Over the year to September 25, 2026, the S&P 500 fell in 21 of the 52 weeks, dropping by an average of 1.29% in those weeks. ETFIQ tracked 59 alternatives ETFs against that pattern. Of them, 21 rose on average during the weeks the index fell, and the median fund captured 26% of the index's down-week move, using down-week capture, where a number below zero means the fund rose while stocks fell. That is the specific promise these funds are sold on, and the data shows it holding for some and not others.
The strategy split matters more than any single fund number. Hedged equity, the largest group with 20 funds, had a median correlation to the S&P 500 of +0.91 and a median down-week capture of 58.1%, with only 4 of 20 funds rising in down weeks. Managed futures, 17 funds, ran a median correlation of +0.31 and a median down-week capture of 7.4%, with 8 of 17 rising when stocks fell. Long-short equity, multi-strategy, event driven, market neutral and global macro fell in between or outside these patterns, each with its own mix of correlation and capture. A single "alternatives" label covers strategies built to behave very differently from one another.
Individual results ranged widely. BTAL, a market neutral fund, had a down-week capture of -90.0%, rising an average of 1.16% in weeks the S&P 500 fell, while its correlation to the index was -0.69. At the other end, QTR, a hedged equity fund, had a down-week capture of 134.4%, falling more than the index did in its down weeks, with a correlation of +0.91. Managed futures funds such as CTA and KMLM also showed negative down-week capture, at -71.2% and -61.5%, alongside negative correlations to the S&P 500.
Holding up in falling markets is a separate question from whether a fund earned more than cash. 47 of the 59 funds finished ahead of T-bills over the same 52 weeks, measured against BIL. Among the 21 funds that rose in down weeks, 15 also finished ahead of T-bills, meaning six did not. BTAL, for example, showed the strongest down-week capture in the table at -90.0% but finished 26.4 percentage points behind T-bills. CTA and KMLM, the next two on down-week capture, finished 4.8 and 16.6 points ahead of T-bills respectively. Behaving differently from stocks in the weeks that mattered did not, on its own, guarantee a return above cash over the full year.
The correlation numbers underline why strategy grouping comes before individual fund comparison. The median hedged equity fund ran a correlation of +0.91 with the S&P 500, close to the index itself, while the median managed futures fund ran +0.31, a much looser relationship. Two funds carrying the same "alternatives" description can therefore respond to a falling market in opposite ways, as the spread between BTAL's -0.69 correlation and THEQ's +0.98 correlation, both drawn from the same 59-fund set, shows directly.
Readers can check any fund's own down-week capture, correlation and performance against T-bills on the live desk using the same 52-week window.