FSGS vs IMCG

FSGSDFirst Trust SMID Growth Strength ETF

IMCGAiShares Morningstar Mid-Cap Growth ETF

In short

FSGS Growth only after the balance sheet passes inspection: FSGS screens small and mid caps for cash, low debt and double-digit return on equity, then ranks survivors on three-year revenue and cash flow growth. About 100 names, equally weighted.

IMCG Growth investing usually means megacaps. IMCG works the middle of the market instead: roughly 300 mid-cap growth names, indexed since 2004, for six basis points a year.

Stated mandate

FSGS The Fund seeks investment results that generally correspond to the price and yield of The SMID Growth Strength Index before fees and expenses.

IMCG The Fund seeks to track an index of U.S. mid-capitalization equities with growth characteristics. Its strategy uses representative sampling and generally invests at least 80% of assets in securities from the Underlying Index.

Why people hold it

• FSGS Quality gate comes first: at least $100 million in cash, long-term debt under 30% of market cap, positive equity, positive revenue and cash flow, and ROE above 10%.ftportfolios.com
• Growth ranking is backward-looking and concrete: three-year revenue growth and three-year cash flow growth, weighted equally. No analyst forecasts in the recipe.ftportfolios.com
• Equal weighting across about 100 stocks, reset quarterly, so one hot name cannot quietly become the fund. A different shape from cap-weighted growth indexes.ftportfolios.com
• Small and mid caps put it in a different lane from the megacap-heavy growth funds that lead this category, including SPYG, SCHG and VUG.nasdaq.com

• IMCG 0.06% a year, one third of the 0.18% median for its growth-fund peer group. Mid-cap indexing at large-cap-index prices.
• The growth leaderboard is stacked with large-cap funds (VUG, SCHG, SPYG, VONG). IMCG covers the middle instead, holding about 300 mid-cap growth names.
• Sticks close to the Morningstar mid-cap growth index it follows, one of the tighter tracking jobs in its peer group.
• Running since 2004 under the iShares roof, with a multi-billion-dollar asset base behind it.

Worth knowing

• FSGS At 0.60% with no waiver, it sits above the category median, and well above cap-weighted options like VUG at 0.03% and mid-cap growth fund IMCG at 0.06%.
• The ticker dates to 2017, but it tracked a different index until late 2024, so the live record for this strategy is short.sec.gov
• One of the smaller, more lightly traded funds in the growth group, so spreads can run wider than in the category's giants.

• IMCG Moderately traded rather than heavily traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than the megacap growth ETFs sitting beside it in the category.
• This is a size-and-style bet. Mid-cap growth companies tend to move more sharply than the broad market, in both directions.
• Distributions land quarterly, but a growth screen is not built around income.

Full FSGS profile⁠

Full IMCG profile⁠