First Trust Developed Markets ex-US AlphaDEX Fund

The First Trust Developed Markets ex-US AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ: FDT) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) issued by First Trust, an American financial services firm headquartered in Wheaton, Illinois, that seeks to replicate the total return of the NASDAQ AlphaDEX Developed Markets Ex-US Index. The fund employs the proprietary AlphaDEX stock selection methodology, which ranks and selects international developed-market stocks based on a combination of growth factors (such as 3-, 6-, and 12-month price appreciation and sales growth) and value factors (including book-to-price, cash flow-to-price, and return on assets), with holdings equal-weighted in tiers. With approximately $1.35 billion in assets under management and a portfolio of roughly 300–320 holdings, FDT provides broad exposure to developed markets outside the United States, with its largest geographic allocations to Japan (~29%), South Korea (~19%), and Hong Kong (~7%), and its heaviest sector weights in Industrials (~34%), Basic Materials (~15%), and Consumer Cyclical (~13%). Since its inception on April 18, 2011, the fund has maintained a net expense ratio of 0.80% and distributes dividends on a quarterly basis, classified by Morningstar under the Foreign Large Value category.