U.S.-listed actively managed ETFs gathered nearly $300 billion in 2024, representing 26% share of the industry’s record cash haul. This was more than double the inflows for the prior year and a nearly four-fold increase from three years earlier. Given such growth, I was particularly interested to see what recent ETF active launch stood out to my analyst peers. I attended the recent ETF.com’s awards and was provided the answer.
A panel of seven judges, many who spoke at this year’s Exchange conference, chose the top ETFs for 18 categories. The winner for the Best New Active ETF was the NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (QQQI ).
QQQI With a Strong Start
The options-based ETF turned 1 year old in January 2025 after gathering $820 million in assets. QQQI passed the $1 billion mark in March 2025, and recently had $1.2 billion in assets. ETFs rarely come out of the gate that strong. The fund offered high income with an impressive 14.4% distribution rate at the end of March and layers of tax efficiency. Investors have recently embraced options-based equity ETFs as an alternative to bond strategies in a falling-rate, — yet volatile — environment.
As QQQI’s name suggests, the fund invests in the large-cap growth constituents of the Nasdaq-100 Index. It also actively implements a data-driven call option strategy. While QQQI is just over a year old, the NEOS team behind the fund has extensive options experience. Management takes advantage of tax-loss harvesting opportunities and uses index options that are subject to lower tax rates.
Covered Call Competition
QQQI is not the only Nasdaq-based covered call ETF available. ETFs like the Global X NASDAQ 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD ) and the JPMorgan NASDAQ Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPQ ) are two such examples. QYLD seeks to provide investment results that correspond to the Cboe Nasdaq-100 BuyWrite Index. Meanwhile, JEPQ takes a fundamental approach to stock selection, over- and under-weighting stocks in the Nasdaq-100 before writing call options.
In the one-year period ended April 23, QQQI’s had a total return of 6.2%. QQQI’s record was ahead of JPEQ’s and XYLD’s by 190 basis points and 350 basis points, respectively. QQQI does not have the longer-term record its peers have.
Diverse NEOS ETF Lineup
NEOS offers a broad suite of options-based ETFs across a range of investment styles. The firm’s largest is the NEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF (SPYI ). The large-cap blend ETF has $3.1 billion in assets. Meanwhile, the NEOS Enhanced Income 1-3 T-Bill ETF (CSHI ) and the NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI) manage $494 million and $162 million, respectively. There are other equity and fixed-income-based strategies as well.
We are encouraged that the firm’s asset base has been climbing in 2025. As of late April, advisors and investors put $1.7 billion into NEOS ETFs to push the total managed to $5.7 billion. The flows have been consistent with only three days of outflows, according to data on ETF Database.
As the photos confirm, my VettaFi colleague Cinthia Murphy and I were with the NEOS team at the ETF.com award dinner. We are an education partner. It was a pleasure to see their innovation recognized. Active ETF demand is likely to persist for years to come and NEOS is one of the firms supporting the community with compelling products.
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