Yields Above 100%, Drawdowns Above 70%: Inside the US Leveraged Weekly Dividend ETF Screen

A screen of US-listed Equity exchange traded funds, filtered for leveraged exposure, weekly distribution frequency and an indicated Dividend Yield above 15 per cent, returns 47 funds. Sorted by yield, the top of that list does not look like an income product at all. The leading fund carries an indicated dividend yield of 376.57 per cent. The thirteenth on the list still carries 115.36 per cent. Over the same period, every one of those thirteen is down between 62 and 96 per cent on a one year price basis. Both sets of figures come from the same screen on the same day.

The screen and its limits

Four filters were applied: US listing, equity asset class, leveraged and weekly dividend frequency, with a floor of 15 per cent on indicated dividend yield. No management style or strategy constraint was set, which is why the result count reaches 47. The tables below cover the thirteen highest-yielding funds visible in the sorted view, not the full 47. Any figure quoted here applies to those thirteen only.

The thirteen highest indicated yields

The GraniteShares YieldBOOST COIN ETF (NASDAQ: COYY) leads at 376.57 per cent, with an indicated annual distribution of USD 62.85 against a share price of USD 16.69. The annualised payout is roughly 3.8 times the price of the share it is paid on. The Defiance Leveraged Long + Income MSTR ETF (NASDAQ: MST) shows USD 24.50 against USD 11.75, slightly more than double. The Roundhill MSTR WeeklyPay ETF (NASDAQ: MSTW) shows USD 10.31 against USD 4.15, roughly 2.5 times.

Those ratios are the clearest signal of what an indicated yield actually is. It annualises a recent distribution, and for a weekly payer that means taking one week and multiplying by 52. A single week of unusually high option premium, or one special distribution, produces a figure that no fund could sustain for a year. Nothing in the calculation is a forecast, and nothing in it is a commitment by the fund.

The reference Assets explain the rest. Across the thirteen, the underlying single stocks are Coinbase, Strategy, Robinhood, Super Micro Computer, IonQ, MARA, Rigetti, D-Wave Quantum, RIOT and Alibaba. That is a list of crypto-linked, Quantum Computing and high-beta technology names. Option premium scales with implied volatility, so the funds writing Options on the most volatile stocks collect the most premium and print the highest yields. The same Volatility is what produces the drawdowns in the next table. The yield and the loss have a common cause.

Price performance against yield

Over one year, the range runs from -56.27 per cent for the Roundhill HOOD WeeklyPay ETF (NASDAQ: HOOW) to -96.22 per cent for MST. Year to date, every fund is down at least 42.68 per cent. Six months shows a single positive reading, HOOW at +3.32 per cent. The shorter windows are more mixed: MST is up 52.01 per cent over one week and 46.33 per cent over one month, MSTW is up 35.18 and 28.09 per cent, and the Roundhill COIN WeeklyPay ETF (NASDAQ: COIW) is up 25.92 and 7.28 per cent. Leverage on a volatile reference asset moves quickly in both directions.

For most of the thirteen, the five year, ten year and all time columns repeat one value. That should be read as a since inception figure carried across periods the fund has not existed for, not as a genuine long-term record. These are recent products. HOOW is worth noting separately, showing -45.03 per cent since inception against -56.27 per cent over one year, which implies an inception point inside the one year window and is worth checking against the fund documents before it is quoted.

Why the two columns do not cancel out

The performance figures are price returns and exclude distributions. Every payment reduces net asset value on the ex-distribution date, so a fund paying weekly will show price erosion by design even if investors received every dollar. Total return combines the two, and the screener carries it in a separate NAV total return view that was not part of this pull. No statement about what a holder actually earned can be made from price return alone.

That said, the magnitude here does not resolve neatly. A fund down 88.96 per cent since inception while quoting a 376.57 per cent indicated yield raises a question the price column cannot answer, which is how much of the distribution was Investment income and how much was return of capital. Return of Capital is a payment out of the fund’s own asset base. It arrives as cash, reduces net asset value and has a different tax character. Section 19a-1 notices and the Annual Report state the split for each fund. For products at these payout rates, that document is the starting point rather than a footnote.

What the screen does not show

Expense ratio, assets under management, daily traded volume, bid-ask spread, leverage factor, option strategy detail and distribution variability are all outside this view. Leverage Factor matters in particular, since the funds here are not on a common multiple. Liquidity matters because the exit price forms part of the return on a small, recently launched fund.

The narrow reading the data supports is this. Forty-seven US-listed leveraged equity ETFs currently pay weekly and carry indicated yields above 15 per cent. Among the thirteen highest, indicated yields run from 115.36 to 376.57 per cent, and one year price returns run from -56.27 to -96.22 per cent. Establishing what those distributions were funded from, and what a holder actually retained after tax, requires the NAV total return series and the distribution notices for each fund.

This article is general information only and does not take into account any individual objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. All figures are as displayed on the screener on 27 August 2026, cover the thirteen funds visible in the sorted view and are subject to change. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investors should consider the appropriateness of any information having regard to their own circumstances and seek independent financial advice before making any financial decision.