YIELDMAX YIELD CHASER SPECIAL -- An Analysis of Yieldmax Products by Current Yield and Since Inception

Always take current yield with a grain (or a river) of salt

Jan 24, 2025

Current yield is like a raging river. Are you sure you want to jump in?

As always, please read our disclaimer.

The following stocks are sorted in descending order of greatest “current yield.”

We’re not big fans of current yield because current yield never tells the whole story.

For example, YieldMax puts the current yield in big letters at the top of each page like this, but gives you the yield + capital gains WAY down the page in tiny letters. There is a reason for that.

Current yields are far less realistic — but people chase them anyway.

Like the picture caption says above “current yield is like a raging river. Are you sure you want to jump in?”

It’s hard to deny the appeal of current yields, but if you do jump into “The River of Current Yield,” make sure to wear your life preserver (i.e. diversification).

The problem with current yields is—current yields are really only good for the current month.

After that — in the next month things change all over again based on the next dividend.

And current yield also changes with each change in NAV.

Current yield = most recent dividend / current price * number of periods per year the dividend is paid (weekly, monthly, or quarterly).

So… trying to project forward 12 months (or 52 weeks)—or even a single day—based on current yield ends up being a little suspect as far as long-term technical analysis of an investment goes.

In other words, current yield is ALWAYS a moving target. And just like a river, it’s easy to get swept up in it, and then get dumped downstream, wondering how you “just broke even” if the current yields (when you bought something) looked so great going in.

See TSLY, first paragraph, below. Where in 25.99 months of existence, TSLY’s only returned (if you bought in on Day 1) a total of 7.82% — including the dividends. See boldface below:

TSLY had total dividends of $30.7069 from 11/25/2022 to 1/24/2025. During that time frame it had a starting price of $40.88, a high price of $43.53, a low price of $11.07, and a 1/24/2025 price of $13.37. This means that it had a yield of 75.11%, or an average monthly yield of 2.89%. The peak-to-valley is -74.57%. The capital gains were -67.29%. The overall gain/loss (cap gains + yield) is 7.82%, or a gain/loss per month of 0.30%. The average volume during the last 12 months was 1,945,272.

What that means is that this post is as much educational as it is informative.

Does YieldMax have some good products? Sure.

Does it have some real long-term stinkers? You bet.

But every single one has amazing current yields. So what’s the real story?

For anything here do make sure to look at the full picture (the first paragraph of each entry) before jumping into the River of Current Yield.

Fair warning.

Occasionally we may hold positions in some of these stocks.

All dividends are calculated based on the “Ex-EFF Date.”

[1] Tidal Trust II YieldMax Short C [FIAT]

FIAT had total dividends of $7.2760 from 7/12/2024 to 1/24/2025. During that time frame it had a starting price of $20.10, a high price of $23.17, a low price of $7.44, and a 1/24/2025 price of $7.44. This means that it had a yield of 36.20%, or an average monthly yield of 5.66%. The peak-to-valley is -67.89%. The capital gains were -62.99%. The overall gain/loss (cap gains + yield) is -26.79%, or a gain/loss per month of -4.19%. The average volume since inception was 260,613.

FIAT received a recent dividend of $0.6530 on 1/7/2025. This means the current yield ($0.6530 / $7.44 * weeks/months per year paid) is 105.32%.