- FT Cboe Vest DJIA® Dogs 10 Target Income ETF (Cboe: DOGG) seeks to provide exposure to the ten highest dividend-yielding equity securities in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the “Dogs of the Dow,” on an annual basis.
- DOGG will purchase securities comprising the Dogs of the Dow and gain synthetic exposure to the price movements of the securities comprising the Dogs of the Dow through the use of a combination of puts, calls and U.S. Treasury securities.
- DOGG employs a covered call Target Income Strategy® developed by Cboe Vest, utilizing call options on each holding in the portfolio.
- DOGG will target a consistent level of annualized income of approximately 8% (before fees and expenses) above the annualized yield of the DJIA.
First Trust Advisors L.P. (“First Trust” or “FTA”), a leading exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) provider and asset manager, announced today that it has launched the FT Cboe Vest DJIA® Dogs 10 Target Income ETF (the “fund”). DOGG is an actively managed ETF that seeks to provide current income with a secondary objective of capital appreciation. Under normal market conditions, the fund will pursue its objective by investing primarily in common stocks, exchange-traded options (including FLexible EXchange options ("FLEX Options") and short-term U.S. Treasury securities.
The fund seeks to provide exposure to the “Dogs of the Dow,” the ten highest dividend-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“DJIA”) on an annual basis. “For decades, investors have followed the 'Dogs of the Dow' as a disciplined, contrarian approach for selecting well-known, high-quality stocks with attractive dividend yields,” said Ryan Issakainen, CFA, Senior Vice President, ETF Strategist at First Trust. “DOGG provides a simple vehicle for tracking this strategy, while also seeking an enhanced level of income.” DOGG will purchase securities comprising the Dogs of the Dow and gain synthetic exposure to the price movements of the securities comprising the Dogs of the Dow through the use of a combination of puts, calls and U.S. Treasury securities. By combining premiums (income) collected from the sale of calls with the dividend income of the equity securities, the fund seeks to increase total income for investors while also providing the potential for capital appreciation from the price return of the stocks. The fund seeks to provide a consistent Target Income level of approximately 8.0% annualized (before fees and expenses) above the annualized yield of the DJIA.
Jeff Chang, President of Cboe Vest, said, “While the 'Dogs of the Dow' investment strategy was popularized back in 1991, we are excited to bring this strategy for the first time in an ETF combined with our Target Income covered call strategy. Many of the first generation covered call strategies produce current income to the point that they give up all of the potential future growth opportunities of the securities. In 2017, Cboe Vest developed the Target Income covered call strategy, which seeks to produce consistent current income and also allow participation in a portion of the potential growth of the stock basket.”
"Investors are, more than ever, challenged to find quality sources of income without adding duration risk. We believe that DOGG, with its Dogs of the Dow stock selection and covered call options strategy, offers a novel and timely approach,” Chang added.
For more information about First Trust, please contact Ryan Issakainen at (630) 765-8689 or RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com.
About First Trust
First Trust is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the funds’ investment advisor. First Trust and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. (“FTP”), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately held companies that provide a variety of investment services. First Trust has collective assets under management or supervision of approximately $195.8 billion as of March 31, 2023 through unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, mutual funds and separate managed accounts. First Trust is the supervisor of the First Trust unit investment trusts, while FTP is the sponsor. FTP is also a distributor of mutual fund shares and exchange-traded fund creation units. First Trust and FTP are based in Wheaton, Illinois. For more information, visit www.ftportfolios.com.
About Cboe Vest:
Cboe Vest is the creator of Target Outcome Investments®, which strive to buffer losses, manage volatility, amplify gains or provide consistent income to a diverse spectrum of investors. Today, Cboe Vest’s Target Outcome Strategies® are available in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), unit investment trusts (UITs), collective investment trusts (CITs), variable insurance trusts (VITs) and customizable managed accounts / sub-advisory services. For more information visit www.cboevest.com or contact Linda Werner at lwerner@ cboevest.com or 703-864-5483.
You should consider the fund’s investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. Contact First Trust Portfolios L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 or visit www.ftportfolios.com to obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about the fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.
Risk Considerations
You could lose money by investing in a fund. An investment in a fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed. There can be no assurance that a fund’s objective(s) will be achieved. Investors buying or selling shares on the secondary market may incur customary brokerage commissions. Please refer to each fund’s prospectus and SAI for additional details on a fund’s risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.
There can be no assurance that an active trading market for fund shares will develop or be maintained.
A fund’s use of call options involves risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions and depends on the ability of a fund’s portfolio managers to forecast market movements correctly. As the seller (writer) of a call option, a fund will tend to lose money if the value of the reference index or security rises above the strike price. When writing a call option, a fund will have no control over the exercise of the option by the option holder and the American style options sold by a fund may be exercised at any time before the option expiration date (as opposed to the European style options which may be exercised only on the expiration date). There may be times a fund needs to sell securities in order to settle the options, which may constitute a return of capital and make a fund less tax-efficient than other ETFs. Options may also involve the use of leverage, which could result in greater price volatility than other markets.
A fund that effects all or a portion of its creations and redemptions for cash rather than in-kind may be less tax-efficient.
