# FTLS (First Trust Long/Short Equity)

First Trust · Alternatives ETFs · data as of Sep 18, 2026

In the S&P 500’s down weeks over the year to Sep 18, 2026, FTLS fell 42% as much as the index.

## Key facts

- FTLS, correlation with the S&P 500: +0.77, as of Sep 18, 2026.
- FTLS, beta to the S&P 500: +0.44, as of Sep 18, 2026.
- FTLS, down-week capture: 42.3%, as of Sep 18, 2026.
- FTLS, against T-bills, 52 weeks: +7.7 pts, as of Sep 18, 2026.
- FTLS, net assets: $2.6bn (issuer page, as of Sep 18, 2026).
- FTLS, expense ratio: 1.38% (485BPOS XBRL, Feb 27, 2026).

## FTLS over each window to Sep 18, 2026

| Window | The fund | S&P 500 | Difference, percentage points |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3 months | +3.2% | +2.3% | +0.9 pts |
| 6 months | +10.9% | +18.0% | −7.1 pts |
| 1 year | +11.9% | +16.6% | −4.7 pts |
| 3 years | +47.7% | +78.4% | −30.7 pts |
| Since it listed | +183.9% | +367.2% | −183.2 pts |

## Every published field

| Field | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Issuer | First Trust | ETFIQ |
| Strategy | Long-short equity | ETFIQ, from its prospectus |
| Expense ratio | 1.38% | 485BPOS XBRL, Feb 27, 2026 |
| Net assets | $2.6bn | issuer page, as of Sep 18, 2026 |
| Weeks measured | 52, from Sep 19, 2025 to Sep 18, 2026 | ETFIQ |
| Weeks the S&P 500 fell | 22 | ETFIQ |
| The S&P 500 in those weeks, on average | −1.24% | ETFIQ |
| FTLS in those weeks, on average | −0.52% | ETFIQ |
| FTLS total return over those weeks | +11.4% | ETFIQ |
| T-bills | +3.6% | ETFIQ |
| Listed since | Sep 10, 2014 | ETFIQ |
| Days traded | 90 | ETFIQ |
| Quoted | on an exchange, every trading day | ETFIQ |

## Questions

### Does FTLS move with the S&P 500?

Over the year to Sep 18, 2026, FTLS’s weekly returns had a correlation of +0.77 with the S&P 500’s, on a scale where 1 moves in step, 0 shows no pattern and −1 moves opposite. Its beta was +0.44, so for each 1% the index moved it moved about 0.44% the same way.

### What did FTLS do when stocks fell?

The S&P 500 fell in 22 of the 52 weeks to Sep 18, 2026, by 1.24% on average. In those weeks FTLS fell 0.52% on average, a down-week capture of 42.3%.

### Did FTLS earn more than cash?

Over the same 52 weeks FTLS returned +11.4% with distributions reinvested, and BIL, a fund of Treasury bills, returned +3.6%. FTLS finished 7.7 percentage points ahead of it.

### What does FTLS cost?

The prospectus expense ratio is 1.38% a year.

### Why is FTLS listed as long-short equity?

ETFIQ files each fund by what its own prospectus says it does, and FTLS’s, filed Feb 27, 2026, describes a long-short equity fund.


## Cite this page

ETFIQ, FTLS, data as of Sep 18, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/ftls
Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at https://etfiq.com/data/.

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