HFGM vs QAI

HFGMCUnlimited HFGM Global Macro ETF

QAIANYLI Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF

In short

HFGM Most macro funds pick their own trades. HFGM reverse-engineers what global macro hedge funds are already positioned in, then runs that book at roughly twice the sector's volatility. Replication, with the dial turned up.

QAI The original hedge fund replication ETF, listed in 2009: a fund of roughly 50 exchange-traded products tracking an index built to mimic hedge fund styles, for 0.81% net of a fee waiver (1.03% gross).

Stated mandate

HFGM The Fund seeks capital appreciation by using a proprietary algorithm to build long and short positions in broad-based ETFs and futures, seeking to match recent gross returns of hedge funds’ Global Macro sector while targeting approximately twice its volatility.

QAI The Fund seeks to track the performance of the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Index before fees and expenses. It uses passive indexing and invests primarily in exchange-traded products and related financial instruments representing the index.

Why people hold it

• HFGM A proprietary algorithm infers what the global macro hedge fund sector is positioned in, then rebuilds those exposures with long and short broad-based ETFs and futures.nasdaq.com
• Charges 1.01%, gross and net, with no waiver in the mix. That sits below the alternatives category median, though peers like QALT (0.80%) and IALT (0.99%) ask less.
• It can go short as easily as long, across global asset classes, so a bearish macro view is expressed inside the portfolio rather than through the exit.
• Ordinary 1940 Act ETF plumbing: exchange trading and one flat expense ratio, not the subscription windows and performance-fee arithmetic of a private macro fund.nasdaq.com

• QAI Billed as the first US-listed hedge fund replication ETF when it launched in March 2009, so it carries a record across multiple market cycles rather than a backtest.asiaasset.com
• Costs 0.81% net of a fee waiver (1.03% gross), below the alternatives category median and under IALT's 0.99%.
• Plain plumbing for an exotic idea: it holds exchange-traded products and related instruments to passively track the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Index, and trades on an exchange all day.
• Stands near the front of the roughly 30 alternatives funds in its peer group on our review.

Worth knowing

• HFGM By design it targets about twice the volatility of the hedge fund sector it mirrors. That amplification applies to the down moves too, not just the up ones.
• Launched in April 2025, it is one of the newer names in its category, so there is limited live history for judging how the replication behaves across macro regimes.
• Among the thinner traders in its peer group, which makes the bid-ask spread a bigger slice of the round-trip cost than at the largest alternatives funds.

• QAI Fund-of-funds design means your exposure runs through other ETFs and the index's mapping of them to hedge fund styles, with gross expenses of 1.03% against the 0.81% net line.
• Cheaper shelves sit nearby: FLSP at 0.65% and HBDC at 0.39%, though neither runs the same multi-strategy replication mandate.
• Moderately traded rather than a category volume leader, and payouts arrive annually or semiannually, so this is not an income-cadence vehicle.

Full HFGM profile⁠

Full QAI profile⁠