FHDG vs XTR

FHDGDFT Vest U.S. Equity Quarterly Dynamic Buffer ETF

XTRCGlobal X S&P 500 Tail Risk ETF

In short

FHDG Most buffer funds lock in one cushion for a full year. FHDG resets every three months and lets the cushion itself flex between 5.0% and 7.5% of S&P 500 losses, with a fresh upside cap set each period.

XTR Most downside-protection ETFs sell away your upside to pay for it. XTR pays cash instead: it owns the S&P 500 stocks and buys 10% out-of-the-money puts every quarter, leaving the upside uncapped.

Stated mandate

FHDG The Fund seeks to track the price return of the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust before fees and expenses, subject to an upside cap, while dynamically buffering either 5.0% or 7.5% of losses over approximately three months.

XTR The Fund seeks to track the performance of the Cboe S&P 500 Tail Risk Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• FHDG The buffer isn't fixed. Each roughly three-month period opens with either 5.0% or 7.5% of downside absorbed, sized to what the options market can fund at the time.ftportfolios.com
• Quarterly resets mean four fresh starts a year, so one awkward entry point doesn't set the terms for the next twelve months.
• The reference is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, before fees and expenses. No bespoke index to decode, just the benchmark most investors already track.
• Sits in the upper half of a crowded shallow-buffer peer group, helped by day-to-day tradability that holds up against bigger names.

• XTR No cap on the gains. The hedge is bought with cash rather than funded by selling calls, so index rallies come through less the put premium and fees.sec.gov
• Costs 0.25%, well under half of what the defined-outcome funds it competes with typically charge for downside protection.
• Owns the roughly 500 S&P 500 stocks themselves, with the put position layered on top, rather than wrapping the index in a stack of options.sec.gov
• Rules-based and mechanical: puts are bought at 10% below the prevailing index level each quarter and held to expiration, with no manager guessing at timing.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• FHDG At 0.85% a year it runs above the typical fund in its buffer cohort, and above shallow-buffer alternatives like ZALT (0.69%) and BUFB (0.10%).
• The cap is reset each period, losses past the 5.0% or 7.5% buffer pass through in full, and the reference is a price return, so dividends don't come along.ftportfolios.com
• Launched in late 2024, so the history is short, and the buffer math only lands as designed for holders who own it from one period start to the next.

• XTR Protection starts about 10% down and resets quarterly, so garden-variety dips are absorbed in full and the gap widens if the market rallies mid-quarter.sec.gov
• Insurance is not free. The quarterly premium is a steady cost against plain index exposure, and in calm markets the puts expire worthless.sec.gov
• A small fund that trades thinly, so limit orders matter and subscale products carry more risk of being closed than the category's giants.

Full FHDG profile⁠

Full XTR profile⁠