FTSL vs USLN

FTSLCFirst Trust Senior Loan Fund

USLNCiShares Broad USD Floating Rate Loan ETF

In short

FTSL Most funds in the high-yield aisle own fixed-coupon junk bonds. FTSL owns first-lien senior bank loans whose coupons float with short-term rates, chosen by a live credit team instead of an index rulebook, with income paid monthly.

USLN —No data

Stated mandate

FTSL The fund seeks high current income and secondarily aims to preserve capital. It normally invests at least 80% of net assets in first-lien senior floating-rate bank loans, primarily to North American businesses.

USLN —No data

Why people hold it

• FTSL First-lien senior floating-rate bank loans: the coupons reset with short-term rates, and the debt sits at the top of the borrower's capital structure.ftportfolios.com
• Actively managed, so a credit team picks the loans rather than following a bank-loan index, spread across roughly 220 positions.
• Trading since 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that pays monthly, with a track record spanning both rate hikes and cuts.
• The stated mission is plain: high current income first, capital preservation second. A different job than chasing total return.

USLN —No data

Worth knowing

• FTSL At 0.70% a year it sits above the group's roughly 0.40% median and multiples of index rivals like SCYB and SPHY, putting it near the back of its high-yield peer group on cost.
• Floating coupons cut both ways: monthly income follows short-term rates up, and follows them back down.
• These are leveraged corporate loans, so borrower defaults, not interest-rate swings, do most of the damage to capital here.ftportfolios.com

USLN —No data

Full FTSL profile⁠

Full USLN profile⁠