The first half of 2026 flipped the book on some hot investing themes. The Magnificent Seven, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies all struggled or even crashed in the first half of the year.
If you follow the markets, you know it was a massive year for computer chip manufacturers. Fortunately, for investors seeking high yields from covered call ETFs, a couple of funds delivered 90% total returns over the first six months of 2026.
The YieldMax Target 12 Semiconductor Option Income ETF (SOXY) returned 90.5% to investors for the first half of the year. The Target 12 part of the fund’s name means it is managed to pay a 12% distribution yield. With the 90% total return, 6% was from dividends, meaning the share price appreciated by about 85%.
Here are the top SOXY holdings.
Of interest is that Yieldmax has a sister fund to SOXY, the YieldMax Semiconductor Portfolio Option Income ETF (CHPY). This ETF has basically the same portfolio as SOXY. The difference is that CHPY managers plan to generate a high dividend yield through options selling. CHPY currently yields 40.85%. However, for the half year, CHPY came up short of SOXY, returning 84.7%.
If chip stocks remain red hot, SOXY is probably the better choice. However, if share price appreciation slows, CHPY may take the lead.
Currently, SOXY is in the ETF Income Edge portfolio.
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