Income ETF research usually starts with distribution yield — a rate based on recent payments and price. CoverCall Ledger focuses on a second question: did issuer financial statements support what was paid? Mixing the two measures is how “high yield” gets confused with “earned the cheque.”

Side-by-side

Measure What it tells you Typical source Moves when…
Distribution yield Size of recent payments vs price Market tape / issuer distribution page Price changes or the last cheque changes
Dist. coverage Whether period profit supported distributions for a filing year MRFP / annual FS / N-CSR A new statement year is mapped

High yield with weak coverage is a different risk picture than high yield with full coverage.

Yield is a rate, not a quality score

Yield does not tell you whether last year’s accounting earnings supported the cheques. For covered-call and option-income funds, premiums can make distributions look large even when underlying holdings barely advanced — or while unit price drifted lower.

Coverage uses accrual earnings

Dist. coverage compares earned (period profit, including unrealized gains where reported) to distributed for a stated year. At 100%+ we show Covered; otherwise the percentage. Tape-only rows mean the filing year is not mapped yet — we do not invent a coverage %.

Filing-backed examples

Open the live table to sort by Dist. coverage alongside last distribution and 2026 YTD tape fields.

A practical order

1. Check yield / last dist on the issuer site (current income rate).

2. Check Dist. coverage for the completed filing year on CoverCall Ledger.

3. Confirm both against the issuer’s MRFP or N-CSR.

Deeper walkthrough: How to read Dist. coverage. Basics: What is distribution coverage?.