Data as of Nov 4, 2026.
RSBA vs SPY: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Nov 4, 2026, RSBA returned −0.7% to SPY's +14.8%, and SPY charges 0.09% to RSBA's 1.01%.
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Net assets: $53m on Jul 31, 2026 for Return Stacked Bonds & Merger Arbitrage ETF, and $804.8bn on Nov 3, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.92 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 15.5 points.
| Measure | RSBA | SPY |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | −0.7% | +14.8% |
| Total return, 52 weeks | −0.3% | |
| Against its benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | not published | S&P 500 Index |
| Treasury bills, 52 weeks | +3.7% | |
| Against cash | 3.9 points behind | |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 1.01% | 0.09% |
| Net assets, RSBA as of Jul 31, 2026 and SPY as of Nov 3, 2026 | $53m | $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 | +0.31 | |
| Beta to the S&P 500 | +0.11: about 0.11% for each 1% | |
| Its average week when the S&P 500 fell | fell 0.14% | |
| Down-week capture | 13.5% | |
| Weeks the S&P 500 fell | 26 of 52, by 1.07% on average | |
Risk and return
Dec 27, 2024 to Oct 30, 2026 · 96 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: RSBA against SPTB, Dec 27, 2024 to Oct 30, 2026; SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 30, 2026.
From Dec 2024 to Oct 2026, SPY returned more: +29.5% to +6.0%. RSBA swung less: 4.6% to 15.0%. RSBA fell less at its worst: −6.0% to −16.9%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | RSBA | SPY | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +6.0% | +29.5% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +3.2% | +15.0% | SPY | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +2.6% | +27.0% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 4.6% | 15.0% | RSBA | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 3.6% | 10.0% | RSBA | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −6.0% | −16.9% | RSBA | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 115.0% | 99.8% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 115.0% | 100.0% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.06 | 1.00 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 0.86 | 1.00 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | −0.16 | 0.74 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | −0.20 | 1.12 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | −0.007 | 0.132 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.54 | 0.89 | SPY | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | SPTB | VOO | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | 0.0% a year | −0.1% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | 0.03 | −0.52 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −2.5% to +2.6% | −0.3% to +0.1% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | 0.00 | −0.15 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 1.7% | 0.4% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 96 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
Side by side
RSBA and SPY on the fields both publish, as of Nov 4, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
Client brief:
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RSBA
RSBA is an event driven 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 +0.31 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.11, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.11% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 26 of those 52 weeks, by 1.07% on average. In the same weeks RSBA fell 0.14% on average, a down-week capture of 13.5%. Over the same 52 weeks RSBA returned −0.3% and a Treasury bill fund +3.7%, so it finished 3.9 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 RSBA and SPY in the same category?
- RSBA 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, RSBA or SPY?
- In the year to Nov 4, 2026, with distributions reinvested, RSBA returned −0.7% and SPY +14.8%.
- Which is cheaper, RSBA or SPY?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.92 percentage points a year. That is about $92 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
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ETFIQ, RSBA against SPY, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/rsba-vs-spy
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[RSBA against SPY (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/rsba-vs-spy)
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