Launched on 04/19/2011, the First Trust Small Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FYC) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Small Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.
The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $430.27 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Small Cap Growth segment of the US equity market.
Why Small Cap Growth
There's a lot of potential to investing in small cap companies, but with market capitalization below $2 billion, that high potential comes with even higher risk.
While growth stocks do boast higher than average sales and earnings growth rates, and they are expected to grow faster than the wider market, investors should note these kinds of stocks have higher valuations. Additionally, growth stocks have a greater level of risk associated with them. Even though growth stocks are more likely to outperform their value counterparts in strong bull markets, value stocks have a record of delivering better returns in almost all markets than growth stocks.
Costs
Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.71%, making it one of the most expensive products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.75%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Industrials sector--about 18.10% of the portfolio. Financials and Healthcare round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Sezzle Inc. (SEZL) accounts for about 1% of total assets, followed by Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (HTZ) and Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation (ADPT).
The top 10 holdings account for about 7.93% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
FYC seeks to match the performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Small Cap Growth Index before fees and expenses. The NASDAQ AlphaDEX Small Cap Growth Index is an enhanced which employs the AlphaDEX stock selection methodology to select stocks from the NASDAQ US 700 Small Cap Growth Index.
The ETF has lost about -3.07% so far this year and is up about 12.70% in the last one year (as of 05/20/2025). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $61.01 and $84.64.