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

In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPY returned +16.6% and ZHDG returned +8.2%, so SPY returned more.

Which is cheaper, SPY or ZHDG?

SPY charges 0.09% a year and ZHDG charges 0.95%, so SPY is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

Are SPY and ZHDG the same kind of fund?

No. SPY is an index ETF and ZHDG 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 ZHDG: how they differ

Over the year SPY returned more, +16.6% to ZHDG's +8.2%, and SPY charges 0.09% to ZHDG's 0.95%.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and ZEGA Buy and Hedge ETF.

SPY and ZHDG on the fields both publish, as of Sep 19, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
	SPY SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	ZHDG ZEGA Buy and Hedge ETF
Where it sits	Core fund	Alternatives ETF
Issuer	State Street	Zega
What it is	Tracks the S&P 500	Hedged equity
Total return, 1 year	+16.6%	+8.2%
S&P 500 over the same days	+16.6%	+16.6%
Gap to the S&P 500	0.0 pts	−8.4 pts
Expense ratio	0.09%	0.95%
Holdings	505	not filed
Net assets	$785.0bn	$35m

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%.

ZHDG in plain words

ZHDG 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 +0.96 with the S&P 500’s and a beta of +0.79, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.79% the same way. The S&P 500 fell in 22 of those 52 weeks, by 1.24% on average. In the same weeks ZHDG fell 1.12% on average, a down-week capture of 90.0%. Over the same 52 weeks ZHDG returned +7.6% and a Treasury bill fund +3.6%, so it finished 3.9 percentage points ahead of cash.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, SPY or ZHDG?: In the year to Sep 19, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPY returned +16.6% and ZHDG returned +8.2%, so SPY returned more.
Which is cheaper, SPY or ZHDG?: SPY charges 0.09% a year and ZHDG charges 0.95%, so SPY is cheaper. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Are SPY and ZHDG the same kind of fund?: No. SPY is an index ETF and ZHDG is an alternatives ETF, so they are built for different jobs. The table compares what both publish: return, cost and what each actually holds.

Other comparisons

Where to next

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 ZHDG, 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 ZHDG, data as of Sep 19, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spy-vs-zhdg Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.

A comparison is not a recommendation. Standards and sources