- Pays: weekly — roughly 99 distributions in its first 23 months.
- First paid: September 26, 2024, within weeks of launch.
- What it is: the first ETF to run zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) options on the Russell 2000 — long small-cap exposure with call options sold each trading day that expire the same day.
- Fee: 0.97% expense ratio (issuer fund page, verified August 2026).
- The family: Roundhill's third 0DTE machine — QDTE runs it on the Innovation-100 and XDTE on the S&P 500. RDTE is the small-cap seat, where volatility (and premium) run hottest.
Small caps swing harder than the big indexes, and option premium is priced off exactly that swing — which is why RDTE's distribution rate has run above its S&P and Nasdaq siblings. The same volatility that fattens the weekly check is what the fund is exposed to between option sales.
RDTE pays weekly. Each point below is one distribution since September 2024 — the check moves week to week because same-day premium moves day to day.
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Each point is one payment; the line ends at the most recent payout. The table below totals them by year.
- Trailing 12 months: $11.98 per share across 52 payments — paying since Sep 2024, so no full prior-year comparison yet. What a change like that does to your income →
- Current pace: recent payments annualize to $9.78 — 18% below the trailing figure. When those two disagree, the trailing yield is quoting the past. Live cut & raise board →
- Share price, same 12 months: down 17% (dividends excluded) — income and principal are one story. Erosion Index →
- Record: 102 payments over 23 months; the largest single payment was $1.08 (Dec 2025).
- Payment drops ≥20% below trend, last 24 months: 16. Get alerted to the next one →
- Payment steadiness: the last 12 checks wobble ±15% around their median. Compare that against any fund →
Every figure above is computed from RDTE's actual payment record and share-price history as of the date shown — not copied from a fact sheet. Recomputed regularly; the chart above always shows the live data.
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| Recent Ex-Dividend Dates | Distribution / Share |
|---|
"Next expected" is estimated from RDTE's recent payment rhythm — the fund announces exact dates shortly before each payout, and the data feed can lag a few days. You must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout; the cash typically arrives days later. See every fund's upcoming date on the live dividend calendar.
A real total-return estimate, assuming every payout was reinvested — including what happened to the share price. Before taxes and fees. Past performance does not predict the future.
All three Roundhill 0DTE funds run one engine: hold the index, sell a call option on it every single trading day, distribute the accumulated premium weekly. What changes across the three is the fuel. The Russell 2000 is the most volatile of the three underlyings, so its same-day options price richest — and its drawdowns cut deepest. RDTE holders get paid more per week than XDTE holders for exactly the same reason they can lose more in a small-cap rout.
The Defiance version of this trade on small caps is IWMY — credit call spreads instead of covered calls, a distinction that matters in fast rallies. Put RDTE beside either on the compare tool and the differences show up in the payment lines within a quarter.
| Year | Total Distributions / Share | Payments | Change vs Prior Year |
|---|
Data source: Yahoo Finance. Figures are per share; the current year may be partial and figures should be verified against official sources.
Calculated from complete calendar years in the data above. Past results don't guarantee future payments.
When Is RDTE's Next Ex-Dividend Date?
RDTE pays weekly — typically going ex-dividend late in the week. The exact date of each payout is announced by the fund only shortly beforehand, so no site can promise the next date — but the live schedule box above shows the most recent ex-dividend date and the expected window for the next one, computed from RDTE's actual payment rhythm. Remember: you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout.
The First 0DTE Fund on Small Caps
When Roundhill listed RDTE in September 2024, same-day options existed on the big indexes but no ETF had run the strategy on the Russell 2000. The mechanics were proven — QDTE and XDTE had been paying weekly since early 2024 — and RDTE simply pointed the machine at the most volatile of the three underlyings. It has distributed every week since, roughly 99 checks in its first 23 months, at a 0.97% expense ratio.
What Selling Every Day's Upside Buys
A traditional monthly covered-call fund sells one option and waits. RDTE re-strikes daily: every session it writes a fresh call at that morning's market level, collects that day's premium, and lets the option die at the close. The advantage is re-anchoring — after a rally, the next day's call is struck higher, so the fund gives up less of a sustained climb than a monthly writer whose strike is stale. The cost is that no single day's rally beyond the strike is ever captured, and the harvest runs on volatility staying bid. In calm stretches the weekly checks thin out; in nervous markets they swell.
The Small-Cap Catch
The Russell 2000 spent much of the last decade underperforming the S&P 500, and an income wrapper doesn't repeal that. RDTE's weekly premium is compensation for holding an index that can go sideways for years and drop 30% in a bad one — with each day's decline landing on the fund in full. The honest way to own it is the way its own numbers suggest: judge the distribution line and the share-price line together, and compare the package against simply holding small caps. The compare tool runs that overlay; the Erosion Index keeps the score.
Compare It Against Anything
Same chart, two tickers, one honest overlay — payouts and price erosion side by side.
Compare Any Two Funds