IALT vs QAI

IALTBiShares Systematic Alternatives Active ETF

QAIANYLI Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF

In short

IALT Hedge-fund-style machinery in an ETF wrapper: IALT runs long and short across global asset classes, with quant models hunting mispricings instead of an index calling the shots. It launched in 2025 and is already a multi-billion-dollar fund.

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

IALT The Fund seeks long-term total return through global asset classes and diversified alternative strategies. It combines long and short strategies and uses quantitative, model-driven methods to identify potentially mispriced securities and asset classes.

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

• IALT Goes both ways. Long and short positions across global asset classes, with quantitative models picking what looks mispriced rather than an index setting the lineup.
• Spread is the point. Roughly 1,800 positions across global markets and multiple asset classes, so no single name or region carries the fund.
• Strategies like this usually live in private funds. Here it is a 1940 Act ETF that trades on an exchange all day, and it is an actively traded, multi-billion-dollar fund.

• 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

• IALT At 0.99%, it costs several times what plain allocation funds charge (AOA at 0.19%, NTSX at 0.20%). The fee buys the short book and the models, not market exposure.
• Shorting cuts both ways, and a model rather than a benchmark makes the calls. Results can sit far from a standard stock-and-bond mix in either direction.
• It opened in December 2025, so there is little history showing how the models handle a full market cycle. Distributions come once or twice a year, not monthly.

• 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 IALT profile⁠

Full QAI profile⁠