First Trust sets FSEP's new cap at 16.68% as September buffers roll

The prior target-outcome year on First Trust’s September buffer series ended Friday, September 18. From the September 19, 2025 close through Friday, the FT Vest U.S. Equity Buffer ETF - September CFSEP returned 13.3%. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust ASPY rose 14.8% on price, through last year’s 14.00% pre-fee cap; ASPY’s total return was 16.0%, and the dividend is not in the FLEX package. The fund’s 10% buffer was unused.

On Monday the trust, First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VIII, filed a Rule 497(e) supplement that started a new period through September 17, 2027, and set a 16.68% cap, before fees, on CFSEP. Last year’s ceiling on the same fund was 14.00%. The paper does not launch these funds. It resets the contract on funds that already trade: a new upside cap and a new options book. Holdings dated Monday already show FLEX options expiring September 17, 2027.

CFSEP and CQSPT hold most of the September series

The supplement covers eight FT Vest funds in one table. Caps are stated two ways: before fees, and after fees and expenses, excluding brokerage commissions, trading fees, taxes, and extraordinary expenses not in each fund’s management fee. The after-fee figure is the one a holder actually lives with if the fund reaches the ceiling and nothing else hits the NAV.

Together the eight held $5.14 billion as of Tuesday. Four of them hold $4.80 billion of that.

CFSEP seeks ASPY’s price return, up to the cap, with a buffer against the first 10% of losses; CQSPT does the same versus AQQQ. Deep-buffer CDSEP absorbs the first 5% of ASPY losses, then buffers the next 25 percentage points. Moderate-buffer CGSEP seeks a 15% buffer. Monday’s holdings put those depths in the new FLEX strikes: CFSEP’s downside put is struck 10% below Friday’s ASPY close of $761.69, CDSEP’s puts bracket a 5% to 30% zone, and CGSEP’s put sits 15% below.

The other four September funds in the supplement are enhance-and-moderate CXSEP, international DYSEP, equal-weight CRSSE, and emerging-markets —TSEP. CXSEP seeks roughly twice ASPY’s price return, up to an 11.19% pre-fee cap, and a 15% buffer, deeper than CFSEP’s 10%.

CQSPT used last year’s cap too

CQSPT returned 16.5% against a 16.97% pre-fee cap. AQQQ’s price rose 20.4%. The Nasdaq-100 fund used essentially all of last year’s room and still trailed the reference by about four percentage points.

CXSEP returned 8.79% against a 9.58% pre-fee cap. Caps on CFSEP, CQSPT, and DYSEP all came in above last year’s ceilings.

Monday was the first session of the new year. ASPY closed at $773.50, up 1.55% from Friday’s $761.69, the reference printed in CFSEP’s new options. CFSEP itself closed at $57.55, up 0.66%. The stated 16.68% cap is the outcome for shares bought at the start of the period and held to September 17, 2027. Shares bought after Monday do not receive that full cap.

QQBF’s three-month cap is 3.26%

The same trust on Monday filed a Rule 497(k) summary prospectus for the FT Vest Nasdaq-100 Quarterly 15 Buffer ETF QQBF, listed on Cboe BZX. The fund was cleared to list in a September 11 registration. Monday’s paper is the first published outcome: it seeks AQQQ’s price return up to a 3.26% cap, buffering the first 15% of losses, from September 21 through December 18. After fees the cap is 3.04%. The management fee and total annual fund operating expenses are both 0.90%.

That 3.26% is the entire upside the fund will seek until December 18, against a 0.90% fee. It is the short-dated end of the same First Trust buffer shelf that just reset CFSEP with a 16.68% one-year cap.

A companion Rule 497(c) and 497(k) named the FT Vest Nasdaq-100 Dual Directional Buffer ETF - September DQSE. For the same September 21, 2026–September 17, 2027 window it seeks, before fees, either AQQQ’s positive price return up to an 18.75% cap or a gain if AQQQ falls, up to a 10% inverse-performance threshold, with a 10% buffer on losses beyond that threshold.

September is a crowded shelf

CFSEP sits in a 77-fund group of S&P 500 buffers in the 9-12% depth range. It is also the largest single line in the FT Vest Laddered Buffer ETF ABUFR, which holds $10.64 billion across twelve monthly 10% buffers; CFSEP was 8.40% of that fund on Monday, a $895 million sleeve.

Innovator’s September series reset three weeks earlier. The Innovator U.S. Equity Power Buffer ETF BPSEP, a 15% buffer on an S&P 500 ETF for September 1, 2026 through August 31, 2027, started that period with a 15.01% cap before fees and $1.10 billion in assets. The Innovator U.S. Equity Buffer ETF CBSEP, a 9% buffer on the same reference and calendar, started at 19.75% before fees and holds $409 million. The products are not substitutes: different start dates, different buffer depths, and different fees (BPSEP and CBSEP charge 0.79%; CFSEP charges 0.85%). They are the September vintage a holder would put next to First Trust’s new numbers.

For a holder who stays in CFSEP through September 17, 2027, the extra room in the new 16.68% pre-fee cap, 15.83% after fees, is the change in the contract. Last year’s 13.3% would have left that room unused. That extra room is unused unless ASPY’s price return again exceeds 14.00%.