FJUL vs XTR

FJULCFT Vest U.S. Equity Buffer ETF - July

XTRCGlobal X S&P 500 Tail Risk ETF

In short

FJUL The July rung of First Trust's twelve-month buffer ladder: 10% of SPY's price-return losses absorbed, upside capped, and the whole contract reset each July. Running since 2020.

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

FJUL The Fund seeks returns matching the price return of the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust up to a 16.82% upside cap, while buffering the first 10% of losses during the July 20, 2026–July 16, 2027 outcome period.

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

• FJUL The terms are written down before you show up: a 10% downside buffer on SPY's price return and a stated upside cap, both fixed for the July-to-July outcome period.ftportfolios.com
• Twelve identical monthly siblings run on the same recipe (FJAN through FDEC), so start dates can be laddered instead of hinging on one July entry.
• Live since 2020 and now a billion-dollar-plus fund, it is a seasoned rung of the ladder with many annual resets behind it.

• 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

• FJUL At 0.85% a year it sits above the buffer group's 0.79% median, and well above cheaper builds like ZALT (0.69%) or the laddered BUFB (0.10%).
• The reference is SPY's price return, so dividends sit outside the buffered math, and the fund itself has made no distributions.
• Buffer and cap are defined for the full July-to-July window; buy mid-period and your own cap and remaining buffer differ from the headline terms.ftportfolios.com

• 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 FJUL profile⁠

Full XTR profile⁠