Data as of Nov 4, 2026.
FHEQ vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Nov 4, 2026, FHEQ returned +8.7% to SPY's +14.8%, and SPY charges 0.09% to FHEQ's 0.48%.
askIQ about this page
askIQ about FHEQ and SPYNet assets: $986m on Sep 30, 2026 for Fidelity Hedged Equity ETF, and $804.8bn on Nov 3, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.39 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 6.1 points.
| Measure | FHEQ | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +8.7% | +14.8% |
| Total return, 52 weeks | +8.4% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | not published | S&P 500 Index |
| Treasury bills, 52 weeks | +3.7% | |
| Against cash | 4.7 points ahead | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.48% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, FHEQ as of Sep 30, 2026 and SPY as of Nov 3, 2026 | $986m | $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 | +0.98 | |
| Beta to the S&P 500 | +0.82: about 0.82% for each 1% | |
| Its average week when the S&P 500 fell | fell 0.92% | |
| Down-week capture | 86.0% | |
| Weeks the S&P 500 fell | 26 of 52, by 1.07% on average | |
Risk and return
Apr 19, 2024 to Oct 30, 2026 · 132 weekly returns · each against VOOFrom Apr 2024 to Oct 2026, SPY returned more: +57.1% to +38.9%. FHEQ swung less: 10.8% to 14.5%. FHEQ fell less at its worst: −10.5% to −16.9%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | FHEQ | SPY | VOO | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | |||||
| Total return | +38.9% | +57.1% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. | |
| Annualized | +13.8% | +19.5% | SPY | Total return as a yearly rate. | |
| Price return | +36.6% | +52.6% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. | |
| Risk | |||||
| Volatility | 10.8% | 14.5% | FHEQ | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. | |
| Downside deviation | 6.7% | 9.4% | FHEQ | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. | |
| Max drawdown | −10.5% | −16.9% | FHEQ | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. | |
| Upside capture | 70.4% | 100.1% | 100.0% | SPY | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. |
| Downside capture | 86.3% | 100.2% | 100.0% | FHEQ | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. |
| Beta | 0.71 | 1.01 | 1.00 | FHEQ lower | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.91 | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | |||||
| Sharpe | 0.86 | 1.01 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. | |
| Sortino | 1.38 | 1.55 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. | |
| Treynor | 0.130 | 0.145 | 0.147 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. |
| Calmar | 1.32 | 1.15 | FHEQ | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. | |
| Against the benchmark | |||||
| Benchmark | VOO | VOO | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −1.2% a year | −0.2% a year | 0.0% | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.57 | −0.87 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. | |
| Alpha range | −5.3% to +2.9% | −0.5% to +0.2% | Both include zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. | |
| Information ratio | −1.02 | −0.22 | SPY | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 5.3% | 0.3% | 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, 132 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
FHEQ and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Nov 4, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
Client brief:
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FHEQ
FHEQ is a hedged equity 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 +0.98 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.82, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.82% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 26 of those 52 weeks, by 1.07% on average. In the same weeks FHEQ fell 0.92% on average, a down-week capture of 86.0%. Over the same 52 weeks FHEQ returned +8.4% and a Treasury bill fund +3.7%, so it finished 4.7 percentage points ahead of 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 FHEQ and SPY in the same category?
- FHEQ 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, FHEQ or SPY?
- In the year to Nov 4, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FHEQ returned +8.7% and SPY +14.8%.
- Which is cheaper, FHEQ or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.39 percentage points a year. That is about $39 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, FHEQ against SPY, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/fheq-vs-spy
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[FHEQ against SPY (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/fheq-vs-spy)
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