, payouts recovered with it. So the income stream is high and tax-efficient, but not a fixed coupon.

Behavior Across Market Regimes – Up, Sideways, and Down

Scenario analysis is straightforward if you accept the capture data and structure of GPIX ETF. In a rising S&P 500, particularly with tech leadership and persistent volatility, GPIX has already shown it can deliver a blend of strong price appreciation plus 8% yield, albeit with some lag to SPY. Since inception, total return of ~62.2% versus SPY’s ~70% is the concrete proof. Investors who want income plus equity participation and are willing to accept slightly capped upside get exactly what the product promises. In a sideways or choppy index, the fund’s design becomes even more interesting. The manager can crank up overwrite toward 75%, harvesting higher option premium while NAV oscillates within a band. In that regime, it is realistic for NYSEARCA:GPIX to outperform SPY on total return because SPY offers very little capital growth and zero yield relative to GPIX’s 8% stream. That’s the environment where a dynamic overwriter shines and where static 100% overwriters like XYLD can also look decent – but GPIX maintains better upside participation once the next leg higher starts. In a downtrend, GPIX loses money – there is no magic. Calls don’t hedge sharply falling markets, they only add some premium to soften the blow. The early-2025 tariff shock is a good example: SPY dropped about 15%, while GPIX was down roughly 14% on a total-return basis over that short window. The advantage is there, but it’s not huge, and because upside is capped on the way back up, recovery can take longer versus a pure index tracker. Payouts also dipped during that period, reflecting the reality that you cannot manufacture option income out of thin air when the underlying trend is straight down.

Relative Positioning – Where NYSEARCA:GPIX Sits Versus JEPI, SPYI and XYLD

Within the covered-call universe, GPIX occupies the “offensive income” slot. JEPI is the defensive choice: low-vol stock selection, heavy use of equity-linked notes, lower tech weight (~15% sector, ~4.75% Mag 7), and capture ratios skewed toward smoothing volatility. That gives you smaller drawdowns, smaller rallies, and distributions that risk stagnation if the equity engine is too muted. SPYI is the yield-maximizer: heavier overwrite on the portfolio, ~11.6% current yield, and solid but slightly lower upside capture (~73%) than GPIX. It is well suited to a sideways, volatility-rich tape, but it will structurally leave more performance on the table in a prolonged bull. XYLD is the high-yield, low-growth product with upside capture actually below downside capture over the long term, which is what you explicitly do not want in an equity income vehicle. By design, NYSEARCA:GPIX takes more risk than JEPI and XYLD and leans more toward SPYI, but with a different trade-off: a bit less yield than SPYI (8% vs ~12%) in exchange for better NAV participation in rallies and a more pronounced bet on the Mag 7 / AI complex. For investors who believe the S&P 500 in 2026–2027 will be driven by capex in AI, cloud, and data centers, that is the correct place to be in the covered-call spectrum.