Over the year to October 2, 2026, ETFIQ tracked 57 alternatives ETFs through the 22 weeks in which the S&P 500 fell, averaging a 1.24% weekly decline. These funds are built to behave differently from stocks in such stretches, and the data shows a mixed record. Eighteen of the 57 rose, on average, in those down weeks. Across all 57, the median fund's down-week capture was 29%, meaning it moved about three-tenths as much as the index in the wrong direction, on average.
The results split sharply by strategy. Managed futures funds, as a group, did the most to separate from stocks: 8 of 17 rose when the market fell, the median correlation with the S&P 500 was +0.31, and the median down-week capture was just 5.7%. Sixteen of the 17 managed futures funds also finished ahead of T-bills over the same weeks, the one measure that shows whether standing apart from stocks also meant producing a return. Hedged equity funds, the largest group at 20, moved far more closely with the market. Their median correlation was +0.90 and median down-week capture was 58.9%, and only 3 of 20 rose during the index's down weeks, though 14 of 20 still ended ahead of T-bills. Long-short equity, multi-strategy, event driven, market neutral and global macro funds each showed their own pattern, with market neutral funds posting a median correlation of -0.46 and a median down-week capture of -55.8%, the deepest divergence from the S&P 500 of any group, though only 1 of its 2 funds beat T-bills.
Individual funds varied widely within these groups. BTAL, a market neutral fund, had a -0.69 correlation and rose 1.14% on average in the S&P 500's down weeks, a -92.4% down-week capture, but finished 25.0 points behind T-bills. CTA and KMLM, both managed futures funds, also rose in down weeks, by 0.91% and 0.78% respectively, and each ended ahead of T-bills, by 7.2 and 18.5 points. At the other end, XTR and QTR, both hedged equity funds tied to tail-risk strategies, had the two highest down-week capture numbers in the table, 96.4% and 131.3%, meaning they moved with or beyond the index's declines, while both still finished ahead of T-bills, by 8.0 and 12.5 points.
The data draws a line between two separate questions: whether a fund moved differently from stocks when stocks fell, and whether it earned a return at all. Of the 18 funds that rose on average in down weeks, 13 also finished ahead of T-bills over the same period; the other five that rose during the market's weak weeks still ended behind the return on T-bills. Across the whole set, 45 of 57 finished ahead of T-bills, a wider group than those that showed any inverse relationship with the S&P 500.
Readers working from the live desk can check any single fund's correlation, down-week capture and result against T-bills to see where it falls relative to the medians reported here for its own strategy group.