FV vs PTLC

FVCFirst Trust Dorsey Wright Focus 5 ETF

PTLCAPacer Trendpilot US Large Cap ETF

In short

FV Sector rotation in one ticker: FV holds five First Trust sector ETFs, equally weighted, chosen by Dorsey Wright relative strength and re-checked twice a month. Momentum investing on autopilot since 2014.

PTLC Most index funds ride out every drawdown. PTLC tracks an index with an exit ramp: a rules-based trend signal that shifts its large-cap exposure toward 3-month Treasury bills and back, with no manager judgment in the loop.

Stated mandate

FV The ETF seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield of the Dorsey Wright Focus Five Index. The index uses relative strength to select five First Trust sector and industry ETFs from its universe, reviews selections twice monthly, and equally weights the positions.

PTLC The Fund seeks to track the total return performance, before fees and expenses, of the Pacer Trendpilot US Large Cap Index. That index uses a rules-based trend-following approach that alternates exposure between equities and 3-Month US Treasury bills.

Why people hold it

• FV One ticker does the rotating: relative strength picks five sector and industry ETFs, weights them equally, and reviews the lineup twice a month. No spreadsheet, no manual trades.ftportfolios.com
• The strategy is stated on the tin. Dorsey Wright's relative strength rules drive every pick, and momentum is advertised rather than buried in the fine print.ftportfolios.com
• Live since March 2014, now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades in reasonable size and distributes quarterly. Long track record for a rules-based rotation strategy.

• PTLC The switch is mechanical. A rules-based trend signal alternates exposure between US large-cap equities and 3-month Treasury bills, so nobody is making a gut call mid-panic.paceretfs.com
• Underneath the signal sits plain large-cap America: roughly 500 stocks benchmarked to the S&P 500, not a niche factor slice.paceretfs.com
• Trading since 2015 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, so the rules have run through live markets, not just backtests.
• Among the index-tracking funds we cover, it lands in the upper half, and it follows its own index closely.

Worth knowing

• FV At 0.89% a year, it sits well above the median for index-tracking funds in its peer group, and a fund-of-funds build means costs sit at two levels.
• Five equal-weighted sector sleeves is a concentrated book, and whole sectors can enter or exit twice a month, so high turnover is part of the design.ftportfolios.com
• The selection menu is First Trust's own sector and industry ETFs, not the full universe of funds, so results ride on that lineup.

• PTLC 0.60% a year is real money next to vanilla large-cap trackers like SCHK (0.03%) or VOOV (0.07%). The trend rules are what the extra buys.
• Trend signals read past prices. Moves into T-bills, or back into stocks, arrive after a market shift is already underway rather than ahead of it.
• Distributions land once or twice a year, so it isn't structured as a steady income drip.

Full FV profile⁠

Full PTLC profile⁠