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Any discussion of income-oriented exchange-traded funds, including weekly income ETFs, should start with a basic reality of how fund distributions work. When an ETF pays a distribution, its net asset value, or NAV, typically falls by roughly the amount of that payout on the ex-distribution date.
The NAV is simply the total value of the fund’s assets minus liabilities, divided by the number of shares outstanding. The ex-distribution date is the cutoff date after which new buyers are no longer entitled to the upcoming payment.
In plain terms, the cash you receive doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes out of the fund itself. Because of this, some financial advisers argue that investors who need income can replicate the same result by selling a small number of shares on a regular schedule and withdrawing the proceeds.
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From a purely mechanical perspective, that logic is sound. Whether you receive a $100 distribution or sell $100 worth of shares, your total portfolio value ends up roughly the same. In practice, though, many retirees find this approach of selling shares uncomfortable.
Behavioral finance plays a big role here. Selling shares feels like drawing down principal, even when it is functionally equivalent to receiving income. A distribution that arrives automatically from a fund manager is often perceived as “income,” while selling shares feels like “spending savings.”
This mental accounting difference has been a longstanding challenge in retirement income planning, even if it is not strictly rational.
That preference helps explain why income-focused ETFs often pay monthly rather than quarterly, semi-annual or annual distributions, which are more common among growth-oriented funds. More frequent payments align better with household cash-flow needs and reduce the psychological friction around withdrawals.
In recent years, issuers have taken this idea one step further by introducing ETFs with weekly distribution schedules. This is still a relatively new corner of the ETF market, and the lineup remains limited, though it is expanding quickly.
Importantly, not all weekly income ETFs are built the same way. Some hold straightforward portfolios of stocks or bonds, while others rely heavily on derivatives, such as options. A few are almost entirely options-based, tied to the performance of a single underlying stock.
That range of structures means investors need to be especially careful. Distribution frequency alone does not tell you where the income is coming from, how sustainable it is, how it will be taxed or what risks are being taken to generate it.
Here’s what you need to know before choosing a weekly income ETF, and our curated selection of what we believe are the best all-around funds for 2026.
How do weekly income ETFs work?
When you buy shares of a weekly income ETF, there are three key dates to be aware of.
The first is the declaration date. This is when the fund manager announces the upcoming distribution. The issuer will publish a press release stating the amount of income to be paid per share and outlining the relevant dates. In simple terms, this is the fund telling investors, “If you own the ETF by a certain point, you will receive this week’s payout of [insert dollar amount here] per share.”
The second is the ex-distribution date. This is the cutoff date for eligibility. To receive the distribution, you must own the ETF before the ex-distribution date. With the shift to T+1 trade settlement, the record date and the ex-distribution date are now effectively the same. In the past, these were separate dates, but today they occur simultaneously due to faster settlement.
The third is the payment date. This is when the cash distribution shows up in your brokerage account. There can be a short delay as the payment moves from the ETF issuer to your brokerage and then to you, but it typically arrives within a day or two.
As noted earlier, on the ex-distribution date, all else being equal, the ETF’s NAV drops by roughly the amount of the distribution. This does not mean the ETF cannot recover during the trading day.
The underlying holdings may rise or fall based on market conditions, which can offset or amplify that mechanical drop. But the adjustment itself is simply accounting. Cash leaving the fund reduces its NAV.
Another important aspect of weekly income ETFs is the source of the distribution. Throughout the year, investors receive a disclosure known as Form 19A with each distribution.
This form is required under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and provides an estimate of the tax character of that specific payout. The keyword here is estimate. The final determination comes after the calendar year, on the Form 1099-DIV, which reflects the actual tax treatment of all distributions received.
On the Form 19A, distributions may be classified as net investment income, capital gains or return of capital. Return of capital is especially important to understand in the context of weekly income ETFs.
It occurs when the fund distributes more cash than it generated from income or realized gains during that period. In effect, part of the payout is simply your own invested money being returned to you.
Now, return of capital is not inherently bad. It can be used constructively. For example, many underlying assets do not generate cash on a weekly schedule. If a fund wants to provide smooth weekly income, it may use return of capital to bridge the gap between payments.
When managed conservatively, this approach can stabilize distributions without materially eroding the fund’s NAV. However, return of capital can also be used destructively.
