ETFIQ looked at 66 alternatives ETFs over the year to October 23, 2026, during the 23 weeks in which the S&P 500 fell, by an average of 1.18% in those weeks. The question was simple: when stocks dropped, what did these funds do? Across the group, 23 funds rose on average in those down weeks, and the median fund's down-week capture was 22%, meaning the median fund's own average move in down weeks ran at about a fifth of the index's decline.
The results split sharply by strategy, and the data shows these are not interchangeable products. The median hedged equity fund carried a correlation of +0.89 with the S&P 500, while the median managed futures fund stood at +0.33. Among the eight strategy groups, volatility funds had the only strongly negative median correlation, at −0.62, paired with a median down-week capture of −71.8%, meaning this group's funds rose on average while the index fell. Only 5 of 9 volatility funds counted among those that rose in down weeks, and just 4 of 9 finished ahead of T-bills. Managed futures showed a different pattern: 7 of 17 funds rose in down weeks, with a median down-week capture of 3.7%, and 15 of 17 funds in that group finished ahead of T-bills, the highest share of any strategy with more than a handful of members. Hedged equity, the largest group with 20 funds, had only 4 rise in down weeks and a median down-week capture of 54.5%, consistent with its high median correlation to stocks.
At the fund level, the names with the most negative down-week capture included UVXY at −376.6%, VXX at −260.0%, and VIXY at −256.3%, all volatility funds, meaning their average move in down weeks ran opposite and far larger than the index's drop. BTAL, a market neutral fund, posted −122.7%. At the other end, funds such as QTR, at 143.1%, SVXY at 141.5%, and RSST at 113.7% moved in the same direction as the index and by more than it did in its down weeks.
Holding up in down weeks is a separate question from building wealth over the full year. Of the 66 funds, 47 finished ahead of T-bills over the same 52 weeks, but among the 23 funds that rose in down weeks, only 12 also beat T-bills. UVXY, for example, rose 4.45% on average in down weeks yet finished 66.9 points behind T-bills over the full period. CTA, by contrast, had a down-week capture of −86.2% and finished 14.3 points ahead of T-bills, combining both behaviors in this sample.
Readers can check any fund's correlation, down-week capture, and performance against T-bills, along with its listed strategy, on ETFIQ's fund pages.