NVDY vs NVYY
Two ways to wring income from NVIDIA — YieldMax's option-income fund vs GraniteShares' leveraged YieldBOOST fund: yield, NAV erosion, risk, and our scores.
Both turn NVIDIA's volatility into a huge weekly distribution, and both have destroyed share-price value doing it. The difference is degree. NVDY (YieldMax) sells options tied to NVDA directly; it's the larger, older, more liquid fund, and we rate it WATCH. NVYY (GraniteShares) writes put spreads on 2x-leveraged NVDA ETFs — leverage on top of leverage — and pays an even bigger headline rate that is almost entirely return of capital. Its share price has fallen further and faster; we rate NVYY AVOID.
Neither is a core holding. As of mid-2026 both are flagged for NAV erosion, both distribute largely as return of your own capital, and both carry single-stock derivative risk concentrated in one company. Treat any position as a small, high-risk satellite — and judge them on total return and NAV, never the headline yield.
“Edge” marks the more favourable fund on that metric only — not an overall recommendation. Returns and rates are period-dependent; both funds may have launched at different times.
The differences that actually matter
1. Same stock, very different leverage
Both funds are income plays on a single company — NVIDIA — but they reach it differently, and the difference is the whole story. NVDY (YieldMax) sells call/option exposure tied to NVDA itself, harvesting the stock’s rich implied volatility for a weekly distribution. NVYY (GraniteShares YieldBOOST) writes put spreads on 2x-leveraged NVDA ETFs — it’s collecting premium on an instrument that already amplifies NVIDIA’s daily moves twofold. So NVYY layers an options strategy on top of leverage, which magnifies both the premium it can pay and the damage a drawdown inflicts.
2. Income — the bigger number is the red flag
NVYY’s headline distribution rate towers over NVDY’s, and both pay weekly. Ordinarily that would be NVYY’s selling point; here it’s the warning label. NVYY’s distribution has run roughly 97% return of capital — almost the entire payout is your own principal cycling back to you. NVDY’s payout is also heavily ROC (around half), but the contrast is stark: the fund advertising the larger yield is the one funding it most completely from capital.
3. NAV trajectory — both bleed, one hemorrhages
This is the read no yield table shows. Since inception, NVDY’s share price is down about 35% — and yet cumulative distributions have exceeded the original share price, so a holder who spent every distribution still watched their capital base shrink by a third. NVYY is worse: price down about 49% since its 2025 launch, with distributions returning a smaller share of the original price than NVDY managed. The mechanism is the same on both — capped upside, oversized payout — but NVYY’s leverage-on-leverage structure accelerates the decline. We flag both for NAV erosion; the question is only severity, and NVYY loses it.
4. Risk and stability
Both funds are High risk, but NVYY sits in a worse tier of our scoring for a reason. Its risk-adjusted return (Sharpe ratio) is deeply negative — worse than holding cash — and writing options on a 2x-leveraged underlying means a moderate NVIDIA pullback inflicts an outsized NAV loss. NVDY is volatile too, with a severe maximum drawdown, but it’s the larger, more liquid, more established fund (live since 2023 versus NVYY’s 2025), trading on NVDA directly rather than a leveraged proxy. That’s why our verdicts split: NVDY WATCH, NVYY AVOID.
Which one fits you?
Lean NVDY if you specifically want NVDA income exposure and accept that it’s an aggressive, capital-eroding satellite position — it’s the larger, more liquid, less-leveraged of the two, and the one our model can still justify watching.
Avoid NVYY for most investors: the put-write-on-2x-leverage structure doubles the downside, the distribution is almost entirely return of your own capital, and the risk-adjusted return is deeply negative. We rate it AVOID.
Either way: this is a single-stock derivative bet, not a diversified income holding. Keep any position small, hold it where the return-of-capital tax mechanics work in your favour, and measure success by total return and NAV — not the weekly check, which on both funds is largely your own money coming back.
NVDY vs NVYY: FAQ
Is NVDY or NVYY better?
NVDY is the less-bad of the two. It runs options on NVDA directly, is far larger and more liquid, and has held more of its value than NVYY — we rate it WATCH. NVYY writes puts on 2x-leveraged NVDA ETFs, which doubles the underlying risk; its share price has fallen further, its distribution is almost entirely return of capital, and its risk-adjusted return is deeply negative. We rate NVYY AVOID.
Does NVYY pay a higher yield than NVDY?
Yes — NVYY's headline annualised distribution rate is dramatically higher than NVDY's, both paid weekly. But the bigger number is the warning, not the attraction: NVYY's payout has been roughly 97% return of capital, meaning almost all of it is your own principal being handed back rather than earned income.
Are NVDY and NVYY distributions taxed as income?
Both have a large return-of-capital component, which defers tax and reduces your cost basis rather than being taxed in the year received. NVYY's distributions have been almost entirely ROC (around 97%); NVDY's are roughly half ROC. Headline tax treatment is ordinary income, and final character is set at year end — so the after-tax yield is well below the stated rate on both.
Is NVYY riskier than NVDY?
Yes, structurally. NVYY writes options on 2x-leveraged NVDA ETFs, so a given move in NVIDIA hits the fund roughly twice as hard as it hits a fund tied to NVDA directly. That shows up in a deeply negative Sharpe ratio and a since-inception share-price decline of about 49%. We rate NVYY High risk and AVOID; NVDY is High risk and WATCH.
Why is NVDY's NAV declining?
Because the option overlay caps NVIDIA's upside while the fund pays out an enormous weekly distribution, the share price grinds down. Since inception NVDY's price is down about 35% even though cumulative distributions exceeded the original share price — the headline return is largely your own capital coming back. NVYY shows the same pattern, worse: price down about 49%. Both are flagged for NAV erosion.
Can I hold both NVDY and NVYY?
We'd caution against it. They're the same single-stock bet on NVIDIA expressed two ways, so holding both concentrates rather than diversifies — and one of them (NVYY) we rate AVOID. If you want NVDA income exposure at all, NVDY is the larger, more liquid, less-leveraged of the two; doubling up adds risk without adding diversification.
Want the full picture on each fund — distribution sourcing, the 19a-1 read, NAV-erosion history, holdings and our running commentary?
Open the NVDY report → Open the NVYY report →