First Trust Small Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund
$116.34−2.23 (−1.88%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.70%
- Fund size
- $1.4B
- 1Y return
- +28.8%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 0.17%
- Holdings
- 263
- Volume · 30D
- 0.1M sh
- NAV per share
- $117.95
- 52W range
The ETF.net FYC Grade
Score 46 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 88Category 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.CScore 42Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 78Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.BScore 60Category rank
Our read on FYC
CSmall-cap growth, but not by market cap. The AlphaDEX screen ranks the Nasdaq US 700 Small Cap universe on growth and value factors, keeps the best scorers, tiers their weights by rank, and reshuffles quarterly. Rules-based stock picking, not index hugging.
The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Small Cap Growth Index through an indexing approach.
Why people hold it
- Weight follows score, not size: selected names are split into quintiles, higher-scoring quintiles get the bigger share of the index, and stocks sit equal-weighted inside each quintile.sec.gov
- The screen blends both sides of the style aisle, ranking on growth factors (3-, 6- and 12-month price moves, sales-to-price, sales growth) and value factors (book-to-price, cash-flow-to-price, return on assets).sec.gov
- The index is reconstituted and rebalanced quarterly, so the roughly 300 small caps it holds get re-scored four times a year instead of riding a static list.sec.gov
- Live since 2011 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, meaning this methodology has been run through more than one small-cap boom and bust rather than back-tested through them.
Worth knowing
- Cost is the headline trade-off: 0.70% a year, well above the typical fund in its growth peer group, where cap-weighted options like SPYG, SCHG and VUG run at or below 0.04%.
- The prospectus flags that the quarterly reconstitution schedule may produce a higher rate of portfolio turnover, with the trading costs and in-fund capital gains that can come with it.sec.gov
- Because weights ignore market cap, the fund can concentrate in an industry group when its index does, and it trades only moderately, so spreads deserve a look before you place an order.sec.gov
FYC Holdings
- Stocks
- 263
- 9%
- TWST
Sectors
- Health Care30.4%
- Technology17.4%
- Industrials15.0%
- Financials10.6%
- Consumer Discr.9.5%
- Real Estate5.1%
- Communication3.3%
- Materials3.1%
- Cons. Staples2.7%
- Energy2.0%
- Utilities1.0%
Geography
- United States98.03%
- Ireland0.54%
- Netherlands0.53%
- Bahamas0.43%
- United Kingdom0.30%
- Puerto Rico0.17%
FYC 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 | FYC |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +23.5% |
| 1 month | −2.8% |
| 3 months | −2.1% |
| 1 year | +28.8% |
| 3 years | +28.9% |
| 5 years | +11.0% |
| 10 years | +13.6% |
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 | FYC |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +23.5% | |
| 2025 | +24.2% | |
| 2024 | +24.0% | |
| 2023 | +14.5% | |
| 2022 | −25.9% | |
| 2021 | +21.6% | |
| 2020 | +32.3% |
FYC in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on FYC yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
FYC Dividends
- 0.17%
- $0.21
- $0.13 per share
- Irregular
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.13 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.08 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.15 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.34 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.07 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.16 |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Sep 29, 2023 | $0.08 |
| Jun 27, 2023 | Jun 30, 2023 | $0.07 |
| Mar 24, 2023 | Mar 31, 2023 | $0.06 |
| Jun 24, 2022 | Jun 30, 2022 | $0.0024 |
| Dec 23, 2021 | Dec 31, 2021 | $0.44 |
| Sep 23, 2021 | Sep 30, 2021 | $0.03 |
FYC Risk
- 21.4%
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.
- 0.98
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.
- −35.4%
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.
- 1.17
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
FYC Cost
- The middle half of US Growth Index funds
- Median 0.18%
Every other US Growth Index fund charges less.