DFEB vs DMAY

DFEBCFT Vest U.S. Equity Deep Buffer ETF - February

DMAYCFT Vest U.S. Equity Deep Buffer ETF - May

In short

DFEB A buffer with a deductible. DFEB lets the first 5% of a drop in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust land on you, then covers the next 25 points, in exchange for an upside cap that resets every February.

DMAY A deep buffer with a May start date. DMAY absorbs a 25-percentage-point band of losses in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust over each one-year outcome period, and in exchange you live under a cap that resets every May.

Stated mandate

DFEB The Fund seeks to match the price return of the State Street® SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust before fees and expenses, subject to an 11.87% upside cap, while protecting against Underlying ETF losses from -5% through -30% during the February 23, 2026–February 19, 2027 outcome period.

DMAY The Fund seeks to track the price return of the State Street® SPDR® S&P 500® ETF Trust, subject to a 13.56% upside cap, while buffering specified losses over the current target-outcome period.

Why people hold it

• DFEB Deep coverage where it hurts: the fund targets protection against reference-ETF losses from -5% through -30%, a 25-point band, over each one-year outcome period.
• One of twelve monthly vintages on the same reference ETF (DMAR, DJUN, DDEC and the rest), so entries can be laddered across the calendar instead of hinging on one start date.
• Running since 2020, it has rolled through several full outcome periods, and it sits in the upper half of its deep-buffer peer group.
• At 0.85%, the fee sits right at the median for deep-buffer funds tracking this kind of strategy.

• DMAY Twenty-five percentage points of buffer against declines in the reference fund per outcome period. That is the deep end of the buffer menu, not the usual thin cushion.ftportfolios.com
• The thing being buffered is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust itself, price return. No custom index to decode.ftportfolios.com
• One of twelve monthly vintages First Trust runs on the same deep-buffer recipe, DJAN through DDEC, every one at 0.85%. Start dates can be laddered without changing the fee math.
• Running since 2020, so the structure has been through real market weather rather than a backtest.

Worth knowing

• DFEB The trade for depth: you absorb the first 5% of losses yourself, and gains stop at a cap that is reset each February from option pricing at the time.
• It tracks price return only, so the reference ETF's dividends are not passed along, and the fund has not been paying distributions.
• Cheaper deep-buffer options exist (PSCX and PSCW run 0.49%), and DFEB trades lightly, so limit orders are the sane way in and out.

• DMAY 0.85% sits right at the median for deep-buffer funds, but not the floor: the Pacer Swan SOS Conservative siblings (PSCX, PSCW, PSCQ) run 0.49%.
• Price return only. Dividends paid inside the S&P 500 are not passed along, and income has not been part of the package here.
• Trades lightly next to the biggest buffer funds, so execution deserves attention. Buy mid-period and you inherit whatever cap and buffer remain, not the reset-day terms.

Full DFEB profile⁠

Full DMAY profile⁠