First Trust Small Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund

First Trust Small Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund (FYT) is an ETF that tracks the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Small Cap Value Index. That index holds 262 small US companies picked from the Nasdaq US 700 Small Cap Value Index. It does not weight stocks by company size. Instead, it scores them on value and growth factors and gives higher scorers more weight. The fund costs 0.70% a year, against a 0.30% average for similar funds.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, FYT returned +27.4%, 2nd of 9 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +8.1% and its 10-year +10.6%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 46.4% and regained its old high 2.7 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2015 (-17.1%); its best was 2013 (+43.3%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 50.5% (Aug 21, 2018 to Mar 18, 2020), recovered by Nov 17, 2020.

As of Jul 31, 2026, the fund held 263 securities; the ten largest made up 9.48% of assets.

• Over the three months to Jul 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $2.7M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: -1.17%, +6.35%, +3.21%.

FYT aims to match the price and yield of the Nasdaq AlphaDEX Small Cap Value Index, before fees. Nasdaq, Inc. owns and runs the index. The fund normally puts at least 90% of its net assets in the index's stocks. The starting pool is the Nasdaq US 700 Small Cap Value Index. Nasdaq first removes extra share classes of the same company and stocks that fail its liquidity screens. Liquidity means how easily shares trade.

Nasdaq ranks the remaining stocks on growth and value factors. It labels each stock as value or growth, and the matching rank becomes that stock's "selection score." The 262 highest scorers make up the index. They are split into fifths (quintiles) by score, and higher-scoring fifths get bigger weights. The method is called AlphaDEX. It tries to pick stocks that may beat traditional indexes on a risk-adjusted basis, which is what "alpha" means. As of October 31, 2025, the index's companies were worth between $509.25 million and $7.93 billion, and the fund held a lot of financial stocks.

The index is rebuilt and rebalanced every quarter, and the fund follows shortly after. As a result, portfolio turnover was 113%, according to the prospectus filed November 28, 2025. That is roughly the same as replacing the whole portfolio once a year. The fund uses no leverage or options. As of July 31, 2026, it held 263 positions and no derivatives.

• FYT charges 0.7% a year, versus an average of 0.3% for the similar funds below (9th of 9, cheapest first).

FYT is a narrow, higher-cost bet on small value stocks that has fallen by half at its worst, so it fits as a small add-on rather than a foundation.

FYT adds small-company value stocks, which a large-cap core fund mostly lacks. The ride has been rough. The fund launched in 2011, so it has no record from 2008. In the 2020 COVID crash, it fell 46.4% in less than a month and recovered by June 8, 2020. In the 2022 bear market, it fell 25% and took about 14.5 months to recover. Its deepest drop was 50.5%, from August 2018 to March 2020, and it took eight months to make that back. Its worst calendar year was 2015, at −16.67%. Selling shares for spending money during stretches like these would lock in losses. As of October 27, 2026, the trailing yield was 1.86%, paid quarterly. The 0.70% fee is well above the 0.30% average for similar funds. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports.