{"url":"https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives","section":"methodology","title":"Alternatives ETF methodology | ETFIQ","description":"How ETFIQ measures 90 alternatives ETFs against the S&P 500: scope, sources, weekly correlation, beta, down-week capture and return against T-bills.","as_of":"Nov 4, 2026","structured_data":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ETFIQ","item":"https://etfiq.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Methodology","item":"https://etfiq.com/methodology/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Alternatives method","item":"https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives"}]},{"@type":"WebPage","name":"Alternatives ETF methodology","description":"How ETFIQ measures 90 alternatives ETFs against the S&P 500: scope, sources, weekly correlation, beta, down-week capture and return against T-bills.","url":"https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives","dateModified":"2026-11-04","isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".lede"]},"publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org"}}],"characters":10775,"truncated":false,"content":"ETFIQ / Methodology / Alternatives method \n On this page\n Scope The strategies Sources What is computed The volatility segment Where to next \n This specification describes the data as published on Nov 4, 2026 , covering 90 funds. Rebuilt every trading night.\n Alternatives ETF methodology\n What is covered, where each number comes from, how it is worked out, and what it cannot tell you. Check any of it yourself.\n 90 Funds covered \n Nov 4, 2026 Data as of \n Nightly Rebuilt from the raw sources \n\n Scope\n 90 US listed alternatives ETFs across 9 strategies. A fund is here when its name points to an alternative strategy and its latest prospectus describes one. Either alone is not enough. Many hedged funds hedge only currency, and many prospectuses mention long and short positions or tail risk in passing.\n A fund another category already measures stays there: option income funds that hedge in Income, buffer funds in Buffer, leveraged and inverse funds in Leverage. A fund named as an income fund stays in Income too. 19 funds whose names suggest an alternative strategy, but whose prospectus does not, are held back for a hand review. CSM , HOLD and HXE are read on an editorial decision, because their names do not say what they do. The prospectus still decides the strategy. FMF is included on an editorial decision: its name states the strategy and the prospectus does not settle it.\n The strategies\n The framework is Morningstar\u2019s category names, from its October 2025 US definitions. This site prints plainer names. Morningstar licenses its own fund assignments. Every assignment here is ETFIQ\u2019s own, made from public filings. Two Morningstar categories are left out because this site already covers them: derivative income is Income, and defined outcome is Buffer.\n The strategies in this category, each with its name in the framework ETFIQ follows. On this site Name in the framework Funds \n Managed futures Systematic Trend 23 \n Market neutral Equity Market Neutral 4 \n Event driven Event Driven 5 \n Relative value Relative Value Arbitrage 1 \n Global macro Macro Trading 2 \n Multi-strategy Multistrategy 8 \n Long-short equity Long-Short Equity 12 \n Hedged equity Equity Hedged 26 \n Volatility none: a segment ETFIQ added for funds linked to the VIX 9 \n\n Sources\n Every source behind these numbers, what it provides, and how often it is read Source What it provides Read Spec \n Nasdaq Trader symbol directory Every exchange-traded fund that trades today, and its registered name Daily document \n SEC investment company series and class file, and company_tickers_mf.json The SEC series each fund is registered as Yearly and continuous document \n Each fund\u2019s own 485BPOS on EDGAR The principal investment strategy, read from the filing\u2019s XBRL, and the expense ratio As filed \u00b7 \n Tiingo end-of-day Split and distribution adjusted closes for each fund, for SPY and for BIL Daily document \n Each issuer\u2019s own site, then SEC Form N-PORT Net assets, the freshest number that carries a date Daily to quarterly document \n\n What is computed\n Weekly returns 52 seven-day returns ending on one date for the fund and for the S&P 500: the earlier of the fund\u2019s last close and SPY \u2019s. Each week runs from the close on or before one date to the close on or before the date seven days later, with distributions reinvested. Weekly, not daily: a futures fund or a fund holding foreign shares prices at different times from the New York close, so daily returns would pair days that did not see the same news. The year measured today runs from Nov 5, 2025 to Nov 4, 2026. The S&P 500 Measured through SPY with dividends reinvested. A holder of the index gets its dividends, and the index level does not include them. Correlation The Pearson correlation of the fund\u2019s 52 weekly returns with SPY \u2019s. At 1 the two move together, at 0 there is no pattern, and below 0 the fund tended to move the other way. Two decimals. Beta The covariance of the two sets of weekly returns divided by the variance of SPY \u2019s. It shows how far the fund moved, on average, for each 1% move in the index. Two decimals. A down week A week in which SPY \u2019s return was below zero. A week that ended exactly level is not a fall. The year to Nov 4, 2026 had 26 of them. Down-week capture 100 times the fund\u2019s average return in the down weeks divided by SPY \u2019s average in the same weeks, on unrounded averages. At 100% the fund fell as much as the index, at 50% half as much, and below zero it rose. It needs at least 8 down weeks. A fund whose year had fewer has no data. One decimal. This is not Morningstar\u2019s downside capture ratio, which is usually monthly, compounded and over three years, so the two sites show different numbers. Against T-bills The fund\u2019s total return minus BIL \u2019s over the same 52 weeks, in percentage points. BIL holds one- to three-month Treasury bills. It sits beside the score and is not part of it. A fund can steady a portfolio by losing money slowly, and you should see that on the same line. When stocks fell The S&P 500\u2019s worst calendar month of the last 12 complete months, measured through SPY with dividends reinvested, from the last close of the month before to the month\u2019s last close. Each fund\u2019s total return covers the same two closes. A fund that did not trade every day of that month has no data. Today that month is March 2026, when SPY returned \u22124.9%. Each fund\u2019s number is checked against its own NAV return for the month, from the issuer\u2019s daily NAV where ETFIQ stores it, otherwise from the fund\u2019s N-PORT filing. The two must agree within 1 percentage point, or the fund has no data. A fund with neither is held to a limit of 40% either way. The Stock Diversification Score The average of two percentiles within one set, the alternatives ETFs with a full year of weekly returns. One percentile is on correlation and one on down-week capture. Lower is better for each, and they count equally. 