Over the year to September 30, 2026, ETFIQ tracked 57 alternatives ETFs through the 25 weeks in which the S&P 500 fell, averaging a 1.15% decline. Ten of the 57 funds rose, on average, during those same weeks. Across all 57, the median fund's down-week capture was 42%, meaning the typical fund still lost money when stocks fell, but less than the index did. This is the core test for funds sold on behaving differently from stocks, and the data shows a mixed result: most softened the blow rather than avoided it.
Strategy mattered more than the "alternatives" label. The median hedged equity fund, the largest group with 20 funds, carried a correlation of +0.92 with the S&P 500 and a down-week capture of 64%, meaning it moved with stocks most of the time and still gave back nearly two-thirds of the index's losses in down weeks. Managed futures, the next largest group with 17 funds, had a lower median correlation of +0.45 and a median down-week capture of 37.4%, a smaller share of the index's losses. Long-short equity funds had a median correlation of +0.66 and captured 57.6% of down weeks, with none of the eight funds rising when stocks fell. The two market neutral funds stood apart, with a median correlation of −0.39 and a median down-week capture of −88.2%, indicating they tended to rise as stocks fell.
At the individual fund level, BTAL (AGF U.S. Market Neutral Anti-Beta Fund) had the most negative down-week capture at −141.3%, with an average return of +1.62% in weeks SPY fell, but it also trailed T-bills by 25.1 percentage points over the same period. MKTN (Federated Hermes MDT Market Neutral ETF) and KMLM (KraneShares Mount Lucas Managed Futures Index ETF) also posted negative capture numbers alongside positive margins over T-bills. At the other end, QIS (Simplify Multi-QIS Alternative ETF) had a down-week capture of 156.6%, moving further than the index in its down weeks, and trailed T-bills by 45.4 percentage points.
Holding up in down weeks is a separate question from building returns over time. Of the 57 funds, 45 finished ahead of T-bills over the full set of 52 weeks. Among the 10 funds that rose when stocks fell, only 6 also beat T-bills. BTAL is one example of a fund that rose in down weeks but still lagged T-bills over the year, while KMLM and CTA (Simplify Managed Futures Strategy ETF) both posted negative down-week capture and finished ahead of T-bills, by 18.1 and 5.8 percentage points respectively.
The strategy-level table is the starting point because correlation and capture vary by design: the median hedged equity fund correlates at +0.92 with the S&P 500, while the median managed futures fund sits at +0.45, so grouping by ticker alone would mix funds built to track equities loosely with those built to track them not at all. Readers can use the full fund table to see where a specific ticker's correlation, down-week capture and T-bill margin fall relative to its stated strategy.
On the live desk, a reader can look up any of these 57 tickers to see its current correlation to the S&P 500, its down-week capture, and its margin against T-bills over the trailing 52 weeks.