- Pays: weekly (it paid monthly from launch until late 2025).
- First paid: January 2023 — TSLY is the original YieldMax fund, the one that started the category.
- What it is: an option-income fund that sells call options on Tesla (TSLA) and pays out the fees it collects.
- Payout pattern: yearly totals have declined every year since 2023 — the classic single-stock option-income pattern.
- Note: TSLY did a reverse share split in early 2024; the figures here are adjusted for it by the data source.
TSLY's distributions track what its option strategy earns on Tesla's volatility — no amount is promised, and the streak of declining yearly totals is part of the record.
TSLY pays weekly (monthly until late 2025). Each point below is one distribution since the fund's first payout in January 2023. The table further down totals every year — and shows the year-over-year declines plainly.
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Each point is one payment; the line ends at the most recent payout. The table below totals them by year.
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.
TSLY matters beyond TSLY. As the oldest fund in the YieldMax family, it has the longest track record — and that record shows the category's long-run physics: every full year has paid less than the one before it. Not because managers failed, but because the machine works this way. Selling Tesla's upside while keeping its downside erodes the fund's share price; a smaller share price earns smaller option fees; smaller fees mean smaller checks. By early 2024 the erosion was deep enough that TSLY did a reverse share split.
Whether that trade is worth it depends on one number — total return, payouts plus share-price change — which the backtest box above computes from real prices. If you're considering the newer, shinier YieldMax funds, this page is what their charts may look like with three more years of history. The mechanics, minus the jargon: What Are YieldMax ETFs?
| 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. Figures reflect TSLY's 2024 reverse share split as adjusted by the data source.
Calculated from complete calendar years in the data above. Past results don't guarantee future payments.
Three Years of Evidence: TSLY's Complete Record
TSLY — the YieldMax TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF — is where the entire YieldMax phenomenon began. It made its first payout in January 2023 and has paid ever since: monthly for its first three years, weekly since late 2025. Because it has the longest track record in the family, TSLY also shows the long-run pattern of these funds more clearly than any of its siblings — which makes this page worth a careful look before you buy any of them.
That pattern, visible in the year-by-year table: the totals have declined every single year. Tesla itself pays no dividend — every dollar TSLY distributes is option income (fees from selling away Tesla's upside) or, in part, your own capital returned. Along the way the fund's share price eroded far enough that it carried out a reverse share split in early 2024.
How Often Does TSLY Pay?
Weekly, typically Thursdays, since late 2025; monthly before that. Roughly 52 payments a year now. The chart above plots each one, and you can drag across it to read any payment's exact amount and date.
Why Did TSLY's Payout Fall Year After Year?
Three reinforcing reasons. One: option income tracks volatility, and Tesla's implied volatility has cooled from its 2022–2023 extremes. Two: the fund keeps most of Tesla's downside while selling away most of its upside, so its NAV grinds lower over time — and a smaller NAV earns smaller option fees. Three: part of many distributions is return of capital, which itself shrinks the base. None of this is hidden — it's in the fund's own documents — but the yield ads don't lead with it, and the chart above makes it impossible to miss.
Is TSLY's Payout Safe?
No — and TSLY's own history is the best evidence: it has never repeated its first year's total. Treat the advertised yield as a snapshot, not a promise, and judge the fund by total return using the backtest box above. For the full plain-English mechanics of these products, read What Are YieldMax ETFs? — then compare TSLY with MSTY, CONY, and the basket-based ULTY, or with steadier income funds like JEPI and SCHD.
Learn the Mechanics Behind the Slide
TSLY's declining totals aren't bad luck — they're the design. Our guide explains option income, NAV erosion, and return of capital in plain English.
Read: What Are YieldMax ETFs?