Chung Wu’s Gamble on the Golden Chicken

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On a damp November morning, when the squirrels were busy burying suspect acorns and the pigeons eyed Wall Street with quiet suspicion, an odd little filing slithered into the offices of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It bore the name Chung Wu Investment Group, LLC, a firm that, until then, had tiptoed through the markets like a well-shod librarian-quiet, precise, and rather too fond of index trackers. But this time, ah-this time they did something mad.

What happened

During the third quarter of 2025, Chung Wu reached into its velvet-lined pocket and pulled out a wad of crisp digits, using them to purchase no fewer than 99,516 shares of a most peculiar concoction called the NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF, otherwise known by its ticker, QQQI. The transaction, valued at approximately $5.39 million, was not just a purchase-it was a declaration. A flag planted in fertile, yet slightly sticky, financial soil.

Now, QQQI is no ordinary ETF. Oh no. This is an actively managed specimen, a creature that wriggles and squirms under the command of human hands rather than the steady tick of a clockwork index. It feasts on the fat, juicy equities of the Nasdaq-100-names like Apple, Microsoft, the usual tech titans with their golden horns and fiery breath-and then, like a particularly clever spider, it spins call options all around them to pocket the sticky premiums.

What else to know

This position is new, fresh as morning dew on a banker’s cufflinks, and constitutes 4.5% of Chung Wu’s 13F reportable assets. It is now their fourth largest holding, wedged between the predictable bulk of IVV and the comforting heft of AAPL. One does wonder what the boardroom looked like when the motion was passed. Did the senior partner stroke his chin? Did junior analysts gasp into their kombucha? Or did they, perhaps, just nod solemnly, like undertakers at a very profitable funeral?

The current crop of holdings reads like a shopping list for the mildly affluent:

  • IVV: $10.86 million (9.0% of AUM)
  • MSFT: $8.58 million (7.1% of AUM)
  • DIA: $7.13 million (5.9% of AUM)
  • QQQI: $5.39 million (4.5% of AUM)
  • AAPL: $5.25 million (4.4% of AUM)

On November 3, 2025, each share of this wondrous QQQI creature cost $55.70-not cheap, not by a long shot, but what is a price when one is chasing yield?

And what a yield it promises: a glittering, almost obscene 13.4% annualized dividend yield as of November 4, 2025. Its one-year total return? A plump 9.3%, outpacing the S&P 500 by a full 6.6 percentage points. The numbers dance like sugar plum fairies at a midnight ball.

Company overview

Metric Value
AUM $6.01 B
Dividend Yield (TTM) 13.42%
Price (as of market close November 3, 2025) $55.70
1-Year Total Return 9.3%

Company snapshot

The NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (QQQI) is not merely an investment-it is a machine. A yield-extraction engine, humming with the energy of 100 of the largest non-financial Nasdaq titans, now harnessed and milked for every drop of premium and dividend. Its managers, clad in lab coats of financial engineering, apply a systematic call-writing strategy-otherwise known as premium milking-to squeeze income from the sky-high valuations below.

It is structured, they say, as an exchange-traded fund. But this is like calling a dragon a lizard. True, it trades on an exchange, but it breathes fire in the form of 13.4%-yielding dividends and flaps its wings with the volatility of a thousand frenzied traders.

QQQI claims to offer investors high income with the liquidity and transparency of an ETF. A noble goal. But one might ask: can such a creature sustain itself? Or will it, like all creatures that grow too fast and glow too brightly, begin to twitch and fizzle when the market winds turn cold?

Foolish take

Let us speak plainly, like two goblins dividing a stolen purse. Chung Wu has placed a hefty bet on QQQI, promoting it to the fourth throne in its portfolio. The fund, young and brash-launched only in January 2024-has thus far delivered a cumulative gain of 10.38%. Respectable. The 9.3% one-year return is undeniably tasty, like a perfectly glazed donut.

But the dividend yield-13.42%-now that is where the whiskers twitch. Such yields are rarely born of purity. They are often the product of smoke, mirrors, and the quiet surrender of future growth. And let us not forget the cost: a 0.68% expense ratio, which may not sound like much, but over time, it nibbles like a thousand tiny rodents in the walls.

Is QQQI the golden chicken that lays endless dividend eggs? Or is it a mechanical bird, wound tightly, destined to spring a gear the moment fear returns to the markets?

Chung Wu believes in the latter future-the one where the machine keeps humming, the premiums keep flowing, and the yield remains obscene. But for the rest of us, the wise, the jaded, the ones who’ve seen too many shiny things turn to rust-well, we might do better to watch from the sidelines, popcorn in hand, waiting for the first sign of smoke.

The NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF is a marvel. A financial freak show of yield and options. But marvels, as anyone who’s read a fairy tale knows, often come with a price. 🎪

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2025-11-11 04:13