Category Review
The largest alternatives fund has no one-year record
First Trust Long/Short Equity ETF
$78.09+0.08 (+0.10%)
- 0.95%
- $2.6B
- +15.9%
- 0.85%
- 0.1M sh
- $77.82
- low $68.31high $78.09
The ETF.net FTLS Grade
A
Score 73 out of 100
- 5 of 30
Score 73 of 100 falls in the A band. A is 70 or higher, B 55 to under 70, C 40 to under 55, D 25 to under 40, F under 25.
Cost
The fund’s net expense ratio, ranked against its category.B67 out of 100Rank 9 of 30Mission
Whether the fund did what it promised, tested against its stated mandate.Risk
How the fund held up when markets fell: downside volatility, drawdowns and tail loss.A72 out of 100Rank 6 of 30Tradability
How easy the fund is to trade: daily volume, and how far its price strays from net asset value.A84 out of 100Rank 2 of 30Holdings
How concentrated the fund is, and how complete and current its disclosed holdings are.B68 out of 100Rank 4 of 15Durability
Whether the fund is likely to stay open, judged by its age, its assets and its issuer’s assets.A94 out of 100Rank 1 of 30
Our read on FTLS
AHedge-fund mechanics in an ETF wrapper: a long book of US stocks paired with a short book, and short proceeds never recycled into more longs. Live since 2014, it's one of the originals on the long/short shelf.
The Fund seeks its objective through long and short positions in equity securities, with portfolio exposure managed across long and short positions.
Why people hold it
- The short sleeve is a dial, not a fixture. Under normal conditions the portfolio runs 80-100% long and 0-50% short, and the manager can shrink the shorts or switch them off.mutualfunds.com
- No leverage baked in: short proceeds aren't used to buy more longs, so net long exposure stays at or below 100%, which can leave a sizable cash position.mutualfunds.com
- Trading since 2014 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, it's one of the older long/short ETFs on the market, with steady if unspectacular daily volume.
- Roughly 500 positions spread across the long and short books, so no single name drives the outcome. At least 80% of assets sit in US-listed equities or equity ETFs.money.usnews.com
Worth knowing
- Cost is the trade-off: 1.38% a year, well above the typical actively managed US equity ETF. Shorting carries stock-borrow and dividend expenses that long-only funds don't.
- Against the full active US equity field it lands in the lower half, largely on price: core rivals like DFAU (0.12%) and DFAC (0.17%) run long-only for a sliver of the fee.
- The short book cuts both ways by design: it gains when shorted names fall and loses when they rise, so results can diverge sharply from a plain long-only equity fund.mutualfunds.com
FTLS Holdings
- Stocks
- 270
- 64%
- US Dollar
Sectors
- Technology38.5%
- Health Care11.0%
- Financials9.9%
- Industrials8.9%
- Communication8.5%
- Consumer Discretionary7.4%
- Energy5.4%
- Consumer Staples3.9%
- Materials3.3%
- Real Estate3.0%
- Utilities0.3%
Geography
- United States92.27%
- Canada2.75%
- Singapore2.11%
- Taiwan (Province of China)1.31%
- Switzerland0.51%
- Australia0.34%
- Luxembourg0.34%
- Israel0.14%
- 0.24%
FTLS Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
FTLS$11,587
Returns run to the Oct 12, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | FTLS |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +10.6% |
| 1 month | +2.1% |
| 3 months | +4.7% |
| 1 year | +15.9% |
| 3 years | +15.0% |
| 5 years | +11.1% |
| 10 years | +10.0% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | FTLS |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +10.6% | |
| 2025 | +9.1% | |
| 2024 | +18.8% | |
| 2023 | +16.9% | |
| 2022 | −5.6% | |
| 2021 | +19.6% | |
| 2020 | +2.6% |
FTLS in the news
FTLS Dividends
- 0.85%
- $0.67
- $0.18 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
FTLS Risk
- 7.1%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 1.32
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −11.7%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.49
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FTLS Cost
0.95%
FTLS0.95%
- The middle half of Alternative Strategies funds
- Median 1.00%
8 of the 30 Alternative Strategies funds charge less.
Other funds in Alternative Strategies
- AHBDCHilton BDC Corporate Bond ETFExpense ratio 0.39%1 year return +2.0%
- AFLSPFranklin Systematic Style Premia ETFExpense ratio 0.65%1 year return +12.8%
- BIALTiShares Systematic Alternatives Active ETFExpense ratio 0.99%1 year return —
- BRNMNElevation Series Trust - RiverNorth Market Neutral ETFExpense ratio 0.89%1 year return +2.0%
- BFARXThe Advisors' Inner Circle Fund II - Frontier Asset Absolute Return ETFExpense ratio 0.95%1 year return +17.9%