Risks are inherent in all investing. Certain risks applicable to the Fund are identified below, which includes the risk that you could lose some or all of your investment in the Fund. The principal risks of investing in the Fund are spelled out in the Fund's annual shareholder reports. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor. The Fund also files reports, proxy statements and other information that is available for review.

Investment return and market value of an investment in the fund will fluctuate. Shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost.

A risk of CMOs is the uncertainty of the timing of cash flows that results from the rate of prepayments on the underlying mortgages serving as collateral and from the structure of the particular CMO transaction (that is, the priority of the individual tranches).

Ratings assigned by a credit rating agency are opinions of such entities, not absolute standards of credit quality and they do not evaluate risks of securities. Any shortcomings or inefficiencies in the process of determining credit ratings may adversely affect the credit ratings of the securities held by a fund and their perceived or actual credit risk.

High yield securities, or "junk" bonds, are less liquid and are subject to greater market fluctuations and risk of loss than securities with higher ratings, and therefore, are considered to be highly speculative.

A fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. Such events could cause a fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss.

The debt securities in which the fund invests are subject to certain risks, including issuer risk, reinvestment risk, prepayment risk, credit risk, and interest rate risk. Issuer risk is the risk that the value of fixed-income securities may decline for a number of reasons which directly relate to the issuer. Reinvestment risk is the risk that income from the fund's portfolio will decline if the fund invests the proceeds from matured, traded or called bonds at market interest rates that are below the fund portfolio's current earnings rate. Prepayment risk is the risk that, upon a prepayment, the actual outstanding debt on which the fund derives interest income will be reduced. Credit risk is the risk that an issuer of a security will be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due and that the value of a security may decline as a result. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed-income securities will decline in value because of changes in market interest rates.

Extension risk is the risk that, when interest rates rise, certain obligations will be paid off by the issuer (or other obligated party) more slowly than anticipated, causing the value of these debt securities to fall. Rising interest rates tend to extend the duration of debt securities, making their market value more sensitive to changes in interest rates.

The risk of a position in a futures contract may be very large compared to the relatively low level of margin a fund is required to deposit and a relatively small price movement in a futures contract may result in immediate and substantial loss relative to the size of margin deposit.

Certain fund investments may be subject to restrictions on resale, trade over-the-counter or in limited volume, or lack an active trading market. Illiquid securities may trade at a discount and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value.

To the extent a fund invests in floating or variable rate obligations that use the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") as a reference interest rate, it is subject to LIBOR Risk. The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, will cease making LIBOR available as a reference rate over a phase-out period that will begin immediately after December 31, 2021. The unavailability or replacement of LIBOR may affect the value, liquidity or return on certain fund investments and may result in costs incurred in connection with closing out positions and entering into new trades. Any potential effects of the transition away from LIBOR on the fund or on certain instruments in which the fund invests can be difficult to ascertain, and they may vary depending on a variety of factors, and they could result in losses to the fund.

Use of leverage can result in additional risk and cost, and can magnify the effect of any losses.The portfolio managers of an actively managed portfolio will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not have the desired result.

Shares of closed-end investment companies such as the Fund frequently trade at a discount from their net asset value. The Fund cannot predict whether its common shares will trade at, below or above net asset value.

Current market conditions risk is the risk that a particular investment, or shares of the fund in general, may fall in value due to current market conditions. For example, changes in governmental fiscal and regulatory policies, disruptions to banking and real estate markets, actual and threatened international armed conflicts and hostilities, and public health crises, among other significant events, could have a material impact on the value of the fund's investments.

Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of a fund in general may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as general economic conditions, political events, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of a fund could decline in value or underperform other investments as a result. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, recessions, natural disasters or other events could have significant negative impact on a fund.

A mortgage-backed security may be negatively affected by the quality of the mortgages underlying such security and the structure of its issuer. A portion of the fund's managed assets may be invested in subordinated classes of mortgage-backed securities. Such subordinated classes are subject to a greater degree of non-payment risk than are senior classes of the same issuer or agency. Mortgage-related securities are more susceptible to adverse economic, political or regulatory events that affect the value of real estate.

There are no government or agency guarantees of payments in securities offered by non- government issuers, therefore they are subject to the credit risk of the issuer. Non-agency securities often trade "over-the-counter" and there may be a limited market for them making them difficult to value.

A fund and a fund's advisor may seek to reduce various operational risks through controls and procedures, but it is not possible to completely protect against such risks. The fund also relies on third parties for a range of services, including custody, and any delay or failure related to those services may affect the fund's ability to meet its objective.

First Trust and the fund's portfolio managers have interests that may conflict with the interests of the fund. First Trust manages and/or advises funds with similar investment objectives and strategies as the fund. In addition, the use of leverage increases the amount of management and advisory fees paid to First Trust and therefore, First Trust has a financial incentive to leverage the fund.

If a fund's counterparty defaults on its obligations and a fund is delayed or prevented from recovering collateral, or if the value of the collateral is insufficient, a fund may realize a loss.

Short selling creates special risks which could result in increased gains or losses and volatility of returns. Because losses on short sales arise from increases in the value of the security sold short, such losses are theoretically unlimited.

At the time of delivery of TBA securities, the value may be more or less than the purchase or sale price. Purchasing securities in a TBA Transaction may give rise to investment leverage and may increase the Fund's volatility.

The valuation of municipal bonds or securitized assets may carry more risk than that of common stock. Uncertainties in the conditions of the financial markets, unreliable reference data, lack of transparency and inconsistency of valuation models and processes may lead to inaccurate asset pricing. The fund may hold investments in sizes smaller than institutionally-sized round lot positions (sometimes referred to as odd lots). However, third-party pricing services generally provide evaluations on the basis of institutionally-sized round lots. If the fund sells certain of its investments in an odd lot transaction, the sale price may be less than the value at which such securities have been held by the fund. Odd lots often trade at lower prices than institutional round lots.

The risks of investing in the fund are spelled out in the prospectus, shareholder report and other regulatory filings.