Here's your weekly helping of interesting investing information and insights.

Food For Thought

I still can't believe how many people invest in covered call ETFs and swear by them, but unless I'm looking at different data, 99% of them make no sense to me.

Because the second a fund sells a covered call for immediate income, it's agreeing to completely cap its upside.

Take the Global X S&P 500 Covered Call ETF (XYLD) — one of the oldest, most respected covered call funds out there. $10,000 at launch in 2013 with every dividend reinvested gets you about $27,000 today. Same money in boring old VOO? $59,000.

The JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) is the same story. $10,000 in at launch gives you $18,800. VOO over the same stretch? $27,700.

But the YieldMax TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF (TSLY) is my all time favorite covered call ETF punching bag.

$10,000 in TSLY with every distribution reinvested? $15,260. $10,000 in actual Tesla (TSLA) stock? $21,857. Tesla doesn't even pay a freaking dividend, and it still beat the income fund by over six grand. Oh, and you paid a 0.99% expense ratio to TSLY for that experience.

There's no free lunch, because a big yield always comes from somewhere, and with covered calls, it comes straight out of your upside.

I found one fund that does this differently — Overlay Shares Large Cap Equity ETF (OVL).

Instead of selling covered calls and capping the upside, it runs a put credit spread strategy. It collects income from a bet the market won't crash, not a bet it won't rise. Upside stays completely open.

It's actually beaten the S&P 500 since 2019 while still paying income, but does carry a 0.79% expense ratio vs 0.03% for VOO. Link below to the full video if you want the breakdown.

And a quick visualization chart of when the three types of funds might perform best...

Its also worth knowing — anything using options is less tax efficient than a plain index fund. A Roth or traditional IRA is usually the better home for these. But you know your situation better than I do.

Hit reply. Tell me you agree. Tell me you own one of these and love it. Either way, I want to hear from you.

— Russ

Video I'm Watching

Value investor Guy Spier launched his fund Aquamarine in 1997, following closely to Buffett’s principles, but closed it down in early 2026 and returned money to investors following a diagnosis of the brain cancer Glioblastoma. He talked with Becky Quick about how facing the end of his life taught him the true meaning of value... and what means more to him than money.

Podcast I'm Listening To

603: Crash Proof: The Scienc...

Jun 15 · ChooseFI | Financial Ind...

51:22

Brian Feroldi wrote an awesome book for brand new investors called Why Does The Stock Market Go Up? He stopped by the ChooseFI podcast to give a very beginner friendly explanation as to why you shouldn't worry about the next stock market crash and sleep very well at night. Highly recommend this one, especially for a new or curious investor.

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Do your own research before making any investment decisions.

😁THANK YOU to all who responded to the last newsletter!!

Check out the portfolio on Blossom, the podcast, or see what’s cooking on YouTube.

And now, here is this week's portfolio activity...

Dividends Received This Week ~$68.78

McDonald's (MCD) | $20.46
Main Street Capital (MAIN) | $39.00
Home Depot (HD) | $9.32

Dividends Received 2026 (Schwab Only)~

$2,108.42

Stocks Sold (AVERAGE)

1 Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) | $369.77

Stocks Bought (AVERAGE)

5 Schwab Intl. Dividend ETF (SCHY) | $32.11
4 Agree Realty (ADC) | $74.79
4 VICI Properties (VICI) | $26.65
3 Schwab U.S. Dividend ETF (SCHD) | $31.90

💰 GOING EX-DIVIDEND THIS WEEK 💰

6/22 Broadcom (AVGO), 0.63% | 67S
6/22 UTZ Brands (UTZ), 3.57% | 50BS
6/23 Canadian Natural (CNQ), 4.47% | 70S
6/23 Restaurant Brands International (QSR), 3.54% | 45BS
6/25 Philip Morris Intl. (PM), 3.30% | 70S
6/25 Medtronic (MDT), 3.63% | 99VS

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