FPFD vs PFFV

FPFDCFidelity Preferred Securities & Income ETF

PFFVBGlobal X Variable Rate Preferred ETF

In short

FPFD Most funds in this dividend crowd buy common stock. FPFD climbs a rung up the capital stack, actively picking preferred securities, heavily bank and insurer paper, and paying out monthly.

PFFV Most preferred funds hand you a fixed coupon and a lot of rate sensitivity. PFFV screens for variable-rate preferreds only, so coupons reset off short-term benchmarks instead of standing still, at 0.25% a year with monthly payouts.

Stated mandate

FPFD The ETF seeks high total return through current income and capital appreciation.

PFFV The fund seeks to provide investment results generally corresponding to the price and yield performance of the ICE U.S. Variable Rate Preferred Securities Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• FPFD Owns preferred securities rather than common shares, aiming for high total return from current income plus capital appreciation, with distributions paid monthly.fidelity.com
• Actively managed by Fidelity with no index to shadow, so the team can shift between issues and issuers as the preferred market moves.
• Spread across roughly 200 preferred issues, so no single security carries the fund.
• Trading since 2021 and sitting in the upper half of its income-focused peer group on our review.

• PFFV Costs 0.25% a year, about half the typical preferred ETF fee and a fraction of what an actively run peer like FPE charges (0.83%).
• The whole point: an index of variable-rate preferreds, whose coupons reset off short-term benchmarks rather than locking in for the life of the security.
• Passive and plain-vanilla. Roughly 60 US preferred issues picked by published index rules, with income paid out monthly.
• Stacks up as one of the stronger builds in a crowded preferred-ETF field, mostly on cost and a clean, rules-based mandate.

Worth knowing

• FPFD The 0.59% expense ratio runs above the middle of its peer group, where plain dividend-equity funds such as CGDV (0.33%) charge less.
• Preferreds concentrate in financials and act like long-dated bonds, so bank sector stress and interest-rate swings both land here.
• Shares trade lightly, so bid-ask spreads can be wider than on the largest preferred funds.

• PFFV Preferred issuance skews to banks and insurers, so this is concentrated financials credit in bond clothing, spread across only about 60 positions.
• Resets cut both ways. The same floating mechanism that lifts coupons when short-term rates climb also drags them down when rates fall.
• Moderately traded and mid-sized rather than a heavyweight, so bid-ask spreads matter more here than in the largest preferred funds.

Full FPFD profile⁠

Full PFFV profile⁠