ETF Watch: First Trust Fund Gets Makeover

On Tuesday, First Trust made it be known that its First Trust CBOE S&P 500 VIX Tail Hedge Fund (VIXH) will be undergoing some major changes. As of Aug. 18, VIXH will be known as the First Trust Dorsey Wright People’s Portfolio ETF and trade under the ticker DWPP.

Currently, VIXH offers exposure to the S&P 500 Index and a portfolio of call options on the VIX, with the options intended as a hedge against a steep market downturn. The fund launched in 2012 and currently has nearly $4 million in assets under management.

As DWPP, the fund will track the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright People’s Portfolio Index, which is driven by Dorsey Wright’s relative strength methodology. When T-bills exhibit greater relative strength than U.S. equities, the fund allocates to a portfolio of one- to three-month T-bills.

Greater Relative Strength

However, when U.S. equities are showing greater relative strength, the portfolio switches to either the cap-weighted Nasdaq US 500 Large Cap Index or the Nasdaq US 500 Equal Weight Index, depending on which of the two buckets exhibits greater relative strength. The documentation did not indicate how often the portfolio allocations would be evaluated with regard to their relative strength.

DWPP will be similar to its original version, in that, like VIXH, it is designed to hedge against downturns in the equity markets, while offering exposure to large-cap U.S. stocks when they are performing well.

Contact Heather Bell at [email protected].