First Trust to liquidate Horizon Managed Volatility Small/Mid ETF in January

First Trust is shutting an actively managed small- and mid-cap low-volatility fund, First Trust Horizon Managed Volatility Small/Mid ETF CHSMV, after more than six years with $9.48 million in assets. The prospectus supplement filed Monday does not name a commercial reason. It says only that the Board of Trustees of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund III, voting on Wednesday, September 9, determined that terminating the fund was in its best interests.

Holders can keep selling on NYSE Arca through the close on Friday, January 8, 2027; ordinary brokerage charges can apply. Creations stop that day, and the shares are then delisted.

The last week is not a continuation of the same fund in all but name. To prepare for liquidation, the portfolio managers may raise cash and similar instruments. On or around January 8 the fund is expected to deviate from its stated strategies and will no longer be managed to its investment objective. Holders who wait for the check may spend that final stretch in a cash-like book, not in managed-volatility equities.

Anyone still holding after that session is redeemed automatically for cash equal to their proportionate interest in net assets as of the liquidation date, on or around January 15, 2027, subject to required withholdings. The filing notes that those proceeds are generally taxable in a taxable account if they exceed the holder's adjusted basis.

The same Monday, First Trust also filed to liquidate First Trust Horizon Managed Volatility Developed International ETF CHDMV, which holds developed-market stocks outside the U.S. chosen for low expected volatility. Horizon Investments sub-advises three First Trust managed-volatility funds; two of those three are now being liquidated. CHDMV had $15.4 million as of September 13, the same 0.80% fee, a 2016 inception, and the same January 8 last-trade and mid-January cash-out calendar. The survivor, First Trust Horizon Managed Volatility Domestic ETF CHUSV, is the largest of the three. It held $56.2 million as of September 13 and charges 0.70%. It is a large-cap fund, not a small- and mid-cap one.

A $9.48 million fund after six years

CHSMV buys U.S.-listed small- and mid-cap common stocks that Horizon believes will have low future volatility, with at least 80% of net assets in that sleeve under normal conditions. First Trust Advisors is the adviser. The fund opened on April 6, 2020, and charges 0.80%. At that size the fee is about $76,000 a year. Cerulli Associates has found that since 2021 more than 85% of ETF closures have been products with less than $50 million in assets.

The fund was not a blow-up. Through Monday's close it had a total return of 6.81% year to date and 4.42% over 12 months. First Trust's own August 31 scorecard showed the NAV up 6.31% over 12 months, against 29.54% for the S&P 1000, the small- and mid-cap index the firm prints as a comparison. Over three years the same table showed annualized NAV gains of 9.03% against 15.67% for that index.

Over those three years the fund's standard deviation was 12.73% against 16.60% for the S&P 1000, and its beta was 0.67. Alpha was -1.95, and the Sharpe ratio was 0.39 against 0.62 for the index.

What still offers small- and mid-cap low volatility

The exposure did not disappear. Larger, cheaper index funds still hold U.S. small-cap or mid-cap stocks screened for low volatility.

Assets for CXMLV and CXSLV are as of September 13; BSMMV is as of September 14.

If you hold CHSMV, the practical choice is whether to sell on the exchange over the next four months or wait for First Trust's cash. Either way the low-volatility small- and mid-cap idea survives in funds that found enough assets to stay open. This one did not.