First Trust Dow Jones Select MicroCap Index Fund
$89.00−1.26 (−1.40%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.65%
- Fund size
- $267M
- 1Y return
- +18.9%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 1.38%
- Holdings
- 135
- Volume · 30D
- 0M sh
- NAV per share
- $90.32
- 52W range
The ETF.net FDM Grade
Score 41 of 100 sits in the C band. Bands: A ≥ 70, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 40, D ≥ 25, F < 25; the scale skips E.
Cost
What you pay to own it — the expense ratio plus trading frictions, ranked within its category.FScore 0Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 78Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 62Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.CScore 54Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.FScore 24Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.CScore 42Category rank
Our read on FDM
CMost "small-cap" funds stop well short of the bottom. FDM keeps going, tracking an index of roughly 160 micro-cap names and doing it since 2005. A narrow corner of the market, priced like the specialty product it is.
The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield of the Dow Jones Select Microcap Index.
Why people hold it
- A micro-cap pure play: it fishes below the floor where broad small-cap funds like VB and IWM stop, holding roughly 160 of the market's smallest listed companies.
- Rules pick the portfolio, not conviction. It has tracked the Dow Jones Select Microcap Index since its 2005 launch, through multiple market cycles.
- Plain wrapper, plain schedule: an index fund from First Trust that pays distributions quarterly.
Worth knowing
- The fee is 0.65% a year against a 0.25% median for its small-cap peer group. Reaching this far down the cap ladder costs more than buying the broad market.
- It trades thinly, so the bid-ask spread is part of the real cost, and more so in larger orders.
- Micro-caps move harder than small-caps in both directions, and with roughly 160 names, individual companies carry real weight.
FDM Holdings
- Stocks
- 135
- 14%
- PD
Sectors
- Financials56.7%
- Health Care7.4%
- Real Estate6.4%
- Industrials5.9%
- Consumer Discr.5.7%
- Technology4.8%
- Communication4.4%
- Cons. Staples4.3%
- Energy3.6%
- Materials1.0%
Geography
- United States100.00%
FDM Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
Returns run to the Sep 22, 2026 close, with cash distributions reinvested. Each period starts on the same date that many months or years earlier. Periods over one year show the average yearly return.
| Period | FDM |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +14.2% |
| 1 month | −2.9% |
| 3 months | +1.0% |
| 1 year | +18.9% |
| 3 years | +20.4% |
| 5 years | +10.8% |
| 10 years | +11.1% |
Calendar-year total return with cash distributions hypothetically reinvested at the ex-dividend date’s closing price. The current year shows year to date.
| Year | Return bar | FDM |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +14.2% | |
| 2025 | +18.6% | |
| 2024 | +13.0% | |
| 2023 | +12.8% | |
| 2022 | −11.6% | |
| 2021 | +35.1% | |
| 2020 | −4.1% |
FDM in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on FDM yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
FDM Dividends
- 1.38%
- $1.25
- $0.38 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.38 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.23 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.38 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.26 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.22 |
| Mar 27, 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | $0.28 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.29 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.21 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.50 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | Mar 28, 2024 | $0.06 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.24 |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Sep 29, 2023 | $0.28 |
FDM Risk
- 18.9%
How it’s calculated: standard deviation
The sample standard deviation of monthly total returns, multiplied by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Total returns include reinvested distributions.
- 0.78
How it’s calculated: Sharpe ratio
Subtract each month’s Treasury-bill return from the fund’s monthly total return.
Divide the average of those excess returns by their sample standard deviation, then multiply by the square root of 12.
Uses up to 36 complete months, with at least 12 required. Each month uses the Treasury yield quoted at the end of the previous month.
- −23.7%
How it’s calculated: maximum drawdown
The largest percentage decline from an earlier peak, using total returns with reinvested distributions.
Uses up to five years through the last close, with at least 12 months required.
- 0.96
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FDM Cost
- The middle half of US Small-Cap funds
- Median 0.20%
Every other US Small-Cap fund charges less.