First Trust Advisors has announced the addition of nine new international-focused funds to the AlphaDEX family of ETFs, comprising two broad market and seven country-specific funds.
The AlphaDEX family of ETFs consists of a diverse range of sector, style, multi-cap and international funds.
The AlphaDEX ETFs are designed to track the performance of a group of custom “enhanced” indices which employ a proprietary, rules-based, fundamental stock selection methodology. The family of funds consists of a diverse range of sector, style, multi-cap and international funds.
“We believe this is the optimal time to expand the AlphaDEX family because of the strong opportunities for alpha that exist within developed and emerging markets, as well as specific countries whose economies are showing long-term growth potential,” said Dan Waldron, Senior Vice President and ETF Strategist for First Trust. “We are committed to providing investors with opportunities to capitalise on companies outside the US through ETFs using our AlphaDEX methodology.”
The indices that provide the basis for the AlphaDEX funds start with a broad-based index and are enhanced through a proprietary methodology that ranks the stock using several factors. The goal of the methodology is to identify the stocks within the index that exhibit the fundamental characteristics that enable them to provide the greatest potential for capital appreciation.
The enhanced indexing approach seeks to generate positive alpha relative to the broad-based passive index from which it selects its stocks.
The nine new AlphaDEX ETFs each have an expense ratio of 0.80% and are:
First Trust Germany AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FGM)
First Trust Canada AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FCAN)
First Trust Australia AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FAUS)
First Trust United Kingdom AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FKU)
First Trust Taiwan AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FTW)
First Trust Hong Kong AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FHK)
First Trust Switzerland AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FSZ)
First Trust Developed Markets ex-US Small Cap AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FDTS)
First Trust Emerging Markets Small Cap AlphaDEX Fund (NYSE: FEMS)
“With more than half of the world equity market capitalisation represented by companies based outside of the US and the accelerated pace of globalisation, these additions to the First Trust AlphaDEX line-up provide investors with the potential for targeted international exposure and portfolio diversification,” said Waldron.