FXED vs PFFV

FXEDFSound Enhanced Fixed Income ETF

PFFVBGlobal X Variable Rate Preferred ETF

In short

FXED An actively managed income portfolio parked in an aisle of index preferred trackers. Sound's managers hand-pick corporate bonds, high yield, BDCs and REITs instead of following a benchmark, pay monthly, and charge 1.89% a year for the work.

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

FXED The Fund seeks current income while also offering the possibility of 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

• FXED Go-anywhere income mandate: investment grade and high yield corporate bonds, BDCs, REITs and sovereign debt ETFs, not one index sleeve of bank preferreds.soundincomestrategies.comsec.gov
• Income comes first by design: the stated objective is current income, with capital appreciation only a possibility, and the fund pays monthly.
• Run since its 2020 launch by Sound Income Strategies, an RIA built around income portfolios, with security picking done by humans rather than an index rulebook.soundincomestrategies.comsec.gov

• 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

• FXED Cost is the headline trade-off: 1.89% a year, above the category median, against index peers like PFFD at 0.23% and PFF at 0.45%. Active calls have to clear that hurdle.
• A small, thinly traded fund, so spreads can be wide and larger orders may move the price.
• No index to check it against: results ride on the manager's security selection, and our review places it toward the back of its preferred-income peer group.sec.gov

• 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 FXED profile⁠

Full PFFV profile⁠