QYLD Dividend History

More than a decade of monthly payouts from the original Nasdaq covered-call fund — every payment on one timeline.

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QYLD Dividend — Quick Facts
  • Pays: monthly — 12 times a year, and it hasn't missed a month since 2014.
  • First paid: January 2014 — one of the longest track records of any covered-call ETF.
  • Yield: typically around 11–13%.
  • Payout pattern: high but flat-to-drifting-down across a decade — QYLD is built for maximum income today, not growth.
  • Rule of thumb: each monthly payment is capped at 1% of the fund's value (10% a year in option income, whichever is less).

Figures cover complete calendar years; a few early years in the data feed appear to be missing a payment, so treat small dips as data noise.

Every Dividend Payment, Over Time

QYLD pays monthly. Each point below is one payment since January 2014 — over a decade of them. Notice the line doesn't climb: high income, no growth, is the design. The table further down totals each year.

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How to Read This — a Flat Decade Is the Whole Point

QYLD sells call options on 100% of its Nasdaq-100 portfolio, every month, at today's prices. That converts the maximum possible amount of the index's future upside into cash now — which is why the yield is huge and why, after more than a decade, the payout has gone essentially nowhere. It can't grow: all the growth gets sold.

The share price tells the same story — it has drifted gently downward since 2014, because the fund keeps market downside but never fully participates in recoveries. QYLD isn't broken; it's the purest expression of the income-now trade. Whether that trade suits you is the real question, and our covered-call ETF guide walks through it in plain English.

A Decade of QYLD Payments: The Evidence

QYLD — the Global X Nasdaq 100 Covered Call ETF — is the granddaddy of high-income option funds, paying every single month since January 2014. That decade-plus of history, all plotted above, makes QYLD the best evidence available for what the covered-call trade does over a full market cycle: it pays around 11–13% a year, month in and month out… and the payout goes basically nowhere.

Look at the year-by-year table: roughly $2.38 per share in 2014, roughly $2.04 in 2025, wiggling between about $1.70 and $2.85 along the way. Eleven-plus years, no growth trend. Meanwhile SCHD nearly quadrupled its payout over the same stretch — at a third of the yield. That contrast is the entire high-yield-vs-growth decision, drawn in data.

How Often Does QYLD Pay Dividends?

Monthly, near the end of each month, 12 times a year since 2014. Each payment is capped at 1% of the fund's value — a deliberate governor that keeps the income stream steady instead of spiking and crashing with volatility.

Why Doesn't QYLD's Payout Grow?

Because growth is what it sells. Every month QYLD writes call options on its entire Nasdaq-100 portfolio at roughly current prices — meaning if the index rallies, the gains above that level belong to the option buyers, not to you. You collected the fee instead. Do that every month for a decade and the payout can't compound, and the share price slowly bleeds in exchange for all that income. High yield isn't magic; it's an exchange rate.

Is QYLD Worth It?

It depends entirely on what job you're hiring it for. As a income-now tool — a retiree converting a lump sum into dependable monthly cash — QYLD has done exactly what it promised for over a decade. As a wealth-building tool, it has badly lagged simply owning the Nasdaq. Newer designs split the difference: QQQI and SPYI keep some upside and improve the tax picture, while JEPQ trades a few points of yield for real growth participation. Our guide What Are QYLD, QQQI & SPYI? compares them all in plain English.

Model a QYLD-Style Income Stream

The estimator above uses QYLD's live yield with a flat payout — the realistic assumption its own decade of history supports.

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Educational content only — not financial advice. Payout history is provided by a third-party data source and may contain errors, omissions, or delays; verify against official sources before relying on it. Past distributions do not guarantee future payments. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.