Which returned more over the last year, SPY or TAIL?

In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPY returned +16.6% and TAIL returned −13.3%, so SPY returned more.

Which is cheaper, SPY or TAIL?

SPY charges 0.09% a year and TAIL charges 0.60%, so SPY is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Are SPY and TAIL the same kind of fund?

No. SPY is an index ETF and TAIL is an alternatives ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.

Data as of Sep 19, 2026.

ETFIQetfiq.com · independent ETF data

SPY vs TAIL: how they differ

Over the year SPY returned more, +16.6% to TAIL's −13.3%, and SPY charges 0.09% to TAIL's 0.60%.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and Cambria Tail Risk ETF.

SPY and TAIL on the fields both publish, as of Sep 19, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	SPY SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	TAIL Cambria Tail Risk ETF
Where it sits	Core fund	Alternatives ETF
Issuer	State Street	Cambria
What it is	Tracks the S&P 500	Hedged equity
Total return, 1 year	+16.6%	−13.3%
S&P 500 over the same days	+16.6%	+16.6%
Gap to the S&P 500	0.0 pts	−29.9 pts
Expense ratio	0.09%	0.60%
Holdings	505	not filed
Net assets	$785.0bn	$157m

SPY in plain words

SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Sep 18, 2026 it returned +16.6% with distributions reinvested, against +16.6% for the S&P 500 and +21.8% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Sep 18, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 505 positions, with the top ten at 38.5%.

TAIL in plain words

TAIL 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 Sep 18, 2026, its weekly returns had a correlation of −0.75 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of −0.44, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.44% the other way. The S&P 500 fell in 22 of those 52 weeks, by 1.24% on average. In the same weeks TAIL rose 0.40% on average, a down-week capture of −32.1%. Over the same 52 weeks TAIL returned −13.1% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 16.8 percentage points behind cash.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, SPY or TAIL?: In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPY returned +16.6% and TAIL returned −13.3%, so SPY returned more.
Which is cheaper, SPY or TAIL?: SPY charges 0.09% a year and TAIL charges 0.60%, so SPY is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Are SPY and TAIL the same kind of fund?: No. SPY is an index ETF and TAIL is an alternatives ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.

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Where these figures came from

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement.

SPY against TAIL, ETFIQ, data as of Sep 19, 2026. Every figure is calculated from a named public source; the method is at etfiq.com/methodology. A comparison is not a recommendation.

Cite this page. ETFIQ, SPY against TAIL, data as of Sep 19, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spy-vs-tail Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.

A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources