There’s a reason the YieldMax Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF (ticker: ULTY ) keeps showing up in investor group chats and “high-yield hacks” videos. Weekly distributions and an annualized yield quoted north of 80% look like a cheat code for cash flow. But the engine that makes those checks arrive—the combination of covered calls layered on volatile single-name equities—comes with a trade-off that refuses to be engineered away: net asset value (NAV) decay . In plain English, the fund’s capital base has a tendency to shrink over time, even as it pays you. That’s not a side effect; it’s intrinsic to the product design. Seeking Alpha +1 In this deep dive, we’ll break down how ULty’s strategy works, why NAV decay shows up so persistently, and what that means for different types of investors. We’ll also look at evidence from public filings and recent analyses, and we’ll walk through a simple math model you can adapt for your own expectations. The elevator pitch—and the fine print What ...