This is more common in aggressive options-based income ETFs that advertise very high yields. In these cases, a large portion of the payout may consist of return of capital used to sustain an eye-catching distribution rate. Over time, if those distributions are not reinvested, the ETF’s share price may steadily decline as NAV is depleted.
Return of capital also has unique tax implications in that it is not immediately taxable. Rather, it reduces your adjusted cost basis in the ETF. This effectively defers taxes until you sell the shares. However, once your cost basis is reduced to zero, any additional return of capital is taxed as capital gains.
For investors in taxable accounts, this makes it especially important to monitor how much of a weekly income ETF’s distributions are classified as return of capital and track your adjusted cost basis.
How we picked the best weekly income ETFs
The sheer pace of launches in the weekly income ETF space makes apples-to-apples comparisons difficult. New products are coming to market constantly, often with very different structures, objectives and risk profiles.
Rather than starting by asking which funds look most attractive, we began by eliminating the ones that tend to create the most problems for investors. That process immediately ruled out most single-stock, synthetic weekly income ETFs.
These funds are typically tied to the price movements of one highly liquid and volatile stock, such as Tesla (TSLA) or Strategy (MSTR). In many cases, they do not actually hold the underlying stock. Instead, they rely on combinations of call and put options to create synthetic, yield-first exposure.
In practice, many of these ETFs have delivered poor outcomes. Even after reinvesting their very high distributions, a large number have still lagged the total return of the underlying stock itself. Once management fees and taxes on frequent distributions are factored in, the gap often widens further.
As a result, investors can end up with lower overall returns than if they had simply owned the stock outright. Despite their popularity among yield-focused retail investors, Morningstar and other research firms have consistently warned that these products are not well suited for long-term investing.
With that in mind, our shortlist focused on more conservative weekly income ETFs with stated yields of 15% or less. While that may still sound aggressive, it is already well above long-term equity market returns, which have historically averaged closer to 10% annually before taxes and inflation.
In our view, yields above this level become increasingly difficult to sustain without eroding net asset value or relying heavily on return of capital.
From there, we prioritized ETFs that have held up reasonably well on a total return basis compared with their long-only, non-income benchmarks. We also screened for reasonable fees and structures that do not introduce unnecessary complexity.
The result is a set of five weekly income ETFs that aim to balance payout frequency with durability, rather than chasing headline yields at the expense of long-term outcomes.
Texas Capital Government Money Market ETF
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- Assets under management: $75.2 million
- Expense ratio: 0.20%, or $20 annually on every $10,000 invested
- 30-day SEC yield: 3.5%
Most investors are familiar with money market mutual funds. With a net asset value per share pegged at $1, these funds are designed to preserve capital. And they invest in ultra-short-maturity, highly liquid fixed-income securities.
Depending on the fund, that can include Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, and sometimes, high-quality corporate paper such as certificates of deposit (CDs) or commercial paper.
That same money market strategy can also be implemented in ETF form. While you give up the fixed $1 net asset value, the trade-off is a share price that remains very stable and performs intraday like a stock. The Texas Capital Government Money Market ETF (MMKT) is a clean example of this structure.
MMKT invests about 99.5% of its assets in U.S. government securities or cash, including fixed, floating and variable-rate instruments, as well as repurchase agreements. The overriding objective here is the safety of principal rather than capital appreciation.
In practice, MMKT’s share price hovers around $100. Interest accrues daily, causing the price to tick higher over time. On the weekly ex-distribution date, the price resets lower to reflect the payout, and the distribution is then credited to your brokerage account shortly after.
This is a key distinction is the distribution of income on a weekly basis rather than monthly, which is what money market mutual funds typically do. Like all money market strategies, yields are heavily influenced by prevailing short-term interest rates.
Learn more about MMKT at the Texas Capital provider site.
JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF
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- Assets under management: $53.1 million
- Expense ratio: 0.16%
- 30-day SEC yield: 3.5%
Even within government money market funds, there are more specialized options, including Treasury-only money market funds, which sit at the most conservative end of the spectrum. These funds invest exclusively in U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds and typically avoid repurchase agreements altogether. The JPMorgan 100% U.S. Treasury Securities Money Market ETF (JMMF) falls squarely into this category.
By holding only direct obligations of the U.S. Treasury, JMMF offers an additional tax benefit for investors. Interest income from U.S. Treasuries is generally exempt from state and local income taxes, which can make a meaningful difference depending on where you live.
