Designed to provide broad exposure to the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market, the First Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FNY) is a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 04/19/2011.
The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $319.01 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Mid Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.
Why Mid Cap Growth
Mid cap companies have market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion. They usually have higher growth prospects than large cap companies and are less volatile than small cap companies. Thus they have a nice balance of growth potential and stability.
Qualities of growth stocks include faster growth rates compared to the broader market, as well as higher valuations and higher than average sales and earnings growth rates. Something to keep in mind is the higher level of volatility that is affiliated with growth stocks. When you consider growth versus value, growth stocks are usually the clear winner in strong bull markets but tend to fall flat in nearly all other environments.
Costs
Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.70%, making it one of the most expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
It is important to delve into an ETF's holdings before investing despite the many upsides to these kinds of funds like diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk. And, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Healthcare sector--about 16.50% of the portfolio. Information Technology and Industrials round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Apa Corporation (APA) accounts for about 1.19% of total assets, followed by Antero Resources Corporation (AR) and Ovintiv Inc. (OVV).
The top 10 holdings account for about 10.74% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
FNY seeks to match the performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Mid Cap Growth Index before fees and expenses. The NASDAQ AlphaDEX Mid Cap Growth Index is an enhanced which employs the AlphaDEX stock selection methodology to select stocks from the NASDAQ US 600 Mid Cap Growth Index.
The ETF has lost about -9.42% so far this year and is down about -0.70% in the last one year (as of 04/21/2022). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $61.51 and $79.63.