Portfolio Manager Insights

Redefining income investing without sacrificing the long term

As money market yields fall, some income strategies prioritize headline yield over capital durability, says Fidelity’s Eric Granat. Fidelity Yield Enhanced Equity ETF (FYEE) was built to address that trade-off, seeking sustainable income with continued equity-market participation.

  • According to Fidelity Portfolio Manager Eric Granat, investors seeking options-based income face an artificial trade-off: pursuing higher annual yield or participating in long-term market appreciation – but not both. He notes that this tension has led some strategies, in the race to replace cash yields, to rely on aggressive option selling, often at the expense of growth.
  • “While these approaches may generate an attractive yield in the short term, they can quietly limit principal growth over time, undermining the very capital investors depend on for long-term capital appreciation,” says Granat, who co-manages Fidelity® Yield Enhanced Equity ETF with Shashi Naik, George Liu and Anna Lester.
  • Granat explains that the fund was designed with a different objective: responsibly harvesting option premiums without sacrificing total-return potential. Rather than maximizing yield at any cost, the strategy takes a balanced approach, targeting a 6% to 8% yield while seeking to preserve equity upside, he says.
  • Granat adds that the strategy targets call options roughly 2% to 4% above current stock prices, allowing the portfolio to generate income while still participating in rising markets. The fund does not, however, synthetically sell stocks through in-the-money calls to manufacture artificially high dividends for shareholders.
  • This distinction is critical, according to Granat. “We’re intentional about how income is generated,” he says. “Rather than selling call options that offer minimal upside opportunity, we focus on producing income aligned with long-term growth potential.”
  • The fund’s income comes from a combination of equity dividends and premiums from the sale of out-of-the-money call options – a structural difference he says tends to support greater capital durability over time.
  • Granat notes that, since inception on April 9, 2024, through April 30, 2026, the fund has delivered strong total performance even without dividend reinvestment, a characteristic he highlights as potentially appealing to investors who rely on portfolio income to support everyday expenses (past performance does not guarantee future results).
 
Featured Fund

Fidelity Yield Enhanced Equity ETF (FYEE)

Fidelity Yield Enhanced Equity ETF seeks current income while maintaining prospects for capital appreciation.