Firm brings highly successful rules-based fundamental stock
selection methodology to Canadian investors
TORONTO, May 15, 2013 /CNW/ - FT Portfolios Canada Co., a
privately owned company and an affiliate of Chicago based First Trust Portfolios L.P., a
U.S. registered broker-dealer, is pleased to announce that the
first three First Trust AlphaDEXTM Dividend ETFs have
completed their initial offering of units for both the common class
and advisor class units of the ETFs and are scheduled to commence
trading on Wednesday, May 15th on the
Toronto Stock Exchange.
First Trust AlphaDEXTM Canadian Dividend
Plus ETF (TSX: FDY, FDY.A), will primarily invest in a
portfolio of higher yielding Canadian dividend paying stocks, as
well as provide Unitholders with monthly distributions. In
addition, First Trust AlphaDEXTM Canadian Dividend Plus
ETF will from time to time write call options on a portion of the
portfolio in order to produce additional income.
First Trust AlphaDEXTM U.S.
Dividend Plus ETF (CAD-Hedged) (TSX: FUD, FUD.A),
will primarily invest in a portfolio of higher yielding U.S.
dividend paying stocks, as well as provide Unitholders with monthly
distributions. In addition, First Trust AlphaDEXTM U.S.
Dividend Plus ETF (CAD-Hedged) will from time to time write call
options on a portion of the portfolio in order to produce
additional income.
First Trust AlphaDEXTM Emerging
Market Dividend ETF (CAD-Hedged) (TSX: FDE,
FDE.A), will primarily invest in a portfolio of dividend paying
equity securities domiciled in emerging markets and selected from
the countries represented by the S&P/BMI Emerging Markets
Index.The ETF will also provide Unitholders with monthly
distributions.
" Today, FT Portfolios Canada Co. is making available the
successful rules-based AlphaDEXTM fundamental stock
selection methodology to Canadian investors with our first set of
Fundamentally Weighted Dividend ETFs" said Fraser Howell, FT Portfolio Canada's President
& Chief Financial Officer. "The First Trust
AlphaDEXTM Dividend ETF family provides investors with
broad market exposure to higher yielding dividend paying stocks
across different geographies."
"When you look at the Canadian ETF marketplace today, the
majority of ETFs and assets under management are tied to market
capitalization weighted indices which, by their very nature,
overweight larger potentially overvalued companies and underweight
smaller, potentially undervalued companies" adds Karl Cheong, the Senior Vice President, Head of
Product Development at FT Portfolios Canada. "We believe this is an
optimal time for Canadians to diversify their portfolios into
fundamental strategies and we are committed to providing investors
with opportunities to capitalize on companies that may have
stronger investment merit through ETFs using the proprietary
AlphaDEXTM methodology."
About First Trust's AlphaDEXTM Investment
Methodology
The AlphaDEXTM methodology stems from the belief that
market capitalization weighted benchmarks exhibit an inherent flaw
in terms of its portfolio design. AlphaDEX™ is a transparent and
repeatable weighting methodology grounded in fundamentals in order
to exploit mispricings and potential drawbacks of market
capitalization weighted benchmarks.
The First Trust AlphaDEXTM ETFs are merit based. The
methodology selects companies from a base universe and divides them
into growth and value buckets. The growth stocks are evaluated by
five metrics and allocated a score based on:
- 3, 6 and 12 month price appreciation
- One year sales growth
- Sales-to-price ratio
The value stocks are evaluated by three metrics and allocated a
score based on:
- Book value-to-price
- Cash flow-to-price
- Return-on-assets
The AlphaDEX™ methodology assigns the highest weight in each
AlphaDEXTM ETF to the highest scoring stocks. The goal
is to create a portfolio that emphasizes the "best" growth stocks
and "best" value stocks while eliminating less fundamentally
attractive stocks. This scalable methodology has led to a
successful global, investable family of fundamentally weighted
ETFs.
"The AlphaDEXTM methodology provides the investment
marketplace with a hybrid approach of blending the desired features
of a traditional passive index tracking ETF with the risk
management and filtering process of active management" says
Bobby Eng, Senior Vice President,
Head of Sales at FT Portfolios Canada. "We believe this will be the
next evolution for the Canadian ETF marketplace."
About First Trust
The First Trust companies are a well-respected global enterprise
with a history in the U.S. market since 1991 and in Canada since 1996. First Trust Advisors L.P.,
the portfolio advisor for the First Trust AlphaDEXTM
ETFs, has approximately US$12 billion
in ETF assets under management and approximately US $70 billion in total assets under supervision or
management. First Trust is the umbrella name used for its various
businesses conducted in Europe,
Canada and the U.S.
For further information about FT Portfolios Canada's ETFs can be
found at www.firsttrust.ca or at www.firsttrustetfs.ca
Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be
associated with investments in exchange traded funds. Please read
the prospectus before investing. Exchange traded funds are not
guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may
not be repeated.
SOURCE FT Portfolios Canada Co.