FNY vs IMCB

FNYDFirst Trust Mid Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund

IMCBAiShares Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF

In short

FNY Most mid-cap funds just own the market. FNY runs Nasdaq's AlphaDEX screen instead: rank mid-cap growth names, cut the weakest, weight by score rather than size. A quant stock-picker in index clothing.

IMCB Mid-cap America for four basis points, running since 2004. It samples Morningstar's US mid-cap index across roughly 400 stocks and hews to that benchmark about as closely as anything in its category.

Stated mandate

FNY The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Mid Cap Growth Index. It uses an indexing approach, normally investing at least 90% of net assets in securities comprising that index.

IMCB The Fund seeks to track an index of mid-capitalization U.S. equities. It uses indexing and representative sampling rather than trying to outperform the index.

Why people hold it

• FNY AlphaDEX scores mid-cap names on growth and value measures, drops the low scorers, then weights survivors by rank, not market cap. Deliberately different from a cap-weighted index.ftportfolios.com
• Spreads the bet across roughly 200-plus mid-cap stocks, with at least 90% of net assets in index constituents.
• Trading since 2011, so this screen has a long public record across several market cycles.

• IMCB Costs 0.04% a year, against roughly 0.15% typical for the mid-cap group.
• Indexing, not opinions: representative sampling of the Morningstar US Mid Cap Index, with tracking among the tightest in its peer group.ishares.com
• Trading since 2004 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, so there is a long operating history here, not a launch-year story.
• About 400 names covering both the growth and value sides of US mid caps, so no style tilt is baked in.

Worth knowing

• FNY At 0.73% a year the fee sits well above the mid-cap peer median near 0.15%; cap-weighted rivals VO and SCHM charge 0.03%. The screen has that hurdle to clear.
• Thinly traded next to the mid-cap giants, so bid-ask spreads and order slippage matter more here.
• Rank weighting tilts toward smaller, higher-momentum names, so results can diverge widely from a standard mid-cap index, in either direction.ftportfolios.com

• IMCB Thinly traded next to the category's household names, so spreads and order handling matter more at the moment of a trade.
• All US, all stocks: mid caps move harder than mega caps, and nothing else in the portfolio cushions an equity selloff.
• VO and SCHM cover similar ground at 0.03%, so the cost edge here is over the group average rather than over the cheapest rivals.

Full FNY profile⁠

Full IMCB profile⁠