A fund may be subject to the risk that a counterparty will not fulfill its obligations which may result in significant financial loss to a fund.
The writer of a covered call option foregoes any profit from increases in the market value of the underlying security covering the call option above the sum of the premium and the strike price of the call, but retains the risk of loss if the underlying security declines in value. The Fund will have no control over the exercise of the option by the option holder and may lose the benefit from any capital appreciation on the underlying security.
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 use of derivatives instruments involves different and possibly greater risks than investing directly in securities including counterparty risk, valuation risk, volatility risk, and liquidity risk. Further, losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the underlying asset, index or rate may be magnified by certain features of the derivatives.
A fund normally pays its income as distributions and therefore, a fund may be required to reduce its distributions if it has insufficient income. Additionally at times, a fund may need to sell securities when it would not otherwise do so and could cause distributions from that sale to constitute return of capital. Because of this, a fund may not be an appropriate investment for investors who do not want their principal investment in a fund to decrease over time or who do not wish to receive return of capital in a given period.
Companies that issue dividend-paying securities are not required to continue to pay dividends on such securities. Therefore, there is a possibility that such companies could reduce or eliminate the payment of dividends in the future.
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.
Trading FLEX Options involves risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in securities. A fund may experience substantial downside from specific FLEX Option positions and certain FLEX Option positions may expire worthless. There can be no guarantee that a liquid secondary trading market will exist for the FLEX Options and FLEX options may be less liquid than exchange-traded options.
A fund’s income may decline when interest rates fall or if there are defaults in its portfolio.
A fund may be a constituent of one or more indices or models which could greatly affect a fund’s trading activity, size and volatility.
As inflation increases, the present value of a fund’s assets and distributions may decline.
Large capitalization companies may grow at a slower rate than the overall market.
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.
The portfolio managers of an actively managed portfolio will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not have the desired result.
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. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine which has caused and could continue to cause significant market disruptions and volatility within the markets in Russia, Europe, and the United States. The hostilities and sanctions resulting from those hostilities could have a significant impact on certain fund investments as well as fund performance. The COVID-19 global pandemic 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. While vaccines have been developed, there is no guarantee that vaccines will be effective against future variants of the disease. 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.
Large inflows and outflows may impact a new fund’s market exposure for limited periods of time.
A fund classified as “non-diversified” may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, a fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly concentrated in certain 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.
The prices of options are volatile and the effective use of options depends on a fund’s ability to terminate option positions at times deemed desirable to do so. There is no assurance that a fund will be able to effect closing transactions at any particular time or at an acceptable price.
The market price of a fund’s shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) as well as the relative supply of and demand for shares on the exchange, and a fund’s investment advisor cannot predict whether shares will trade below, at or above their NAV.
A fund's use of put options involves risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions and depends on the ability of a fund's portfolio managers to forecast market movements correctly. As the seller (writer) of a put option, a fund will tend to lose money if the value of the reference index or security falls below the strike price. When writing a put option, a fund will have no control over the exercise of the option by the option holder and the American style options sold by a fund may be exercised at any time before the option expiration date (as opposed to the European style options which may be exercised only on the expiration date). There may be times a fund needs to sell securities in order to settle the options, which may constitute a return of capital and make a fund less tax-efficient than other ETFs. Options may also involve the use of leverage, which could result in greater price volatility than other markets.
A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, country, region, industry, or sector may be more affected by an adverse economic or political development than a broadly diversified fund.
If, in any year, a fund which intends to qualify as a Registered Investment Company (RIC) under the applicable tax laws fails to do so, it would be taxed as an ordinary corporation.
Trading on an exchange may be halted due to market conditions or other reasons. There can be no assurance that a fund’s requirements to maintain the exchange listing will continue to be met or be unchanged.
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.
First Trust Advisors L.P. is the adviser to the fund. First Trust Advisors L.P. is an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P., the fund’s distributor.
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.
Cboe® is a registered trademark of Cboe Exchange, Inc., which has been licensed for use in the name of the fund. The fund is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or marketed by Cboe Exchange, Inc. or any of its affiliates (“Cboe”) or their respective third-party providers, and Cboe and its third-party providers make no representation regarding the advisability of investing in the fund and shall have no liability whatsoever in connection with the fund.
The “Dow Jones Industrial Average” is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (“SPDJI”), and has been licensed for use by First Trust Advisors L.P. S&P® is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (“S&P”); “Dow Jones®” and “DJIA” are trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC (“Dow Jones”); and these trademarks have been licensed for use by SPDJI and sublicensed for certain purposes by First Trust Advisors L.P. The fund is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by SPDJI, Dow Jones, S&P, their respective affiliates, and none of such parties make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such product(s) nor do they have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions of the Index.
Definitions:
An option is a contractual obligation between a buyer and a seller. There are two types of options known as “calls” and “puts.” The buyer of a call option has the right, but not the obligation, to purchase an agreed upon quantity of an underlying asset from the writer (seller) of the option at a predetermined price (the strike price) within a certain window of time (until the option’s expiration), creating a long position.
A covered call refers to a financial transaction in which the investor selling call options owns an equivalent amount of the underlying security.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index is an unmanaged index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.
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Contacts
Ryan Issakainen
First Trust
(630) 765-8689
