Data as of Nov 4, 2026.
BTAL vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Nov 4, 2026, BTAL returned −11.5% to SPY's +14.8%, and SPY charges 0.09% to BTAL's 1.25%.
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Net assets: $283m on Jun 30, 2026 for AGF U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund, and $804.8bn on Nov 3, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 1.16 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 26.3 points.
| Measure | BTAL | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | −11.5% | +14.8% |
| Total return, 52 weeks | −10.0% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | not published | S&P 500 Index |
| Treasury bills, 52 weeks | +3.7% | |
| Against cash | 13.7 points behind | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 1.25% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, BTAL as of Jun 30, 2026 and SPY as of Nov 3, 2026 | $283m | $804.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 37.3% | |
| Risk | ||
| Correlation with the S&P 500’s weekly returns | −0.74 | |
| Beta to the S&P 500 | −1.37: about 1.37% for each 1% | |
| Its average week when the S&P 500 fell | rose 1.80% | |
| Down-week capture | −168.4% | |
| Weeks the S&P 500 fell | 26 of 52, by 1.07% on average | |
Risk and return
Sep 23, 2011 to Oct 30, 2026 · 788 weekly returns · each against VOOFrom Sep 2011 to Oct 2026, SPY returned more: +765.0% to −39.5%. BTAL and SPY swung about the same: 15.6% and 15.8%. SPY fell less at its worst: −31.8% to −52.3%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | BTAL | SPY | VOO | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | |||||
| Total return | −39.5% | +765.0% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. | |
| Annualized | −3.3% | +15.3% | SPY | Total return as a yearly rate. | |
| Price return | −48.4% | +565.6% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. | |
| Risk | |||||
| Volatility | 15.6% | 15.8% | Tie | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. | |
| Downside deviation | 11.6% | 10.8% | SPY (slight) | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. | |
| Max drawdown | −52.3% | −31.8% | SPY | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. | |
| Upside capture | −30.8% | 99.7% | 100.0% | SPY | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. |
| Downside capture | −154.3% | 100.0% | 100.0% | BTAL | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. |
| Beta | −0.56 | 1.00 | 1.00 | BTAL lower | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.33 | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | |||||
| Sharpe | −0.24 | 0.88 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. | |
| Sortino | −0.33 | 1.28 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. | |
| Treynor | 0.067 | 0.138 | 0.139 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. |
| Calmar | −0.06 | 0.48 | SPY | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. | |
| Against the benchmark | |||||
| Benchmark | VOO | VOO | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +4.1% a year | −0.1% a year | 0.0% | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 1.22 | −0.65 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. | |
| Alpha range | −2.5% to +10.6% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Both include zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. | |
| Information ratio | −0.64 | −0.19 | SPY | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 27.8% | 0.4% | 0.0% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 788 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
BTAL and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Nov 4, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
Client brief:
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BTAL
BTAL is a market neutral fund. ETFIQ measures what every alternatives fund is sold on: whether it moves differently from the stock market. Over the year to Nov 4, 2026, its weekly returns had a correlation of −0.74 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of −1.37, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 1.37% the other way. The S&P 500 fell in 26 of those 52 weeks, by 1.07% on average. In the same weeks BTAL rose 1.80% on average, a down-week capture of −168.4%. Over the same 52 weeks BTAL returned −10.0% and a Treasury bill fund +3.7%, so it finished 13.7 percentage points behind cash.
SPY
SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Nov 4, 2026 it returned +14.8% with distributions reinvested, against +14.8% 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 Nov 3, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 37.3%.
Questions people ask
- Are BTAL and SPY in the same category?
- BTAL is an alternatives 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, BTAL or SPY?
- In the year to Nov 4, 2026, with distributions reinvested, BTAL returned −11.5% and SPY +14.8%.
- Which is cheaper, BTAL or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 1.16 percentage points a year. That is about $116 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, BTAL against SPY, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/btal-vs-spy
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[BTAL against SPY (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/btal-vs-spy)
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