First Trust WCM Developing World Equity ETF
$19.54+0.00 (+0.00%)
- Expense ratio
- 0.95%
- Fund size
- $38M
- 1Y return
- +13.8%
- Yield · Last 12 months
- 0.34%
- Holdings
- 35
- Volume · 30D
- 0M sh
- NAV per share
- $19.37
- 52W range
The ETF.net WCME Grade
Score 37 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.DScore 26Category 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.DScore 38Category rankTradability
How cheaply and easily you can get in and out — liquidity, spread, and premium/discount stability.CScore 45Category rankHoldings
What it actually owns — the quality, breadth, and concentration of the underlying portfolio.CScore 47Category rankDurability
Whether it will still be here — the fund’s assets, age, flows, and issuer staying power.BScore 67Category rank
Our read on WCME
DEmerging markets with conviction: roughly 30 stocks hand-picked by boutique manager WCM, with frontier names in bounds. Built to look nothing like a broad developing-world index fund.
The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It normally invests at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of companies located in developing countries, using WCM’s bottom-up fundamental research process.
Why people hold it
- Genuinely active: about 30 holdings chosen by bottom-up fundamental research, not index weights. Real concentration, not closet indexing with a higher fee.
- Wide mandate: at least 80% of net assets in developing-country equities, with frontier markets inside the lines and no market-cap box.sec.gov
- Full opportunity set. Peers like EMM and PEMX screen China out by rule; here China exposure is a stock-by-stock decision the manager makes.
- The 0.95% expense ratio sits right at the median for its active emerging-markets peer group: the going rate for stock-picking, not a surcharge.
Worth knowing
- Cheaper active EM options exist. EMM charges 0.66% and PEMX 0.70% against this fund's 0.95%, and fees compound whatever the market does.
- Small and thinly traded, so bid-ask spreads tend to be wider than a mega-fund's and sizeable orders need more care at the open and close.
- Concentration cuts both ways: with about 30 developing and frontier holdings, single stocks and single countries move it more than a broad tracker. It launched in 2020, so the record is short.
WCME Holdings
- Stocks
- 35
- 49%
- 2330.TW
Sectors
- Technology36.7%
- Financials16.3%
- Consumer Discr.11.0%
- Health Care10.4%
- Industrials8.9%
- Materials6.1%
- Energy5.0%
- Communication2.9%
- Utilities2.7%
Geography
- Korea (the Republic of)21.31%
- Brazil15.95%
- Taiwan (Province of China)15.28%
- China14.84%
- Israel4.80%
- Mexico4.43%
- Hong Kong4.13%
- Switzerland3.59%
- 15.67%
Developed 11% · Emerging 89%
WCME 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 | WCME |
|---|---|
| Year to date | +13.8% |
| 1 month | +1.3% |
| 3 months | −3.2% |
| 1 year | +13.8% |
| 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 | WCME |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | +13.8% | |
| 2025 | +35.2% | |
| 2024 | −10.8% |
WCME in the news
ETF.net Research hasn’t filed on WCME yet — coverage lands here as it’s written.
WCME Dividends
- 0.34%
- $0.07
- $0.05 per share
- Twice a year
Distribution history
| Ex-date | Pay date | Amount per share |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 25, 2026 | Jun 30, 2026 | $0.05 |
| Dec 12, 2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | $0.01 |
| Jun 26, 2025 | Jun 30, 2025 | $0.10 |
| Dec 13, 2024 | Dec 31, 2024 | $0.07 |
WCME Risk
- 17.5%
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.
- 0.88
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.
- −15.7%
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.
- 1.08
How it’s calculated: beta
The beta figure is supplied by FMP. The comparison index depends on the fund’s broad asset class.
WCME Cost
- The middle half of Emerging Markets Active Growth funds
- Median 0.79%
6 of the 9 Emerging Markets Active Growth funds charge less.