Discharge of responsibility: The analyst who wrote this piece has Strategy (MST) actions.
From April 2024 to April 2025, investors in strategy (MSTR) and the ETF of the MSTR MSTR options income strategy (MSTY) followed two clearly different investment routes: one that seeks the assessment of capital through the Bitcoin (BTC) exhibition, the other that pursues monthly income through options based on options. Both are linked to Mstr’s performance, but their results and structures diverged significantly.
The strategy, listed in Nasdaq, has evolved from a business software company to a de facto Bitcoin proxy. As of April 15, the company has 531,644 BTC, which makes its shares very sensitive to Bitcoin price movements. Since he adopted his Bitcoin Treasury strategy in August 2020, Mstr’s shares have increased more than 2,500%. However, this growth comes with volatility: currently, the action has an implicit volatility of 87%and a historical volatility of 30 days of 102%. Currently, MSTR is 43% below its set of all time in November 2024, which reflects the typical acute changes of an asset correlated with bitcoins. The action does not pay dividend.
In contrast, MSTY, launched in April 2024, is an ETF focused on income that does not directly have Mstr shares. The MSTY portfolio consists mainly of Treasury invoices.
Use a synthetic cover call strategy, selling MSTR options to generate monthly income. This strategy limits upward participation, but offers consistent cash flow, attracting investors seeking regular distributions.
From April 4, 2024 to April 9, 2025, an investment of $ 1,000 in each product produced the following results:
- Mstr: driven by the strong Rally 2024 of Bitcoin, the investment grew to $ 1,895, generating a total yield of +86%.
- MSTY: With 13 monthly distributions for a total of $ 36.53 (ranging from $ 4.13 in April 2024 to $ 1.33 in April 2025), it reinvirted on each dividend date, the investment reached $ 1,591, a total yield of +59%.
However, MSTY decreased 45% during the year due to its total exposure to the MSTR price movements, without completely benefiting from Mstr’s demonstrations due to its call writing strategy. In addition, the upper monthly distributions consistent, partly classified as the return of capital, reduced the value of net assets of the fund over time, with an even more weight of the price of their shares.
MSTY exhibited significant volatility in his own right, often quoting in premiums or discounts to the value of net assets (NAV), introducing an additional price risk.
Premium/discount activity in MSTY reflects the demand for investors and underlying volatility in Mstr. The high early volatility supported the income of strong options and commercial premiums, but as volatility decreased by 2025, the premiums were reduced and the discounts appeared more frequently. However, a renewed Bitcoin rally and a growing volatility in MSTR could reverse this trend, raise the income of options, distributions and demand for investors.
While both products are linked to the MSTR price action, they have different purposes: MSTR offers a high -risk growth potential linked to Bitcoin, while MSTY offers performance through a derivative -based income strategy with inherent structural limitations.
Unlike traditional income strategies that focus on low volatility investments and stable performance, such as ETF of broad index or dividend shares. MSTY is aimed at retail investors looking for exceptionally high income, but are also willing to accept significantly higher risk and volatility.
