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First Trust Dorsey Wright Tactical Core Portfolio
Investment Objective/Strategy - The First Trust Dorsey Wright Tactical Core Portfolio (the “Fund”) seeks to provide total return.
There can be no assurance that the Fund's investment objectives will be achieved.
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its net assets (plus any investment borrowings) in exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") and cash and cash equivalents that comprise the Dorsey Wright Tactical Tilt Moderate Core™ Index (the "Index"). It is expected that a majority of the ETFs in which the Fund invests will be advised by First Trust.
The Index is owned and was developed by Dorsey, Wright & Associates (the "Index Provider"). The Index is constructed pursuant to the Index Provider's proprietary methodology, which takes into account the performance of four distinct assets classes relative to one another. The Index is designed to strategically allocate its investments among (i) domestic equity securities; (ii) international equity securities; (iii) fixed income securities; and (iv) cash and cash equivalents (represented by the First Trust Enhanced Short Maturity ETF ("FTSM") which is not a money market fund, but an ultra-short duration ETF that the Index allocates to for this asset class.). The Index will generally gain exposure to these asset classes by investing in ETFs. The Index Provider has retained Nasdaq, Inc. ("Nasdaq"), to calculate and maintain the Index.
The Index will utilize the Dynamic Asset Level Investing ("DALI") asset allocation process developed by the Index Provider in order to allocate assets over the four asset classes. The asset class allocations are determined using a relative strength methodology that is based upon each asset class's market performance and characteristics that offer the greatest potential to outperform the other asset classes at a given time. Relative strength is a momentum technique that relies on unbiased, unemotional and objective data, rather than biased forecasting and subjective research. Relative strength is a way of recording historic performance patterns, and the Index Provider uses relative strength signals as a trend indicator for current momentum trends of each asset class against the others.
The Fund offers its shares only to separate accounts of insurance companies that offer variable annuity and variable life insurance products.
Fund Overview
Fiscal Year-End12/31
Inception Date10/30/2015
Inception NAV$10.00
Gross Expense Ratio
(5/1/2024)
1.86%
Net Expense Ratio1.30%
Expenses are capped contractually at 1.30% per year, at least through May 01, 2025.
Current Fund Data (as of 10/1/2024)
Net Asset Value1$12.70
Dividend FrequencySemi-Annual
NAV 52-Week High/Low$12.83 / $9.83
Asset Class Allocation (as of 8/30/2024)2
  Asset Class Percent
Domestic Equity ETFs 75.40%
Fixed-Income ETFs 17.99%
International Equity ETFs 4.78%
Cash & Cash Equivalents 1.83%
NAV History (Since Inception)
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Month End Performance (as of 8/30/2024)
  3 Month YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since
Fund
Inception3
Fund Performance *
Fund Performance 3.47% 9.98% 16.61% 0.89% 6.13% N/A 6.07%
Index Performance **
Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index 4.79% 3.07% 7.30% -2.11% -0.04% N/A 1.60%
S&P 500® Index 7.39% 19.53% 27.14% 9.38% 15.92% N/A 14.02%
Blended Benchmark 6.35% 12.75% 18.93% 4.87% 9.58% N/A 9.16%
Quarter End Performance (as of 6/28/2024)
  3 Month YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since
Fund
Inception3
Fund Performance *
Fund Performance -0.63% 7.79% 15.24% 0.45% 5.49% N/A 5.95%
Index Performance **
Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index 0.07% -0.71% 2.63% -3.02% -0.23% N/A 1.19%
S&P 500® Index 4.28% 15.29% 24.56% 10.01% 15.05% N/A 13.84%
Blended Benchmark 2.60% 8.70% 15.42% 4.84% 9.01% N/A 8.89%

*Performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and current performance may be higher or lower than performance quoted. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate and shares when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Returns are average annualized total returns, except those for periods of less than one year, which are cumulative.

Fund expenses and return figures do not reflect the deduction of sales charges or other expenses associated with variable products. If such fees were included, expenses would be higher and the performance would be lower. The Fund's performance reflects fee waivers and expense reimbursements, absent which performance would have been lower.

**Indexes are unmanaged and an investor cannot invest directly in an index. Any Benchmarks or Indexes shown reflect no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes.

Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index - The Index covers the investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market, including Treasuries, government-related and corporate securities, MBS, ABS, and CMBS.

S&P 500® Index - The Index is an unmanaged index of 500 companies used to measure large-cap U.S. stock market performance.

