
First Trust Innovation Leaders ETF
$39.79−0.65 (−1.61%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.75%
- Fund size
- $351M
- 1Y return
- +21.6%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 0.00%
- Holdings
- 81
- Volume · 30D
- 0.1M sh
- NAV per share
- $40.10
- 52W range
The ETF.net ILDR Grade
Score 47 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 27Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.AScore 86Category rankRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 61Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.BScore 59Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.BScore 62Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.BScore 69Category rank
Our read on ILDR
CMost innovation ETFs hand the job to an index. ILDR hands it to First Trust's own managers, who pick roughly 60 US and non-US names across seven innovation themes, from advanced medicine to the energy revolution.
The Fund seeks capital appreciation and normally invests at least 80% of its assets in U.S. and non-U.S. companies that may benefit from scientific and technological innovation, including automation, advanced medicine, networks, advanced computing, enhanced mobility, the energy revolution, and e-commerce.
Why people hold it
- No index to hide behind. The managers pick the roughly 60 holdings themselves, so the lineup can shift as themes like automation and advanced computing evolve.stockanalysis.com
- It stays on brief: at least 80% of assets must sit in companies tied to scientific and technological innovation, and the portfolio closely reflects that mandate.ftportfolios.com
- Trading since 2021, with a mid-sized asset base and moderate volume, so it sidesteps the wide spreads common to thin thematic funds.
- Lands in the upper half of its disruptive-innovation peer group, a crowded shelf where plenty of funds promise the same themes.
Worth knowing
- At 0.75% a year it sits above the 0.65% peer median and well above index-based rivals like KOMP at 0.20%. Active stock-picking is what the premium buys.
- Concentrated by design: about 60 names, tech-heavy, non-diversified. Single-stock and single-theme swings land harder here than in a broad market fund.aaii.com
- Built for capital appreciation, not income. Payouts are not part of the mandate.
ILDR Holdings
- Other
- 81
- 44%
- NVDA
Sectors
- Technology51.1%
- Health Care13.7%
- Industrials12.2%
- Consumer Discr.8.4%
- Communication7.8%
- Financials3.1%
- Utilities2.4%
- Energy0.9%
- Materials0.5%
Geography
- United States86.44%
- Ireland2.57%
- Canada2.29%
- Germany2.17%
- Netherlands1.98%
- France1.77%
- Denmark1.58%
- Sweden0.77%
- 0.43%
ILDR 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 | ILDR |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +22.6% |
| 1 month | +3.6% |
| 3 months | +4.6% |
| 1 year | +21.6% |
| 3 years | +33.3% |
| 5 years | +12.5% |
| 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 | ILDR |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +22.6% | |
| 2025 | +29.2% | |
| 2024 | +29.3% | |
| 2023 | +39.3% | |
| 2022 | −34.9% | |
| 2021 | +7.3% |
ILDR in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on ILDR yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
ILDR Dividends
- 0.00%
No distributions in the last 12 months.
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 23, 2021 | Dec 31, 2021 | $0.03 |
ILDR Risk
- 22.8%
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.
- 1.01
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.
- −44.6%
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.
- 1.55
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
ILDR Cost
- The middle half of Disruptive Innovation funds
- Median 0.65%
19 of the 31 Disruptive Innovation funds charge less.