First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index Fund
$65.64−0.40 (−0.61%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.63%
- Fund size
- $86M
- 1Y return
- +17.6%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 2.32%
- Holdings
- 160
- Volume · 30D
- 0M sh
- NAV per share
- $66.53
- 52W range
The ETF.net QABA Grade
Score 33 of 100 sits in the D 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 8Category rankMission
How faithfully it does the job it claims — tracking its mandate or index with minimal slippage.Not scoredRisk
How violently it can move — volatility, drawdown depth, and downside capture versus its category.BScore 55Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.DScore 32Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.AScore 76Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.CScore 51Category rank
Our read on QABA
DThe community-bank ETF: it tracks an index the American Bankers Association helped build, one that deliberately throws out the 50 biggest banks. What's left is Main Street lenders, not money-center giants.
The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield of the Nasdaq OMX® ABA Community BankTM Index.
Why people hold it
- The screen is the whole point. The index leaves out the 50 largest banks and thrifts by asset size, so the megabanks never crowd out the small hometown lenders.aba.com
- Trading since 2009 and it has hugged its Nasdaq ABA index closely. What the methodology promises is what shows up in the portfolio.ftportfolios.com
- About 120 Nasdaq-listed banks and thrifts, market-cap weighted with caps, so the basket spreads across the group instead of riding two or three names.
- Distributions come quarterly, in step with the dividend rhythm of the banks it holds.
Worth knowing
- 0.63% a year is well above the 0.35% charged by the big bank funds like KRE and KBE. The niche screen carries a price tag.
- Thinly traded on a modest asset base, so spreads can run wider than the household-name bank ETFs and size orders may move the price.
- One sector, small lenders. Rate swings, credit cycles and regional bank stress hit this basket harder than a broad financials fund.
QABA Holdings
- Stocks
- 160
- 25%
- WTFC
Sectors
- Financials99.7%
- Industrials0.3%
Geography
- United States99.70%
- Canada0.30%
QABA 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 | QABA |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +17.9% |
| 1 month | −2.9% |
| 3 months | +2.6% |
| 1 year | +17.6% |
| 3 years | +21.8% |
| 5 years | +7.2% |
| 10 years | +7.1% |
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 | QABA |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +17.9% | |
| 2025 | +4.6% | |
| 2024 | +14.5% | |
| 2023 | −2.2% | |
| 2022 | −9.0% | |
| 2021 | +34.2% | |
| 2020 | −10.8% |
QABA in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on QABA yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
QABA Dividends
- 2.32%
- $1.53
- $0.35 per share
- Quarterly
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.35 |
| Mar 26, 2026 | Mar 31, 2026 | $0.34 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.49 |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Sep 30, 2025 | $0.35 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.28 |
| Mar 27, 2025 | Mar 31, 2025 | $0.31 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.34 |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Sep 30, 2024 | $0.28 |
| Jun 27, 2024 | Jun 28, 2024 | $0.43 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | Mar 28, 2024 | $0.27 |
| Dec 22, 2023 | Dec 29, 2023 | $0.36 |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Sep 29, 2023 | $0.31 |
QABA Risk
- 23.2%
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.
- 0.69
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.
- −43.0%
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.
- 0.98
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
QABA Cost
- The middle half of Banks funds
- Median 0.35%
Every other Banks fund charges less.