Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
BALI vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, BALI returned +17.6% to SPY's +13.6%, and SPY charges 0.09% to BALI's 0.35%.
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Net assets on Oct 27, 2026: $1.6bn for iShares U.S. Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF and $814.8bn for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.26 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 4.0 points; SPY is far larger, $814.8bn against $1.6bn.
| Measure | BALI | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +17.6% | +13.6% |
| Price change, 1 year | rose 8.4% | rose 12.4% |
| Latest payout, annualized | 6.1% | |
| Return of capital, issuer estimate | 0% of the Oct 6, 2026 payment | |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | Benchmark: S&P 500, measured through SPY | S&P 500 Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.35% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $1.6bn | $814.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 60% | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | |
Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 27, 2026. Method
Risk and return
Oct 6, 2023 to Oct 23, 2026 · 159 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: BALI against SPY, Oct 6, 2023 to Oct 23, 2026; SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026.
SPY returned slightly more: +83.5% to +76.2%. BALI swung less: 12.3% to 14.3%. BALI fell slightly less at its worst: −15.3% to −16.9%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | BALI | SPY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +76.2% | +83.5% | SPY (slight) | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +20.3% | +22.0% | SPY (slight) | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +37.8% | +76.9% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 12.3% | 14.3% | BALI | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 7.9% | 9.1% | BALI | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −15.3% | −16.9% | BALI (slight) | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 81.0% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 86.6% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.85 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.97 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 1.21 | 1.15 | BALI (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.87 | 1.80 | BALI (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.174 | 0.133 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 1.33 | 1.30 | BALI (slight) | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SPY | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.9% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.71 | −0.51 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −1.5% to +3.3% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.53 | −0.15 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 3.0% | 0.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 159 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
What they share
By the books each fund has filed, BALI and SPY hold 60% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Oct 27, 2026.
half
60% in common
Only in one fund ↓
Side by side
BALI and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ. Cash paid: distributions over the window, as a share of the starting price.
BALI and SPY do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. BALI is measured against S&P 500 through SPY and SPY follows S&P 500 Index.
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 BALI returned +17.6% and SPY +13.6% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 4.0 points.
- Cost. BALI charges 0.35% of assets a year and SPY 0.09%, a gap of 0.26 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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BALI
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, BALI paid 8.3% of its starting value in cash distributions while its price rose 8.4%. With every distribution reinvested, the fund returned +17.6%. S&P 500 (SPY) returned +13.6% over the same days, so a holder was ahead by 4.0 pts. At its price on Oct 28, 2026 the latest distribution annualizes to 6.1%, paid monthly. iShares estimates that 0% of the distribution paid Oct 6, 2026 was a return of capital (its 19a-1 notice). That is a tax label, not a measure of erosion.
SPY
SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.6% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 38.1%.
Questions people ask
- Are BALI and SPY in the same category?
- BALI is an option-income ETF and SPY is a stock ETF, so they do different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and holdings.
- Which returned more over the last year, BALI or SPY?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, BALI returned +17.6% and SPY +13.6%.
- Which is cheaper, BALI or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.26 percentage points a year. That is about $26 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
How this is computed
Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.
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ETFIQ, BALI against SPY, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/bali-vs-spy
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). BALI against SPY. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/bali-vs-spy
[BALI against SPY (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/bali-vs-spy)
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