First Trust Core Investment Grade ETF
$20.07−0.20 (−0.96%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.56%
- Fund size
- $2.7B
- 1Y return
- +0.0%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 5.53%
- Holdings
- 792
- Volume · 30D
- 0.7M sh
- NAV per share
- $20.25
- 52W range
The ETF.net FTCB Grade
Score 53 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 13Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 98Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 45Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 65Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.CScore 46Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 70Category rank
Our read on FTCB
CFirst Trust's take on the core bond sleeve: roughly 300 investment-grade bonds, no index to hug, income paid monthly. You pay up for a manager making the calls instead of a benchmark doing it for free.
The fund seeks long-term total return and normally invests its entire investment portfolio in investment-grade securities.
Why people hold it
- Does what the label says. The mandate keeps the entire portfolio in investment-grade securities, and the fund has stayed tightly inside that brief.ftportfolios.com
- Pays monthly, spread across roughly 300 bonds, so income lands on a steady rhythm rather than in quarterly lumps.
- Launched in 2023 and already a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so size and liquidity are not the weak links here.
Worth knowing
- Fee is the headline trade-off: 0.56% a year, above the typical core-bond fund, while index staples like BND, SPAB and SCHZ charge 0.03%.
- No declared index to measure the manager against. The shape of the portfolio is the team's call, within the investment-grade mandate.
- It sits in the intermediate-term bond lane. Investment grade trims credit risk; it does nothing about the pull of interest rates.
FTCB Holdings
- Bonds
- 792
- 34%
- US 2YR NOTE (CBT) Dec26
Geography
- United States87.95%
- Canada2.56%
- Netherlands2.56%
- Ireland2.50%
- Mexico1.41%
- Switzerland1.02%
- France0.92%
- Spain0.72%
- 0.36%
FTCB 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 | FTCB |
|---|---|
| Year to date | −1.4% |
| 1 month | −1.1% |
| 3 months | −1.8% |
| 1 year | +0.0% |
| 3 years | — |
| 5 years | — |
| 10 years | — |
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 | FTCB |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | −1.4% | |
| 2025 | +8.1% | |
| 2024 | +2.6% | |
| 2023 | +5.7% |
FTCB in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on FTCB yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
FTCB Dividends
- 5.53%
- $1.12
- $0.08 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 21, 2026 | Aug 31, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 31, 2026 | $0.08 |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.08 |
| May 21, 2026 | May 29, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Apr 21, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Feb 20, 2026 | Feb 27, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Jan 21, 2026 | Jan 30, 2026 | $0.09 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.17 |
| Nov 21, 2025 | Nov 28, 2025 | $0.10 |
| Oct 21, 2025 | Oct 31, 2025 | $0.08 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.08 |
FTCB Risk
- 5.1%
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.
- 0.14
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.
- −5.0%
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.
- 0.16
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FTCB Cost
- The middle half of US Aggregate Bond funds
- Median 0.34%
98 of the 112 US Aggregate Bond funds charge less.