FLSP vs SHRT

FLSPAFranklin Systematic Style Premia ETF

SHRTDGotham Short Strategies 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.

SHRT One of the few ETFs built to lean against the market: Gotham's stock pickers run a long book and a bigger short book, targeting roughly 50% net short US equity exposure.

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.

SHRT The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation and positive returns during declining markets. It actively manages long and short equity and equity-related positions, primarily in companies traded on U.S. markets, targeting approximately 50% net short exposure.

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.

• SHRT Net short by design, not by inverse swap: an actively picked book of US longs and shorts aiming for about 50% net short exposure.
• Run by Gotham Asset Management, the firm where Joel Greenblatt is a managing principal and co-CIO, so the short book is stock selection, not a market-wide bet.sec.gov
• Honest scorecard: shareholder reports measure it against both the S&P 500 Total Return Index and a 50% inverse of that index, the two yardsticks that actually fit the mandate.sec.gov
• History predates the ticker. The strategy dates to 2008 and ran as a mutual fund until a reorganization after the close on November 3, 2023 turned it into an ETF.sec.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.

• SHRT Costs 1.35%, with no fee waiver in place, above the alternatives category median. FLSP, a systematic multi-strategy peer, charges 0.65%.
• A small, thinly traded fund, so spreads can be wide and larger orders can move the price.
• Leaning short cuts both ways: the net short target is built to work in falling markets and to fight rising ones, and short positions carry borrow costs.sec.gov

Full FLSP profile⁠

Full SHRT profile⁠