39 funds are in the set today. How every score is computed . The answer in words Fund pages describe down-week capture in words, from the number rounded half up to a whole number, so the words and the number agree. Below zero the fund rose when the S&P 500 fell; at zero it barely moved; from 1 to 94 it fell that share as much; from 95 to 105 it fell with the index; above 105 it fell more, stated as a multiple of the index\u2019s fall. Comparisons Two alternatives ETFs are compared only when they run the same strategy, neither is thinly quoted, and only over the same weeks. Each fund is also compared with the index funds it is most often held beside: SPY , VOO , IVV , QQQ , AGG , BND , TLT and GLD . Net assets The freshest dated number: the issuer\u2019s daily file or fund page where it states one, then the latest N-PORT filing, a month end that can be months old. Of the 90 funds, 82 carry a number today, 45 of them from a filing and 37 from the issuer. Each fund page names the source and date. Thinly quoted funds A fund whose price sat unchanged on more than one trading day in twenty is published with the reason and not ranked. Every category here uses this rule. How a strategy is read From the strategy section of the fund\u2019s latest 485BPOS on EDGAR, found by the fund\u2019s SEC series. A phrase that names a strategy decides it, such as managed futures, merger arbitrage or market neutral. A phrase that only describes one, such as trend following, long and short positions or a collar, counts only when the fund\u2019s name points to the same strategy. A trend, event or macro phrase also needs the fund to trade futures or sell short. A phrase in a sentence that denies it does not count. A prospectus naming two or more strategies is multi-strategy unless the fund\u2019s name settles which. Each fund page links the filing it was read from. The volatility segment\n 9 funds linked to the Cboe VIX index through its futures, in four groups: long, inverse and short, leveraged, and volatility income. Most are commodity pools or exchange traded notes with no prospectus strategy to classify. Each is listed by hand with the filing that names its index. UVIX and SVIX stay in Leverage.\n Every volatility fund, the index its filing names and the daily multiple it seeks. Fund Index its filing names Multiple Filing \n SVOL none none the filing \n SVXY S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index \u22120.5x the filing \n UVXY S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index +1.5x the filing \n VIXM S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures Index +1x the filing \n VIXY S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index +1x the filing \n VXX S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index TR +1x the filing \n VXZ S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures Index TR +1x the filing \n VYLD S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Points-Change Inverse Daily Index TR \u22121x the filing \n ZVOL none none the filing \n\n The rebuilt indices S&P licenses its VIX futures index levels, so ETFIQ rebuilds the short-term and mid-term indices from Cboe\u2019s daily settlement of every monthly VIX future, by the roll S&P publishes, from 100 on Jan 16, 2018. The short-term index moves a share of the first month into the second at each close, one over the business days in the roll period; the mid-term index holds a third each in the fifth and sixth months and rolls the fourth into the seventh. The total-return level adds a three-month Treasury bill\u2019s interest (H.15, through FRED). Tracking The fund\u2019s total return against the level its filing names, each day\u2019s move taken at its stated multiple and compounded over the same two closes, in percentage points; and against spot VIX, which no fund can hold. Roll cost The index\u2019s return over the change in its constant-maturity futures price, less one. It shows what rolling into a dearer month cost a long holder, or a cheaper one earned. A short fund collects it. Contango is the second month\u2019s settlement over the first\u2019s, less one. Volatility income Cash paid as a share of the starting price, beside price and total return. A VIX spike is a run of closes at 30 or more in the last three years, runs under 20 trading days apart joined, from the lowest close in the 20 days before to the highest. The rebuilt levels are at /data/vix-futures.json . Where to next\n Every alternatives ETF The vocabulary The data Every method \n Cite this page. ETFIQ, Alternatives ETF methodology, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms. The underlying files are at Open data .\n Other forms Plain ETFIQ, Alternatives ETF methodology, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives APA ETFIQ. (Nov 4, 2026). Alternatives ETF methodology. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives Markdown [Alternatives ETF methodology (ETFIQ, Nov 4, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives)","source":"ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.","publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"license":"https://etfiq.com/license/","license_text":"Data ETFIQ computes is free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.","citation":"ETFIQ, Alternatives ETF methodology, data as of Nov 4, 2026. https://etfiq.com/methodology/alternatives"}