A SIF comparison that starts and ends with the highest one-month return is built to create FOMO, not a durable portfolio. Specialized Investment Funds can have very different equity exposure, derivative usage and liquidity even when their names all contain 'long-short'.
Start with category and net exposure. An Equity Long-Short fund can remain heavily equity-biased, while a Hybrid Long-Short fund can combine debt, arbitrage and equity inside a lower-risk mandate. A higher return from the equity fund may simply reflect more market exposure rather than better manager skill.
Next compare drawdown and benchmark alpha over the same dates. The relevant question is not only how much a fund made, but how much downside it avoided relative to the benchmark it was designed to beat. A return comparison across mismatched launch dates or categories can be deeply misleading.
Then check the friction: Direct-plan TER, any performance-linked fee, exit load, redemption frequency and settlement timeline. Daily liquidity, twice-weekly interval liquidity and a three-month exit load are different ownership experiences even before performance enters the picture.
Finally, separate evidence from promises. Funds with less than a full quarter of live NAV history belong on a watchlist, not at the top of a performance ranking. Compare at least these seven fields — category, net exposure, drawdown, benchmark alpha, TER, exit load and liquidity — before committing the ₹10 lakh minimum.