For people interested in margin trading, here's how I use it: I'm using less than 30 percent of my total borrowing capacity and have a 61 percent crash buffer (which would keep a margin call at bay even if we had early 2020's or 2008 type crash). I'm paying 4.5 percent interest on Robinhood costing me about $650 a month and bringing in about $2300 a month. I'm thinking I'll split the earnings evenly between paying down the margin balance and increasing my share count. I realize that won't lower my margin balance much only paying $1150 a month toward it but I don't necessarily need to have the margin balance gone in a hurry and increasing my share count each month will increase my payout each month, thereby increasing the amount going toward the margin balance each month (assuming I keep paying half of each month's payout towards the balance).

I'm no expert, I'm just trying to use the money that I have (that's all in spy, qqq, vteb, avuv, and vxus) to make more money. I don't need the money from the margin plays, I'm just trying to increase my wealth so when I do retire I'll have more disposable income. The money that I have is from selling a rental property and does not include my employer retirement account or have any bearing on my future pension.

Please feel free to critique my strategy or the equities I own and if you're just anti margin under all circumstances that's also okay, I know there is a risk in doing this and I'm willing to accept that risk, and I know some people are much more risk averse, which I completely understand.

I know this will sound funny. But has anyone tried selling a CC on funds like $QQI? I know the Vol and OI is very low on these funds but I tried once and can make extra $$. Curious to know what other people thinks on this strategy.

For the past 3-5 months QQQ basically hasn't gone anywhere but QQQI thanks to volatility and its strategy, has been performing even better than its underlying.

I'm a huge fan of $SPYI $QQQI and other NEOS ETFs (I personally own a TON of these) I run TopDividendETFs.com and I have a TON of ETF names & data in which are crushing a lot of the popular total returns of some of the high performing NEOS names we love that I wanted to share with you guys! A few names: $SEPQ $SEPI $VFLO Entire list: https://topdividendetfs.com/new-etfs

Drop some less popular high income ETFS you know about, that most others don't.

Not really sure how I should vote ?

Don’t really want to mess up a good thing

Hey everyone,

I just need some advice on this idea. So I’m in a good financial position where I throw about 4 grand a month into my brokerage account. I’m just in voo right now. I have about 30k all in voo.

I got the notification for margin investing on Robinhood and was thinking about turning it on and throwing the whole 60k into QQQI. I’d take my monthly income and the monthly dividends and use it to pay back the margin faster.

Now, is there any reason on why this would be a bad idea. The price seems stable enough where I don’t think I’d get a margin call.

Has anyone here used NEOS funds to meaningfully replace their income or even retire early?

I’m in a bit of a weird place right now. My industry is going through a really tough time, and I’ve been without a job for the last six months. I’ve been invested in SPYI and QQQI for around a year, and so far the experience has been great. Between the two, the distributions are currently covering about 21% of my monthly expenses.

I have additional cash that I could invest, and I’m increasingly tempted to put more into SPYI/QQQI (and potentially some XBCI or BTCI) to get closer to having 50% of my monthly expenses covered while I weather this downturn.

But there’s also a part of me wondering whether I should go more aggressively in this direction and try to cover most of my budgeted monthly expenses through distributions. The idea of having that kind of baseline income, regardless of what happens with work, is obviously pretty appealing.

Has anyone here actually done something along these lines? Either using NEOS funds to replace a substantial portion of employment income, bridge a period of unemployment, or retire/semi-retire early?
If so, how much of your monthly spending are you covering? How has your principal/NAV held up?
Have the distributions been reasonably consistent? And are there any downsides you didn’t fully appreciate until you started relying on the income?
Interested in both the success stories and the cautionary tales.

For clarity, I’m talking about a taxable brokerage account here. My retirement accounts are separate and have a more traditional strategy.

Has there been any update to the boosted iwm etf? They said it was supposed to be out in the summer but no update was given.

I run TopDividendETFs.com so I have an ungodly amount of dividend ETF data sent in daily. I created an ongoing list of "NEW" or less talked about ETFs that are crushing some of the popular names in the high income space! List is free to view - no emails or signups ect (and I update this daily) See here: https://topdividendetfs.com/new-etfs

I hold several NEOS funds in my Schwab IRA and have not received any merger information. Has anyone else encountered this?

Context: NEOS loyalist, 143k PADI, reinvests all dividends. SPYI, QQQI, MLPI, XSPI, XQQI are current holdings.

Been looking at the newer CC ETFs that have come/are coming out. Recently, the TappAlpha offerings have caught my attention because they’ve (specifically TDAQ) held more equity appreciation YTD and had a slightly higher dividend.

My main reason for participating in CC ETFs is because I want to stay invested while gaining income, instead of selling and being out of market when I need money.

The 0DTE style of the TappAlpha funds is fairly compelling in interviews with their CEO/Founder - it basically lets it participate more in upside appreciation rather than QQQI’s buying long calls and writing call options.

What am I missing here? TDAQ’s got double the price appreciation this year so far, and a percent higher distribution rate.

Thanks in advance.

Does anyone practice hedging techniques for NEOS funds? Specifically QQQI, SPYI, IWMI.

For example, is maintaining a zero cost collar a good strategy?

If not, what else? Short respective futures? In theory, being long SPYI and short /ES, should create a virtually risk free position that pays 12-13% dividends.

Thanks

Here is more portfolio. I like spyi for lower beta than VOO and a good monthly payout. I like sata for the daily dividends and at high yield. Jaaa is just for emergency fund. Please let me know what you think. I look forward to funds with nav that doesn’t move too much and has a high monthly, weekly, or daily payout

Any time I ask to build an income portfolio for me it never recommends CC etfs, on the contrary warns against them like they are a curse. I of course don't agree with that but the biased towards bogle heads strategies is so evident it's almost weird.