Blended Benchmark - The Benchmark return is split between the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (40%) and the S&P 500 Index (60%). Broad Blended Benchmark returns are calculated by using the monthly return of the two indices during each period shown above. At the beginning of each month the two indices are rebalanced to a 60-40 ratio to account for divergence from that ratio that occurred during the course of each month. The monthly returns are then compounded for each period shown above, giving the performance for the Broad Blended Benchmark for each period shown above.

Footnotes
1 The NAV represents the fund's net assets (assets less liabilities) divided by the fund's outstanding shares.
2 Holdings are subject to change.
3 Inception Date is 10/30/2015

You should consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. You can download a prospectus or contact First Trust Portfolios, L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 to request a prospectus, which contains this and other information about the fund. Read it carefully before you invest.

Risk Considerations

Please refer to the fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for additional details on the fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.

The fund offers its shares only to separate accounts of insurance companies that offer variable annuity and variable life insurance products.

The fund's shares will change in value and you could lose money by investing in the fund. An investment in the fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the fund's investment objective will be achieved.

Asset-backed securities are a type of debt security and are generally not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and are subject to the risk of default on the underlying asset or loan, particularly during periods of economic downturn.

During periods of falling interest rates if an issuer calls higher-yielding debt instruments, a fund may be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the fund's income.

A convertible security is exposed to risks associated with both equity and debt securities. The value of convertibles may rise and fall with the market value of the underlying stock or vary with changes in interest rates and credit quality of the issuer.

An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due and the value of a security may decline as a result.

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.

Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-US currencies may affect the value of a fund's investments and the value of a fund's shares.

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. As a means to fight inflation, the Federal Reserve and certain foreign central banks have raised interest rates and expect to continue to do so, and the Federal Reserve has announced that it intends to reverse previously implemented quantitative easing. Recent and potential future bank failures could result in disruption to the broader banking industry or markets generally and reduce confidence in financial institutions and the economy as a whole, which may also heighten market volatility and reduce liquidity. Ongoing armed conflicts between Russia and Ukraine in Europe and among Israel, Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East, have caused and could continue to cause significant market disruptions and volatility within the markets in Russia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. The hostilities and sanctions resulting from those hostilities have and could continue to have a significant impact on certain fund investments as well as fund performance and liquidity. The COVID-19 global pandemic, or any future public health crisis, and the ensuing policies enacted by governments and central banks have caused and may continue to cause significant volatility and uncertainty in global financial markets, negatively impacting global growth prospects.

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.

Investments in debt securities subject the holder to the credit risk of the issuer and the value of debt securities will generally change inversely with changes in interest rates. In addition, debt securities generally do not trade on a securities exchange making them less liquid and more difficult to value.

Depositary receipts may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market and distributions may be subject to a fee. Holders may have limited voting rights, and investment restrictions in certain countries may adversely impact their value.

Investments in emerging market securities are generally considered speculative and involve additional risks relating to political, economic and regulatory conditions.

Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.

A fund may invest in the shares of other ETFs, which involves additional expenses that would not be present in a direct investment in the underlying funds. In addition, a fund's investment performance and risks may be related to the investment performance and risks of the underlying funds.

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.

Floating rate securities are structured so that the security's coupon rate fluctuates based upon the level of a reference rate. As a result, the coupon on floating rate securities will generally decline in a falling interest rate environment, causing a fund to experience a reduction in the income it receives from the security. A floating rate security's coupon rate resets periodically according to the terms of the security. Consequently, in a rising interest rate environment, floating rate securities with coupon rates that reset infrequently may lag behind the changes in market interest rates.

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's income may decline when interest rates fall or if there are defaults in its portfolio.

An index fund will be concentrated in an industry or a group of industries to the extent that the index is so concentrated. A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, or the securities of issuers within the same country, state, region, industry, or sector may have its value more affected by an adverse economic, business or political development than a broadly diversified fund.

There is no assurance that the index provider or its agents will compile or maintain the index accurately. Losses or costs associated with any index provider errors generally will be borne by a fund and its shareholders.

A fund may own a significant portion of the First Trust ETFs included in a fund. Any such ETF may be removed from the Index if it does not comply with the Index's eligibility requirements. A fund may be forced to sell shares of certain First Trust ETFs at inopportune times or for prices other than at current market values or may elect not to sell such shares on the day that they are removed from the Index, due to market conditions or otherwise. Due to these factors, the variation between a fund's annual return and the return of the Index may increase significantly.

As inflation increases, the present value of a fund's assets and distributions may decline.

Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in a fund's portfolio will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities.

