PFFA vs PFFV

PFFADVirtus InfraCap U.S. Preferred Stock ETF

PFFVBGlobal X Variable Rate Preferred ETF

In short

PFFA Most preferred-stock funds just track an index. PFFA hand-picks its preferreds, borrows 20-30% to amplify the income stream, writes options on top, and pays 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

PFFA The fund seeks current income and, secondarily, capital appreciation through an actively managed portfolio of U.S. preferred stocks. It also uses options strategies and modest leverage to enhance income and total return.

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

• PFFA Genuinely active, not an index in disguise: managers select and weight preferreds on valuation and research, and layer options strategies over the book.virtus.com
• Modest leverage, typically 20-30%, amplifies both income and price swings. That mechanism is the line between this and a plain preferred tracker.virtus.com
• Pays monthly, spread across roughly 200 preferred positions rather than a handful of concentrated bets.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively for a niche corner, which helps keep bid-ask friction manageable.

• 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

• PFFA The 2.11% expense ratio runs several times the typical fund in its income peer group. That is a real hurdle the strategy has to clear.
• Leverage cuts both ways: borrowed money deepens declines as well as gains, and preferreds are already sensitive to rates and credit stress.virtus.com
• It sits in a peer group of cheap dividend-growth funds (CGDV, TDVG, both well under 1%). Different asset class, different machinery, very different price tag.

• 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 PFFA profile⁠

Full PFFV profile⁠