- Pays: weekly — typically going ex-dividend on Wednesdays.
- First paid: September 2025, right after launch.
- What it is: the YieldMax fund that bets AGAINST the market — short positions on 15–30 large-cap stocks, with options sold on top to generate weekly income.
- “Ultra Short” means short the market — not short-term bonds. Don't confuse it with ultra-short bond funds; this is the opposite of a cash substitute.
- Headline rate: the trailing year adds up to a huge number — but the weekly checks have shrunk from about 71 cents at launch to the mid-20s, and that direction matters more than the total.
SLTY makes no promise to pay any particular amount; each payout depends on the option income earned that period, and the fund's short positions lose money when stocks rise.
SLTY pays weekly. Each point below is one distribution since September 2025. The table further down totals each year — and the downward slope of the weekly amounts is the honest headline.
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Each point is one payment; the line ends at the most recent payout. The table below totals them by year.
| Recent Ex-Dividend Dates | Distribution / Share |
|---|
"Next expected" is estimated from SLTY'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.
Every other fund on this site makes money when its holdings do well. SLTY is the reverse: it holds short positions — bets that stock prices will fall — on a basket of large U.S. companies, and sells options against those bets to turn the market's nervousness into weekly cash. When stocks slide, SLTY's engine hums. When stocks climb, as they mostly have since its launch, the short book loses value and the checks shrink — which is exactly what the chart above shows.
That makes the trailing yield uniquely misleading here: it sums a year of payments from a fund whose payments have fallen by roughly two-thirds since launch. Judge SLTY by total return in the backtest above — price change plus payouts together — and read What Are YieldMax ETFs? for the family mechanics first.
| 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 SLTY's Next Ex-Dividend Date?
SLTY pays weekly — typically going ex-dividend on Wednesdays. 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 SLTY's actual payment rhythm. Remember: you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout.
SLTY's Record So Far: A Bear in a Bull Market
SLTY — the YieldMax Ultra Short Option Income Strategy ETF — launched in September 2025 with the family's most contrarian design: where ULTY harvests option income from a basket of stocks it owns, SLTY harvests income from a basket it has bet against. Its first weekly checks were enormous — around 71 cents a share. Then the market did what markets usually do, and rose. Forty-plus weeks later the checks sit in the mid-20-cent range, the share price carries the scar of a losing short book, and the chart above tells the whole story without commentary.
The Machinery: Short Stock, Sold Options
SLTY's adviser picks 15–30 large-cap U.S. stocks and takes short positions — positions that gain when those shares fall. On top of that it sells options, collecting premiums that become the weekly distributions. The result is a fund with two engines and one steering wheel: option income flows in every week regardless, but the fund's underlying value moves opposite the market. In a selloff, SLTY could shine while everything else on this site bleeds. In a sustained rally, it fights the tide with both hands and pays you from a shrinking base.
Who This Is Actually For
A narrow audience: investors who want standing bearish exposure anyway — as a hedge or a conviction — and would rather collect part of that position's value as weekly cash. As a yield play judged on its headline rate, it's a trap; the rate looks backward over payments the current market no longer supports. Every YieldMax caveat applies double here — return-of-capital components, NAV pressure, and payouts that track volatility (see TSLY for how that story ages). The live dividend calendar shows its next expected date alongside every fund we track.
Understand These Funds Before You Buy
Our plain-English guide explains option income, return of capital, and NAV erosion — the three things every YieldMax buyer should understand.
Read: What Are YieldMax ETFs?