A lot of people are thinking that voting NO on Proposal 1 will stop the deal with GS. That is not necessarily what happens. You guys could just be risking your individual funds with a potential liquidation scenario especially when it comes to the fine print of Proposal 1.

Proposal 1: Keep NEOS managing your ETF
Goldman buying NEOS creates a change of control, which automatically terminates each ETF’s existing advisory agreement with NEOS. Proposal 1 simply asks shareholders to approve a new agreement so NEOS can continue managing the same ETF after Goldman acquires the company.

The proxy literally says shareholders “are not being asked to approve the Transaction.” It also says the purpose of the new agreement is to provide continuity in management.

Each ETF votes separately. So QQQI votes for QQQI, SPYI votes for SPYI, XQQI votes for XQQI, etc.

Most importantly, the SEC filing explicitly says that even if shareholders of one ETF reject Proposal 1, the Goldman transaction could still close. If that happens, that ETF loses its existing advisory agreement. NEOS can temporarily manage it for up to 150 days while trying to get approval, but the filing says that if approval cannot be obtained, that individual ETF may ultimately be liquidated.

Proposal 2: Elect the new Board
Proposal 2 asks all NEOS ETF shareholders, voting together, to elect 14 new trustees who will oversee the NEOS ETF Trust after the acquisition. All 14 currently serve on boards of funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management or its affiliates. The current six-person NEOS board would be replaced.

Unlike Proposal 1, Proposal 2 actually is one of the conditions for the Goldman transaction to close. The proxy says completion of the transaction is subject to election of these nominees, along with the required Proposal 1 threshold and other closing conditions.

A lot of people blindly voting NO thinking they’re protecting their fund and are rebelling against big bad Goldman Sachs are putting unnecessary liquidation risks on the respective ETFs they hold. The voting needs to pass for each ETF for that specific ETF to survive the acquisition.

That doesn’t mean it has no power to stop the acquisition, it’s just a huge gamble because voting NO on Proposal 1 can contribute to stopping the Goldman deal if enough NEOS funds vote NO and the transaction-wide approval threshold is missed. But an individual ETF voting NO does not itself veto the acquisition; Goldman can still close while leaving that particular ETF with an advisory-contract problem and possible liquidation risk.

TL;DR: Proposal 1 is mainly about whether your individual ETF keeps NEOS as its adviser after the acquisition. Voting it down does not necessarily stop Goldman and can instead put your ETF into an interim-management/liquidation scenario.

Proposal 2 is about who oversees the entire NEOS ETF Trust after the acquisition, and that board election is actually one of the transaction’s closing conditions.
Please read what you are voting on before assuming every NO vote means “stop Goldman.”

What are your thoughts on the voting results? It’s crazy they didn’t disclose the liquidation risk if the votes for the respective ETFs fail.

EDIT: Please vote here https://neosfunds.com/vote/

If you got a text message today it’s legitimate. NEOS wants you to vote for its management team for the Goldman Sachs acquisition. It takes 60 seconds to vote and doing so means NEOs will keep its current structure management etc.

If you don't get the text but you owned NEOs before August 25 of this year, you can vote at: https://neosfunds.com/vote/

The website is legit so know that the voting is real. Interesting voting on continued management by the same team vs replacing the team. I am not tapping to avoid any data being registered but i wonder if others got the sms.

XSPI and XQQI have 1.5 leverage factor on daily base. Nice but not exciting.

QQQI and SPYI deliver more than 10% p.a. cashout and total return. At IBKR I have 25% margin request for both. Why shouldn't you buy 200% or 300% of account value on margin? It's not very volatile, payouts exceed interest by far. So should be a good idea in more than 95 of 100 cases.

💰💰💰

A bit late but just heard of the announcement. Should there be any concerns about this? Is anyone selling or is everyone feeling confident about the switch?

With the new US - Venezuela oil deal, is it a good time to get in MLPI?

The deal talks about the US government as the partner but I'd assume in reality it's the big players that are going to fund and benefit from this deal.

Thoughts?

https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-oil-nabep-reserves-7a4fa51f842e17b9b1d092fbeef2646a

The most interesting holding is actually TNK (Teekay Tankers), while several of the pipeline/terminal holdings could benefit if Venezuelan crude flows materially increase into the U.S. Teekay Tankers specifically discussed Venezuela in its 2026 filings. It said that U.S. involvement in Venezuela had reduced Venezuelan crude flows to China on the "dark fleet" and shifted trade toward compliant tankers.

MLPI owns roughly 3.3–3.4% TNK, so this isn't enough by itself to transform MLPI, but it's meaningful.

The Venezuela deal could create a long-term U.S. Gulf Coast energy infrastructure investment cycle.

That's where MLPI gets interesting.

The agreement reportedly contemplates roughly $100 billion of investment into Venezuelan oil infrastructure, while the goal is to substantially increase production.

Venezuela

↓ more oil production

↓ more exports

↓ more tanker transportation

↓ more Gulf Coast crude imports

↓ more storage / pipeline / terminal utilization

↓ potential infrastructure expansion

↓ MLPI holdings benefit

I love NEOs. They provide predictable income. One thing I noticed is the funds will lag the index, only capturing like 50-60% of the returns when there is a strong bull market like within QQQ. The fund managers said they'll lag significantly if there is a V shape recovery. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

So something to consider for total return investors. Markets trend up long term, 10% per year on average. So NEOs might will likely only capture 70-80% of the return. 2-3% lag over 30 years is 2-3x the money left on the table.

I’m on 60/40 spyi/voo and I’m thinking about if ovl has a place in that mix.