SIF strategies compared: five types, 33 funds

Five types, 33 strategies

Eleven months after the first SIF NAV, AMFI publishes daily NAVs for 33 SIF strategies from 17 brands, sold as 122 plan and option variants. Every one is a long-short fund, able to take short positions through derivatives within limits, but they fall into five quite different types.

The table compares the types on the Direct plan, Growth option, as of 15 September 2026. Each figure is the median across the strategies of that type with enough history for it; the count is in brackets.

The month runs from 14 August, the last session a month earlier. Volatility is the annualised standard deviation of daily NAV changes over each fund's life, and worst fall its largest drop from a previous high; both are shown only for funds with at least 30 NAVs. No SIF is a year old, so returns are absolute. Every figure comes from AMFI's SIF NAVs, the series on our SIF page.

Equity long-short: all down, all ahead of the index

The Nifty 50 fell 5.12% in the month, from 24,366.00 to 23,118.60. All ten equity long-short SIFs with a month of NAVs fell too, from 0.97% (SUMMIT) to 4.92% (Diviniti), but every one fell less than the index.

Their volatility, 6.38% to 11.15%, sits between the hybrids and the ex-top 100 funds. Over the longer stretch since 30 June, when the Nifty 50 lost 3.13%, the nine with a NAV at the start ranged from −3.99% (Diviniti) to +4.22% (iSIF).

Ex-top 100: the most volatile type

These funds exclude the 100 largest companies from their long book, so they lean on mid and small caps. The five with 30 NAVs have volatility of 11.05% to 13.79%, the highest of any type, and the deepest median worst fall, 5.29%.

In the month four of the five fell, by up to 4.31% (Altiva). DynaSIF's fund, launched on 29 June, was the exception: up 2.29% in the month and 10.37% since 30 June. qsif's, the oldest, is up 9.19% since 30 June.

Hybrid long-short: calm, with one exception

Ten of the eleven hybrid strategies moved within 3% either way over the month; five gained and five lost. Their median volatility, 3.25%, is less than half the equity long-short median. Arudha's hybrid fund has the lowest volatility of any SIF, 1.16%.

The exception is qsif's Hybrid Long-Short Fund. It rose 20.59% in the month to 15 September, and 20.10% in September alone, gaining on every session of the month so far. The biggest step was 6.33% on 4 September. qsif's Active Asset Allocator moved in parallel: up 5.34% on 4 September and 16.14% in September. The NAVs alone don't say what the two funds held, and their portfolios are not in our data.

The hybrid label is still only a loose guide to risk. iSIF's hybrid fund has volatility of 12.38%, higher than any equity long-short SIF, and fell 2.77% in the month.

Five newcomers since July

Five strategies have published a first NAV since mid-July: Prism Hybrid Long-Short (23 July), SUMMIT Equity Long-Short (24 July), Apex's Equity Long-Short and Equity Ex-Top 100 (both 1 September) and Magnum's Equity Ex-Top 100 (2 September). Prism and SUMMIT are new brands, bringing the total to 17. The three September launches are down 0.70% to 2.26% in their first two weeks.

What this does not tell you

The groups are small. Each type holds one to eleven funds, so its median rests on very few records, and it hides outliers such as qsif's hybrid fund.

Every record here is under a year. The oldest SIF has 231 NAVs; the newest nine. The older funds have been through one sharp fall, in March, and smaller dips since.

Strategy type is not risk. Volatility varies more within types than between some of them.

Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or avoid any SIF.

Where to go from here

The SIF page lists every strategy with its NAV chart. For the earlier picture, see SIFs in the first half of 2026 and specialised investment funds at six months.

The guide to AIFs vs mutual funds explains where SIFs sit, and tracking error and standard deviation explains the volatility measure used here.