TSLY Analysis
YieldMax TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF — is the distribution income, or your own capital coming back?
NAV decline exceeded distributions
Over the last 1Y, TSLY distributed 67.4% of its price while NAV fell 44.0%. The decline was larger than everything paid out, so a holder across the full window is down on a total-return basis despite the distributions.
From here, TSLY would need a 78% price gain just to return to where it started the window — before any further distributions are counted.
This verdict is generated from fixed thresholds applied to live price and distribution data, not written per fund. Two funds with the same profile always get the same wording.
How TSLY generates income
TSLY was the first YieldMax ETF ever launched and the fund that proved the single-stock covered-call concept could attract massive retail interest. It generates weekly distributions by selling call option spreads on Tesla (TSLA), one of the most volatile mega-cap stocks in the market.
Tesla's implied volatility — driven by Elon Musk's unpredictability, EV market competition, and the stock's cult following — means TSLY's option premiums are consistently large. This is why TSLY has historically offered some of the higher distribution rates in the YieldMax lineup, though they've moderated as Tesla's volatility has normalized from its 2021-2022 peaks.
TSLY underwent a 1-for-5 reverse split in late 2025 after prolonged NAV erosion from paying out large distributions while Tesla's stock declined. This is the core risk of all YieldMax funds made visible: if the underlying stock goes down, the fund's NAV shrinks, and the distributions you received were partially your own capital being returned (ROC). The reverse split didn't change the economics — it just reset the share price to a more conventional level.
For investors who want Tesla exposure with weekly cash flow, TSLY delivers. But the historical total return (price change + distributions received) has lagged simply holding TSLA during periods when Tesla rallied, because the sold calls capped upside participation.
- Underlying
- TSLA (Tesla)
- Launched
- November 2022 (first YieldMax ETF)
- Distribution
- Weekly (Group 2, Wednesday)
- Notable
- 1:5 reverse split in late 2025
- Expense ratio
- 0.99%
TSLY price return since first distribution
The capital half of total return. Read it against the cumulative distributions below — the two together are what a holder actually earned.
Cumulative price return: -87.64%
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Cumulative distributions collected
Running total of per-share distributions since the first payment on record — 78 payments.
Total collected per share since inception: $38.08
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