What a Canadian income ETF really pays you.

Price movement only: (end price ÷ start price) − 1. Distributions are ignored entirely, so this understates a covered call ETF — most of its return is paid out as cash rather than showing up in the price.

Price movement plus distributions taken as cash, never reinvested, so there is no compounding: total return = price return + (distributions ÷ start price).

Each bar splits into its price and distribution components, which sum to the total. Where they pull in opposite directions — a price decline partly offset by distributions — each is drawn on its own side of the zero line, so a positive distribution is never shown in negative territory. The tooltip states all three numbers.

Total return expressed in dollars: $10,000 × (1 + total return). Distributions are held as cash, not reinvested, so there is no compounding. The table's Ending Value column shows the same figure.

The hatched block is the initial $10,000. If price fell, the part lost is drawn as a dashed outline below the zero line, so hatching plus outline always total $10,000. The solid segment above is what distributions added: initial $10,000 + price return + distribution return = ending value.

Total return and price return plotted together. The gap between them is the distribution return — the part of the return a price chart cannot show.

Each fund is bought at the closing price on the first day of the time period, the same starting point as the other tabs, and each distribution is reinvested in fractional shares at the closing price on its pay date. Projected distributions are excluded, since they have not been paid.{payDateNote}

reinvested return = (ending shares × end price) ÷ (starting shares × start price) − 1. On the bar chart, each bar splits into its price return (the shares you started with) and its distributions reinvested (what the shares those distributions bought are worth now), which sum to the reinvested return. The tooltip splits the second part into the distributions paid and the gain or loss on those shares since they were bought.

Each fund starts with $10,000, bought at the closing price on the first day of the time period, and each distribution is reinvested in fractional shares at the closing price on its pay date. Projected distributions are excluded, since they have not been paid.{payDateNote}

On the bar chart, the hatched block is the initial $10,000. If price fell, the part lost is drawn as a dashed outline below the zero line, so the hatched portion plus the outline always totals $10,000. The solid segment above the block is what the reinvested distributions are worth now: initial $10,000 + price return + distributions reinvested = ending value. The tooltip splits it into the distributions paid and the gain or loss on the reinvested shares since they were bought.

Total Return treats every distribution as cash taken out of the fund, whether it is spent on living expenses or invested somewhere else: it counts toward the result but never buys more units of the fund. Total Return (Reinvested) reinvests every distribution in more units, which then earn distributions and price changes of their own; it is what fund providers publish as total return. For a fund with a small yield the two are close; for a high-yield covered call ETF the gap can grow quickly. Reinvesting normally comes out ahead in a rising market and behind in a falling one.

Fund providers and most sites that publish fund performance report the reinvested figure, usually just called "total return". It puts a fund that pays out a lot and one that pays out little on equal terms, which is why a published figure for a high-yield fund is usually higher than its Total Return here, and matches Total Return (Reinvested) more closely. Total Return is shown because many income investors take their distributions as cash, and for them it is the return they actually received.

A fund's price drops by about the amount of a distribution on its ex-date, and the cash reaches investors on the pay date, usually one to two weeks later. Both returns count each distribution from its ex-date, so the drop and the distribution that explains it land on the same day. Total Return (Reinvested) then reinvests it at the closing price on the pay date, which is when a brokerage's dividend reinvestment plan actually buys.

Most published figures reinvest on the ex-date instead. Because the price moves between the two dates, the results differ slightly, in either direction; over several years the gap is usually a fraction of a percent.

Where the Return Came From is always the additive breakdown, whichever view the chart is showing: distribution return = total return − price return. Distributions Paid is the cash per unit over the time period, and Distribution Return is exactly its share of total return.{sharesNote}

• Common starts at the latest inception among the selected funds, so every fund is measured over an identical time period. A younger ETF begins where its own history starts.
• Distributions are attributed by ex-date. One with an ex-date inside the time period counts even if it is paid after the period ends.
• Returns are cumulative over the time period shown, not annualised.
• Every date is the exchange's trading date for that session's bar, and reads the same wherever you are — it does not shift with your device's time zone.
• Figures are gross of commission, bid-ask spread, currency conversion and tax. Fund-level fees are already reflected in the price.

Chart history is one bar per trading day, taken from that session's settled closing price. It refreshes on weekday evenings, a few hours after North American markets close, so the newest point on a chart is always a completed session rather than a live price. The current day's close joins the chart that evening, and no new point appears over a weekend.

The price shown on a fund's card comes from a separate, faster feed — refreshed hourly and possibly delayed 15 minutes or more — so during a trading day it will normally sit ahead of the chart's last point. Distribution records come from each provider's own announcements.

Figures are rounded for display, so a reconciliation may be a dollar or two out, and they can differ from a provider's official published performance, which may use NAV rather than market price and different date conventions. Information only, not investment advice.