First Trust WCM International Equity ETF

First Trust WCM International Equity ETF (WCMI) is an actively managed fund. Its sub-advisor, WCM Investment Management, picks stocks of companies based outside the US rather than tracking an index. Two things set it apart from broad international index funds. It is concentrated: 43 holdings, with the 10 largest making up about 43% of assets as of June 30, 2026. It also costs 0.85% a year, compared with an average of 0.11% for similar funds.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, WCMI returned +8.7%, 6th of 7 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2025 (+30.4%); its best was 2025 (+30.4%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 12.8% (Mar 17, 2025 to Apr 8, 2025), recovered by Apr 29, 2025.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 43 securities; the ten largest made up 42.95% of assets.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $399.1M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +9.68%, +4.47%, +1.29%.

WCMI does not follow an index. Under normal conditions, it puts at least 80% of its net assets into stocks of non-US companies. Some of these are held as depositary receipts, which are certificates that trade on an exchange and stand for shares of a foreign company. The fund can own companies of any size in developed, emerging and frontier markets, and it must hold companies from at least three countries outside the US. It can buy mainland Chinese shares (China A shares) through Hong Kong's Stock Connect program. It also invests significantly in variable interest entities (VIEs). These are shell-company structures that give contractual exposure to Chinese firms that foreign investors can't own directly.

WCM researches one company at a time. It looks for stocks that are cheap compared with peers, based on measures such as price-to-earnings, price-to-book, price-to-cash-flow, dividend yield and changes in earnings estimates. It favors industry leaders with growing competitive advantages and strong balance sheets. It also weighs political, monetary-policy and regulatory risks. No single industry can reach 25% of assets.

The prospectus sets no fixed rebalancing schedule. Turnover was 111%, meaning the fund traded more than the full value of its portfolio over the year. Trading costs from that turnover are not included in the expense ratio. As of June 30, 2026, the fund held no derivatives, and its largest positions were Taiwan Semiconductor (7.2%), Rolls-Royce (6.5%) and Kioxia (6.5%).

• WCMI charges 0.85% a year, versus an average of 0.11% for the similar funds below (7th of 7, cheapest first).

It is a concentrated, high-turnover, actively managed foreign stock fund that costs far more than broad index alternatives and has swung more than the market.

WCMI could add UK, Japanese, European, Canadian and Taiwanese companies to a portfolio built mostly on US stocks. Its ETF shares began trading on October 7, 2024, so its trading record misses the 2008, 2020 and 2022 sell-offs. The prospectus performance record goes back further. It shows a 13.25% loss in 2022, including a 13.96% drop in that year's second quarter. Its deepest fall since trading began was 12.8%, from March 17 to April 8, 2025, and it recovered by April 29, 2025. Its beta was 1.29 over the year to October 27, 2026, meaning it tended to move more than the market. That matters for anyone who may need to sell shares in a bad year.

Income is small: the yield over the past 12 months was 0.6% as of October 27, 2026, paid twice a year. The 0.85% expense ratio is high. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by closest holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports (no similar fund shares 20% or more of its holdings).