FLSP vs HFND

FLSPAFranklin Systematic Style Premia ETF

HFNDCUnlimited HFND Multi-Strategy Return Tracker 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.

HFND A hedge fund index fund that owns no hedge funds. Machine learning reads the industry's reported returns, then rebuilds that positioning with long and short broad ETFs and futures inside a daily-traded ETF.

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.

HFND The Fund seeks capital appreciation. It is actively managed and aims to replicate the return characteristics of the hedge-fund industry, using long and short positions in broad-based ETFs and futures contracts.

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.

• HFND Reverse-engineers the whole industry rather than backing one star manager: the engine tracks returns across hedge fund indices and expresses them with liquid ETFs and futures.unlimitedfunds.com
• Exchange-traded access instead of lockups and subscription windows: it is a 1940 Act ETF holding broad ETFs and futures, long and short, not hedge fund partnerships.sec.gov
• Unlimited's original fund (2022) and the broad one in the family: it aims at the full industry mix, while siblings such as HFGM narrow in on a single style, global macro.

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.

• HFND At 1.07% it prices right at the median for its alternatives peer group, and cheaper replication sits nearby: HDG at 0.95%, QALT at 0.80%.
• It is a replica, not the real thing. The prospectus flags heavy reliance on proprietary machine learning models and third-party data, so results can diverge from the funds tracked.sec.gov
• Small and lightly traded by ETF standards, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads than the biggest names in the alternatives aisle.

Full FLSP profile⁠

Full HFND profile⁠