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. LIBOR has ceased to be made available as a reference rate and there is no assurance that any alternative reference rate, including the Secured Overnight Financing Rate ("SOFR"), will be similar to or produce the same value or economic equivalence as LIBOR. 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 a fund or on certain instruments in which a fund invests is difficult to predict and could result in losses to the fund.

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.

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 "momentum" style of investing emphasizes selecting stocks that have had higher recent price performance compared to other stocks. Momentum can turn quickly and cause significant variation from other types of investments.

Mortgage-related securities are more susceptible to adverse economic, political or regulatory events that affect the value of real estate.

The values of municipal securities may be adversely affected by local political and economic conditions and developments. Income from municipal securities could be declared taxable because of, among other things, unfavorable changes in tax laws, adverse interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service or state tax authorities, or noncompliant conduct of an issuer.

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.

An index fund's return may not match the return of the index for a number of reasons including operating expenses, costs of buying and selling securities to reflect changes in the index, and the fact that a fund's portfolio holdings may not exactly replicate the index.

Securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to additional risks, including currency fluctuations, political risks, withholding, lack of liquidity, lack of adequate financial information, and exchange control restrictions impacting non-U.S. issuers.

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.

A fund that invests in securities included in or representative of an index will hold those securities regardless of investment merit and the fund generally will not take defensive positions in declining markets.

High portfolio turnover may result in higher levels of transaction costs and may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders.

Prepayment risk is the risk that the issuer of a debt security will repay principal prior to the scheduled maturity date. Debt securities allowing prepayment may offer less potential for gains during a period of declining interest rates, as a fund may be required to reinvest the proceeds of any prepayment at lower interest rates.

A fund may be unable to sell a restricted security on short notice or only sell them at a price below current value.

Securities of small- and mid-capitalization companies may experience greater price volatility and be less liquid than larger, more established companies.

Investments in sovereign bonds involve special risks because the governmental authority that controls the repayment of the debt may be unwilling or unable to repay the principal and/or interest when due. In times of economic uncertainty, the prices of these securities may be more volatile than those of corporate debt or other government debt obligations.

Securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. government sponsored instrumentalities may or may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

A fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including "fair valued" assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. There is no assurance that a fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time.

"AlphaDEX®" is a registered trademark of First Trust Portfolios L.P. First Trust Portfolios L.P. has obtained patent for the AlphaDEX® stock selection methodology from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Nasdaq®, Nasdaq AlphaDEX® Developed Markets Ex-US™ Index and Nasdaq AlphaDEX® Emerging Markets™ Index are registered trademarks and service marks of Nasdaq, Inc. (together with its affiliates hereinafter referred to as the "Corporations") and are licensed for use by First Trust. AlphaDEX® is a registered trademark owned by First Trust that has been licensed to Nasdaq, Inc. for use in the name of the Index. The funds have not been passed on by the Corporations as to their legality or suitability. The funds are not issued, endorsed, sold or promoted by the Corporations. THE CORPORATIONS MAKE NO WARRANTIES AND BEAR NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE FUNDS.

The Fund is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Dorsey, Wright & Associates, LLC or its affiliates ("Dorsey Wright"). Dorsey Wright makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, to the owners of the Fund or any member of the public regarding the advisability of trading in the Fund. Dorsey Wright's only relationship to First Trust is the licensing of certain trademarks and trade names of Dorsey Wright and of the Index which is determined, composed and calculated by Dorsey Wright, or its agent, without regard to First Trust or the Fund. Dorsey Wright has no obligation to take the needs of First Trust or the owners of the Fund into consideration in determining, composing or calculating the Index. Dorsey Wright is not responsible for and has not participated in the determination of the timing of, prices at, or quantities of the Fund to be listed or in the determination or calculation of the equation by which the Fund is to be converted into cash. Dorsey Wright has no obligation or liability in connection with the administration, marketing or trading of the Fund.

CUSIP identifiers have been provided by CUSIP Global Services, managed on behalf of the American Bankers Association by FactSet Research Systems Inc. and are not for use or dissemination in a manner that would serve as a substitute for any CUSIP service. The CUSIP Database, ©2024 CUSIP Global Services. "CUSIP" is a registered trademark of the American Bankers Association.

Not FDIC Insured • Not Bank Guaranteed • May Lose Value
 
The information presented is not intended to constitute an investment recommendation for, or advice to, any specific person. By providing this information, First Trust is not undertaking to give advice in any fiduciary capacity within the meaning of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or any other regulatory framework. Financial professionals are responsible for evaluating investment risks independently and for exercising independent judgment in determining whether investments are appropriate for their clients.
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