Data as of Nov 4, 2026.
FTLS vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Nov 4, 2026, FTLS returned +8.5% to SPY's +14.8%, and SPY charges 0.09% to FTLS's 1.38%.
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Net assets on Nov 3, 2026: $2.6bn for First Trust Long/Short Equity and $804.8bn for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 1.29 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 6.3 points; SPY is far larger, $804.8bn against $2.6bn.
| Measure | FTLS | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +8.5% | +14.8% |
| Total return, 52 weeks | +7.7% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | not published | S&P 500 Index |
| Treasury bills, 52 weeks | +3.7% | |
| Against cash | 4.1 points ahead | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 1.38% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, as of Nov 3, 2026 | $2.6bn | $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 | +0.83 | |
| Beta to the S&P 500 | +0.48: about 0.48% for each 1% | |
| Its average week when the S&P 500 fell | fell 0.48% | |
| Down-week capture | 44.7% | |
| Weeks the S&P 500 fell | 26 of 52, by 1.07% on average | |
Risk and return
Sep 19, 2014 to Oct 30, 2026 · 632 weekly returns · each against VOOFrom Sep 2014 to Oct 2026, SPY returned more: +359.9% to +182.4%. FTLS swung less: 10.2% to 16.5%. FTLS fell less at its worst: −19.1% to −31.8%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | FTLS | SPY | VOO | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | |||||
| Total return | +182.4% | +359.9% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. | |
| Annualized | +8.9% | +13.4% | SPY | Total return as a yearly rate. | |
| Price return | +154.6% | +276.5% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. | |
| Risk | |||||
| Volatility | 10.2% | 16.5% | FTLS | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. | |
| Downside deviation | 7.3% | 11.5% | FTLS | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. | |
| Max drawdown | −19.1% | −31.8% | FTLS | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. | |
| Upside capture | 49.3% | 99.7% | 100.0% | SPY | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. |
| Downside capture | 67.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | FTLS | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. |
| Beta | 0.55 | 1.00 | 1.00 | FTLS lower | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.80 | 1.00 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | |||||
| Sharpe | 0.68 | 0.72 | SPY (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. | |
| Sortino | 0.95 | 1.03 | SPY (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. | |
| Treynor | 0.126 | 0.118 | 0.119 | FTLS (slight) | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. |
| Calmar | 0.47 | 0.42 | FTLS | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. | |
| Against the benchmark | |||||
| Benchmark | VOO | VOO | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.4% a year | −0.1% a year | 0.0% | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.30 | −0.55 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. | |
| Alpha range | −2.2% to +3.0% | −0.2% to +0.1% | Both include zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. | |
| Information ratio | −0.57 | −0.17 | SPY | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 8.7% | 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, 632 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
FTLS and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Nov 4, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
Client brief:
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FTLS
FTLS is a long-short 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 +0.83 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.48, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.48% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 26 of those 52 weeks, by 1.07% on average. In the same weeks FTLS fell 0.48% on average, a down-week capture of 44.7%. Over the same 52 weeks FTLS returned +7.7% and a Treasury bill fund +3.7%, so it finished 4.1 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 FTLS and SPY in the same category?
- FTLS 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, FTLS or SPY?
- In the year to Nov 4, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FTLS returned +8.5% and SPY +14.8%.
- Which is cheaper, FTLS or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 1.29 percentage points a year. That is about $129 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, FTLS against SPY, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ftls-vs-spy
ETFIQ. (Nov 4, 2026). FTLS against SPY. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ftls-vs-spy
[FTLS against SPY (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ftls-vs-spy)
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