FLSP vs HFEQ

FLSPAFranklin Systematic Style Premia ETF

HFEQBUnlimited HFEQ Equity Long/Short ETF

In short

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.

HFEQ Hedge fund replication, sliced thin. HFEQ assembles a long/short equity book from broad ETFs and futures to mirror the gross-of-fees returns of the hedge fund industry's equity long/short sector, dialed to roughly twice that sector's volatility, for 0.96% a year.

Stated mandate

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

HFEQ The Fund seeks capital appreciation through an actively managed equity long/short strategy. It uses long and short positions in broad-based ETFs and futures contracts, and may also use individual equities and swaps to approximate the Equity Long/Short sector's returns with higher volatility.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• HFEQ Charges 0.96%, below the typical alternatives fund and under iShares' systematic alternatives ETF (IALT, 0.99%), with no fee waiver propping up the number.
• Exposure comes mainly from broad-based ETFs and futures, with room for single stocks and swaps, keeping the long/short book in liquid, daily-priced instruments.
• The volatility dial is the point: futures scale the book toward roughly twice the equity long/short sector's volatility, amplifying that sector's moves in both directions.sec.gov
• Unlimited's engine reads hedge funds' actual return streams rather than delayed public filings, and HFEQ isolates one sector of that lineup instead of blending them all.yahoo.comsec.gov

Worth knowing

• 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.

• HFEQ Young and lightly traded since its July 2025 launch, so spreads can widen and limit orders earn their keep.
• Double volatility cuts both ways: the same scaling that magnifies the sector's gains magnifies its drawdowns.sec.gov
• This is an approximation, not the hedge funds themselves, and the portfolio's path can drift from the sector it models.

Full FLSP profile⁠

Full HFEQ profile⁠