The trade-off is yield. Treasury-only funds tend to offer lower yields than government money market funds that also use repurchase agreements. That dynamic explains why JMMF’s 30-day SEC yield will sometimes trail other weekly income ETFs.
Learn more about JMMF at the JPMorgan provider site.
Roundhill Weekly T-Bill ETF
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- Assets under management: $144.1 million
- Expense ratio: 0.19%
- 30-day SEC yield: 3.5%
The Roundhill Weekly T-Bill ETF (WEEK) holds U.S. Treasury bills with maturities ranging from zero to three months and distributes the income from those holdings on a weekly schedule.
If you buy Treasury bills directly, they do not pay periodic interest. Instead, you purchase them at a discount to face value and receive par at maturity, with the difference showing up as accrued, or “phantom,” income.
WEEK effectively converts that price appreciation into a steady stream of weekly cash distributions. As Treasury bills mature and roll, the ETF passes that incremental gain through to investors rather than waiting until maturity.
The result is a very low-risk income vehicle. Credit risk is minimal given the U.S. Treasury backing, and interest rate risk is limited due to the ultra-short maturities. Similar to other cash-like ETFs, the yield will move up or down based on changes to the federal funds rate, but price volatility is minimal.
Learn more about WEEK at the Roundhill Investments provider site.
Roundhill Treasury Bond WeeklyPay ETF
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- Assets under management: $3.8 million
- Expense ratio: 0.99%
- Distribution rate: 9.8%
While many weekly income ETFs attempt to generate eye-catching payouts by targeting volatile single stocks and layering on complex options strategies, the Roundhill Treasury Bond WeeklyPay ETF (TSYW) takes a different approach. Its underlying exposure is tied to the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT).
TLT itself holds long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds. Credit risk is minimal because the bonds are government-backed, but interest rate risk is high. The long maturities mean prices are very sensitive to changes in interest rates. When rates rise, TLT tends to fall sharply. When rates fall, it can rally just as forcefully. That volatility is the key input TSYW is trying to harness.
Instead of owning TLT directly, TSYW uses a swap agreement that references TLT’s price performance. The exposure is set at roughly 120% of TLT’s weekly return, which makes TSYW a lightly leveraged product. Any gains generated by that strategy are then targeted for distribution on a weekly basis, producing the current 9.8% distribution rate.
For funds like TSYW, the distribution rate is more informative than a 30-day SEC yield. The SEC yield is designed for traditional interest-bearing securities and does not capture returns generated through derivatives such as swaps.
The distribution rate, by contrast, takes the most recent weekly payout and annualizes it relative to the ETF’s net asset value, providing a more realistic snapshot of current income. That said, it is still an estimate and can change quickly as market conditions and interest rates shift.
Learn more about TSYW at the Roundhill Investments provider site.
Roundhill S&P 500 0DTE Covered Call Strategy ETF
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- Assets under management: $377.4 million
- Expense ratio: 0.97%
- Distribution rate: 7.7%
Among the more conservative weekly income ETFs that still target equities, the Roundhill S&P 500 0DTE Covered Call Strategy ETF (XDTE) stands out for its structure. It was the first ETF to use zero-day-to-expiry, or 0DTE, options tied to the S&P 500.
The strategy has two moving parts. First, the fund gains overnight exposure to the S&P 500’s price movements. Then, every morning, once markets open, XDTE sells an out-of-the-money call option on the S&P 500 that expires the very same day.
For that trading session, upside is capped at the strike price of the covered call, while downside risk remains fully exposed. In exchange, the fund collects option premium generated by that day’s expected volatility.
Because these are 0DTE options, the process can be repeated every single trading day rather than waiting weeks for monthly options to expire. Over time, that frequent option selling converts a portion of the S&P 500’s day-to-day volatility into steady income.
Conceptually, this means you are monetizing price movement through weekly distributions rather than relying primarily on long-term price appreciation.
That said, this is not a low-risk strategy. The fund does not hold a traditional portfolio of stocks. Returns are driven largely by derivatives and collateral management, and the expense ratio is high compared to plain index funds.
Still, relative to many synthetic weekly income ETFs that rely on single stocks or heavy leverage, XDTE sits on the more conservative end of the spectrum due to its broad index exposure and systematic approach.
Learn more about XDTE at the Roundhill Investments provider site.
