Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
CTA vs VOO: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, CTA returned +18.4% to VOO's +13.7%, and VOO charges 0.03% to CTA's 0.75%.
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Net assets: $1.4bn on Oct 27, 2026 for Simplify Managed Futures Strategy ETF, and $1.0tn on Sep 30, 2026 for Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.
Pair scorecard
VOO costs 0.72 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 4.7 points.
| Measure | CTA | VOO |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +18.4% | +13.7% |
| Total return, 52 weeks | +17.4% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | not published | S&P 500 Index |
| Treasury bills, 52 weeks | +3.6% | |
| Against cash | 13.7 points ahead | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.75% | 0.03% |
| Net assets, CTA as of Oct 27, 2026 and VOO as of Sep 30, 2026 | $1.4bn | $1.0tn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| In the S&P 500, by weight | 100% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 39.1% | |
| Risk | ||
| Correlation with the S&P 500’s weekly returns | −0.19 | |
| Beta to the S&P 500 | −0.36: about 0.36% for each 1% | |
| Its average week when the S&P 500 fell | rose 0.40% | |
| Down-week capture | −36.1% | |
| Weeks the S&P 500 fell | 26 of 52, by 1.10% on average | |
Risk and return
Mar 18, 2022 to Oct 23, 2026 · 240 weekly returnsVOO returned more: +82.1% to +66.8%. VOO swung slightly less: 16.0% to 16.8%. CTA fell slightly less at its worst: −19.0% to −20.5%.
Full scorecard
9 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | CTA | VOO | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +66.8% | +82.1% | VOO | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +11.7% | +13.9% | VOO | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +28.5% | +70.4% | VOO | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 16.8% | 16.0% | VOO (slight) | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 11.9% | 10.7% | VOO | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −19.0% | −20.5% | CTA (slight) | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.49 | 0.63 | VOO | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.69 | 0.94 | VOO | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Calmar | 0.62 | 0.68 | VOO (slight) | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 240 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
CTA and VOO on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
CTA and VOO do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 28, 2026 CTA returned +18.4% and VOO +13.7% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 4.7 points.
- Cost. CTA charges 0.75% of assets a year and VOO 0.03%, a gap of 0.72 points.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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CTA
CTA is a managed futures fund. ETFIQ measures what every alternatives fund is sold on: whether it moves differently from the stock market. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, its weekly returns had a correlation of −0.19 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of −0.36, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.36% the other way. The S&P 500 fell in 26 of those 52 weeks, by 1.10% on average. In the same weeks CTA rose 0.40% on average, a down-week capture of −36.1%. Over the same 52 weeks CTA returned +17.4% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 13.7 percentage points ahead of cash.
VOO
VOO tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.7% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.03% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer as of Sep 30, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 507 positions, with the top ten at 39.1%.
Questions people ask
- Are CTA and VOO in the same category?
- CTA is an alternatives ETF and VOO 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, CTA or VOO?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, CTA returned +18.4% and VOO +13.7%.
- Which is cheaper, CTA or VOO?
- VOO is cheaper, by 0.72 percentage points a year. That is about $72 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, CTA against VOO, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/cta-vs-voo
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). CTA against VOO. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/cta-vs-voo
[CTA against VOO (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/cta-vs-voo)
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