- Pays: weekly — typically going ex-dividend on Wednesdays; one of the first weekly payers in the family.
- First paid: February 2024.
- What it is: a fund of funds — YMAX holds the YieldMax single-stock ETFs themselves (the TSLYs and MSTYs and NVDYs), bundling the whole family's option income into one weekly check.
- The appeal: no single stock's disaster can sink it — TSLA's bad year is cushioned by NVDA's good one.
- The catch: diversification spreads the risk across the family, but every fund in the basket shares the same physics — capped upside, kept downside, and payouts that track volatility.
YMAX makes no promise to pay any particular amount; its weekly check is the pooled income of the funds it holds.
YMAX pays weekly. Each point below is one distribution since February 2024. The table further down totals each year.
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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 YMAX'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.
YMAX is the closest thing to an index fund for the YieldMax universe: one ticker that owns the family's single-stock funds and passes their pooled distributions through weekly. That structure smooths the wildest swings — no one earnings call can crater the whole basket — which shows in payouts that have been steadier than any individual sibling's. But smoother is not the same as safe: when volatility cools across the market, every fund in the basket earns less at once, and YMAX's 2026 checks are running well below the 2024–25 pace.
Layered fees apply too — you pay YMAX's expense ratio on top of the underlying funds'. Judge it by total return in the backtest above, and read What Are YieldMax ETFs? for the family mechanics.
| 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 YMAX's Next Ex-Dividend Date?
YMAX 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 YMAX's actual payment rhythm. Remember: you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout.
YMAX's Record: The Family Portrait
YMAX — the YieldMax Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs — launched in February 2024 as the answer to a fair question: if you can't predict which stock's volatility will pay best, why choose? It holds the family's single-stock funds and forwards their pooled income weekly. The totals so far: about $7.49 per share across 2024, $7.85 across 2025, and a slower 2026 pace — with a share price in the single digits, those are the enormous percentage rates the family is famous for, and the same fine print.
What Diversification Buys — and What It Doesn't
Owning every YieldMax fund at once smooths the idiosyncratic disasters: one CEO's meltdown, one crypto winter, one earnings shock. YMAX's payment history is visibly steadier than, say, MSTY's boom-bust record. What it cannot smooth is the tide that moves every boat: option premiums across the whole market. When volatility cooled through 2025–26, every holding earned less simultaneously, and YMAX's weekly checks slid from the mid-teens of cents toward seven — a gentler slope than its siblings', pointing the same direction.
Where YMAX Fits
YMAX suits someone who has decided they want the YieldMax trade — volatility converted to weekly cash, with all its caps and erosions — but has no view on which underlying stock to pick. It's the honest way to hold the strategy without stock-picking hubris. The costs: fees on two layers, and full participation in the family-wide payout cycle. Compare the basket approach at ULTY (one fund selling options on many stocks directly), and check the live calendar for its next expected date.
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?