FFLS vs FLSP

FFLSDThe Future Fund Long/Short ETF

FLSPAFranklin Systematic Style Premia ETF

In short

FFLS A hedge-fund playbook in an ETF shell: a concentrated book of roughly 60 long and short US equity positions, actively run with no index to hug. The flexibility is real, and so is the 2.05% price tag.

FLSP A hedge-fund style trade in an ETF wrapper. FLSP goes long and short across value, momentum and carry rather than just owning cheap stocks, which makes it the odd one out in a cohort of long-only factor funds.

Stated mandate

FFLS The Fund seeks capital appreciation through an actively managed portfolio of long and short equity positions. It generally emphasizes U.S. exchange-listed securities and ADRs, while permitting foreign securities, derivatives, and ETFs.

FLSP The fund uses a top-down risk-premia strategy focused on value, momentum, and carry factors, taking both long and short positions.

Why people hold it

• FFLS It actually shorts. Most active equity ETFs only go long; this one runs both sides, so a negative view can be a position instead of just a name left out.
• Concentrated at roughly 60 positions, so individual stock calls carry real weight rather than washing out across hundreds of names.
• Long/short access inside a 1940 Act ETF: on-exchange trading any market day and daily published holdings, with no lockup or accreditation gate.
• Broad toolkit by design: US-listed stocks and ADRs at the core, with room for foreign securities, derivatives and other ETFs.

• FLSP Runs both long and short positions, so the outcome hinges on the gap between the stocks it likes and the ones it doesn't, not purely on the market's direction.
• Three return sources under one ticker: value, momentum and carry, blended top-down instead of stacked onto a single stock screen.
• Spreads the bet across roughly 300 positions, so no single name carries the fund.
• Live since 2019 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, with the daily liquidity and transparency of an ETF wrapper around a strategy usually sold in private vehicles.

Worth knowing

• FFLS The fee is 2.05% a year, versus under 0.20% at index-plus peers like DFAU and FELC. That is the annual hurdle the long/short book carries.
• A small, thinly traded fund. Spreads can be wide and order size matters more here than with the mega-cap index crowd.
• Launched in 2023 with no index to measure against, so the track record is short and outcomes ride on manager judgment. Payouts come once or twice a year, not monthly.

• FLSP At 0.65% a year it costs multiples of plain-vanilla factor peers like VONV (0.06%) and FNDX (0.25%). That is the price tag on the long/short machinery.
• No public index sits behind it, so there is no external yardstick to check it against, and results can look nothing like a US stock index in either direction.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, not on a monthly rhythm.

Full FFLS profile⁠

Full FLSP profile⁠