CBLS vs QAI

CBLSDClough Hedged Equity ETF

QAIANYLI Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF

In short

CBLS A real long book paired with a real short book, wrapped in an everyday ETF. Live since 2020, it lets an active manager bet on the stocks he likes and against the ones he doesn't, and it charges hedge-fund-adjacent money to do it.

QAI The original hedge fund replication ETF, listed in 2009: a fund of roughly 50 exchange-traded products tracking an index built to mimic hedge fund styles, for 0.81% net of a fee waiver (1.03% gross).

Stated mandate

CBLS The Fund is an actively managed ETF that seeks returns by buying securities the adviser views as financially strong, undervalued, or capable of growth, while shorting securities the adviser expects to decline.

QAI The Fund seeks to track the performance of the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Index before fees and expenses. It uses passive indexing and invests primarily in exchange-traded products and related financial instruments representing the index.

Why people hold it

• CBLS Actual shorting, not a synthetic proxy: the adviser buys names it views as undervalued, financially strong or growing, and sells short the ones it expects to fall.
• Hedge-fund mechanics in a 1940 Act fund: daily pricing on an exchange, no lockups, no accreditation gate, disclosed holdings.
• Trading since November 2020, so there is a multi-year, real-money record across sharply different markets to judge, not a backtest.
• No index to hug. The balance between longs and shorts moves with the manager's judgment rather than a rulebook.

• QAI Billed as the first US-listed hedge fund replication ETF when it launched in March 2009, so it carries a record across multiple market cycles rather than a backtest.asiaasset.com
• Costs 0.81% net of a fee waiver (1.03% gross), below the alternatives category median and under IALT's 0.99%.
• Plain plumbing for an exotic idea: it holds exchange-traded products and related instruments to passively track the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Index, and trades on an exchange all day.
• Stands near the front of the roughly 30 alternatives funds in its peer group on our review.

Worth knowing

• CBLS The 1.89% expense ratio is the loudest fact in the file, at the high end of the alternatives shelf next to peers such as QALT (0.80%) and RNMN (0.59%).
• Thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads and order type matter far more here than with a mega-cap index fund.
• Results ride on one team's stock calls, and the short book carries borrow costs plus the risk of losing on both sides at once.

• QAI Fund-of-funds design means your exposure runs through other ETFs and the index's mapping of them to hedge fund styles, with gross expenses of 1.03% against the 0.81% net line.
• Cheaper shelves sit nearby: FLSP at 0.65% and HBDC at 0.39%, though neither runs the same multi-strategy replication mandate.
• Moderately traded rather than a category volume leader, and payouts arrive annually or semiannually, so this is not an income-cadence vehicle.

Full CBLS profile⁠

Full QAI profile⁠