Data as of Nov 4, 2026.
FTLS vs TLT: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Nov 4, 2026, FTLS returned +8.5% to TLT's −4.8%, and TLT charges 0.15% to FTLS's 1.38%.
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Net assets on Nov 3, 2026: $2.6bn for First Trust Long/Short Equity and $48.3bn for iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF.
Pair scorecard
TLT costs 1.23 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 13.3 points; TLT is 18.6 times larger.
| Measure | FTLS | TLT |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +8.5% | −4.8% |
| Total return, 52 weeks | +7.7% | |
| Drawdown | ||
| Below its high | 41.8%, high on Aug 4, 2020 | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | not published | ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index |
| Treasury bills, 52 weeks | +3.7% | |
| Against cash | 4.1 points ahead | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 1.38% | 0.15% |
| Net assets, as of Nov 3, 2026 | $2.6bn | $48.3bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | not published | |
| 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 returnsEach against its own benchmark: FTLS against VOO, Sep 19, 2014 to Oct 30, 2026; TLT against BBLB, Apr 28, 2023 to Oct 30, 2026.
From Sep 2014 to Oct 2026, FTLS returned more: +182.4% to +0.2%. FTLS swung less: 10.2% to 13.8%. FTLS fell less at its worst: −19.1% to −47.8%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | FTLS | TLT | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +182.4% | +0.2% | FTLS | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +8.9% | 0.0% | FTLS | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +154.6% | −28.6% | FTLS | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 10.2% | 13.8% | FTLS | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 7.3% | 10.2% | FTLS | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −19.1% | −47.8% | FTLS | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 49.3% | 102.4% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 67.0% | 101.2% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 0.55 | 1.01 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.80 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.68 | −0.08 | FTLS | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 0.95 | −0.11 | FTLS | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.126 | −0.070 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.47 | 0.00 | FTLS | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | VOO | BBLB | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | +0.4% a year | 0.0% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.30 | 0.01 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −2.2% to +3.0% | −0.8% to +0.8% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.57 | −0.09 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 8.7% | 0.7% | 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 TLT on the fields both publish, as of Nov 4, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
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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.
TLT
TLT tracks an index of 20+ year Treasuries. Over the year to Nov 4, 2026 it returned −4.8% with distributions reinvested, against −4.7% for its benchmark, the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Bond Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.15% a year. It sat 41.8% below its high of Aug 4, 2020 on Nov 4, 2026.
Questions people ask
- Are FTLS and TLT in the same category?
- FTLS is an alternatives ETF and TLT is a bond 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 TLT?
- In the year to Nov 4, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FTLS returned +8.5% and TLT −4.8%.
- Which is cheaper, FTLS or TLT?
- TLT is cheaper, by 1.23 percentage points a year. That is about $123 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, FTLS against TLT, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ftls-vs-tlt
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[FTLS against TLT (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ftls-vs-tlt)
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