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Reading an alternatives ETF: the vocabulary

What correlation, beta, down-week capture and return against T-bills mean on an alternatives ETF, measured weekly over one year.

An alternatives fund is sold on behaving differently from stocks. So the words here describe how a fund moved with the S&P 500, not what it returned. Each uses weekly returns over the last year. A fund holding futures or foreign shares prices at a different time from the New York close, and a week lets both sides see the same news.

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5 words

01Correlation: How closely the fund’s weekly returns moved with the S&P 500’s over the last year, from −1 to 1. At 1 the two rise and fall together, at 0 there is no pattern, and below 0 the fund tended to move the other way.
02Beta: How far the fund moved, on average, for each 1% move in the S&P 500 over the same weeks. At 0.3 it moved about 0.3% the same way; below 0 it moved the other way.
03Down week: A week in which the S&P 500 fell, measured through SPY with dividends reinvested. A week that ended exactly level is not a down week.
04Down-week capture: The fund’s average return in the S&P 500’s down weeks as a share of the index’s own average in those weeks. At 100% it fell as much, at 50% half as much, and below zero it rose. It is weekly and covers one year, so it is not the same number as Morningstar’s downside capture.
05Against T-bills: The fund’s total return minus a short Treasury bill fund’s (BIL) over the same year, in percentage points. A fund can steady a portfolio and still earn less than cash.

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Reading a leveraged ETF→Reading a buffer ETF→Reading an income ETF→Reading a thematic ETF→Reading a crypto ETF→All alternatives ETFs90 →What is a managed futures ETF?→What is a hedged equity ETF?→What is a market neutral ETF?→What is a volatility ETF?→ETF explainers: plain answers, live numbers→

Definitions as ETFIQ uses them for alternatives ETFs. Standards and sources

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ETFIQ, Reading an alternatives ETF: the vocabulary, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/learn/alternatives

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