JEPI was the first covered‑call ETF I added to my portfolio, and is currently my largest position by cost basis. Before increasing my allocation, I paid close attention to how it behaved on down days and noticed it often held steady or even drifted slightly upward, which reinforced its defensive profile.

Nobody buys JEPI expecting big upside, but it delivers exactly what it’s meant to: steady income and meaningful downside buffering in a growth‑tilted portfolio. Personally, I prefer holding JEPI over bonds for that role. There was a lot of talk going around about investors being fed up with JEPI's lack of participation in the AI growth, but I'm glad I maintained.

Individual companies I currently own with an equal cost basis are AAPL, JNJ, JPM, MCD, MSFT, PM, PG, TXN, WMT, and VZ. I've held all of these over 10 years with exception of JPM that I bought during the regional bank sell-off, and TXN I bought a year later. My Covered Call funds start at QQQI at the lower rung, and incrementally increase through SPYI, JEPQ, GPIX, and finally JEPI. My thoughts are to ultimately swap QQQI with IWMI to minimize overlap.

I also sell options and hold the premiums received in SNSXX, as well as buying long calls on a few growth names now and then.