First Trust Senior Loan Fund
$44.96−0.06 (−0.13%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.70%
- Fund size
- $2.4B
- 1Y return
- +3.9%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 6.30%
- Holdings
- 375
- Volume · 30D
- 0.2M sh
- NAV per share
- $44.98
- 52W range
The ETF.net FTSL 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.DScore 26Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.BScore 56Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.CScore 51Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.AScore 71Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 91Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.AScore 85Category rank
Our read on FTSL
CMost funds in the high-yield aisle own fixed-coupon junk bonds. FTSL owns first-lien senior bank loans whose coupons float with short-term rates, chosen by a live credit team instead of an index rulebook, with income paid monthly.
The fund seeks high current income and secondarily aims to preserve capital. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets in first-lien senior floating-rate bank loans, primarily to North American businesses.
Why people hold it
- First-lien senior floating-rate bank loans: the coupons reset with short-term rates, and the debt sits at the top of the borrower's capital structure.ftportfolios.com
- Actively managed, so a credit team picks the loans rather than following a bank-loan index, spread across roughly 220 positions.
- Trading since 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays monthly, with a track record spanning both rate hikes and cuts.
- The stated mission is plain: high current income first, capital preservation second. A different job than chasing total return.
Worth knowing
- At 0.70% a year it sits above the group's roughly 0.40% median and multiples of index rivals like SCYB and SPHY, putting it near the back of its high-yield peer group on cost.
- Floating coupons cut both ways: monthly income follows short-term rates up, and follows them back down.
- These are leveraged corporate loans, so borrower defaults, not interest-rate swings, do most of the damage to capital here.ftportfolios.com
FTSL Holdings
- Other
- 375
- 13%
- US Dollar
Sectors
- Materials100.0%
Geography
- United States91.30%
- Canada4.39%
- Bermuda2.78%
- United Kingdom1.10%
- Ireland0.44%
FTSL Performance
Shows how $10,000 changes over the selected period, with cash distributions reinvested at the closing price on each ex-dividend date.
FTSL$10,393
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 | FTSL |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +2.3% |
| 1 month | +0.6% |
| 3 months | +1.6% |
| 1 year | +3.9% |
| 3 years | +6.5% |
| 5 years | +5.2% |
| 10 years | +4.4% |
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 | FTSL |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +2.3% | |
| 2025 | +6.0% | |
| 2024 | +8.3% | |
| 2023 | +11.6% | |
| 2022 | −2.5% | |
| 2021 | +3.9% | |
| 2020 | +3.0% |
FTSL in the news
FTSL Dividends
- 6.30%
- $2.84
- $0.23 per share
- Monthly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 21, 2026 | Aug 31, 2026 | $0.23 |
| Jul 21, 2026 | Jul 31, 2026 | $0.23 |
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.23 |
| May 21, 2026 | May 29, 2026 | $0.24 |
| Apr 21, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | $0.24 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.24 |
| Feb 20, 2026 | Feb 27, 2026 | $0.24 |
| Jan 21, 2026 | Jan 30, 2026 | $0.24 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.24 |
| Nov 21, 2025 | Nov 28, 2025 | $0.24 |
| Oct 21, 2025 | Oct 31, 2025 | $0.25 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.25 |
FTSL Risk
- 2.0%
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.
- 0.94
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.
- −7.0%
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.
- 0.06
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FTSL Cost
0.70%
FTSL0.70%
- The middle half of Bank Loan funds
- Median 0.62%
7 of the 11 Bank Loan funds charge less.