FLSP vs LALT

FLSPAFranklin Systematic Style Premia ETF

LALTBFirst Trust Multi-Strategy Alternative 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.

LALT Most funds in this corner run one playbook: trend. LALT is the sampler plate, an actively managed mix of alternative strategies from First Trust, built to move differently from stocks and bonds. The variety costs extra.

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.

LALT The Fund seeks long-term total return through active allocation among alternative asset categories and strategies intended to provide diversification and lower correlation with traditional equity and fixed-income benchmarks.

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.

• LALT Actively allocates across several alternative categories instead of riding a single trend model, with a stated aim of lower correlation to equity and fixed-income benchmarks.
• Its cohort is stacked with single-lane trend followers (DBMF, CTA, ASMF). The multi-strategy mandate is what sets LALT apart from that shelf.
• A First Trust product with hundreds of millions in assets and a quarterly distribution schedule, traded like any ordinary listed fund.

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.

• LALT At 1.18% a year it runs above the peer median of 0.95%, and above trend rivals CTA (0.75%), ASMF (0.80%) and DBMF (0.85%).
• No index to grade it against. Outcomes ride on the manager's allocation calls, and with a 2023 launch the track record is still short.
• Built to behave unlike stocks and bonds, which is the point in choppy stretches and the trade-off when traditional markets are running hot.

Full FLSP profile⁠

Full LALT profile⁠