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FTQIFirst Trust Nasdaq BuyWrite Income ETF

Get income12y track recordRanked #558 of 1,622 in this goal

Seeks to provide current income.

By First Trust · Launched 2014

Annual Cost

0.75%

#3,765 of 5,562 · expensive

Fund Size

$877M

#1,189 of 5,562 · large

Dividend YieldGoal

11.00%

Track Record

12 years

#1,156 of 5,562 · established

Performance

Total-return NAV · USD
Growth of $10,000
$12,323+23.2%

Total-return NAV, USD. Net of fund fees, before tax.

Classification

How Beacon categorizes this fund

Asset class

Alternative

Strategy

Option income

What it actually holds

By weight

Concentration

Top 10 holdings = 47.1% of fundmoderately concentrated

NVIDIA Corp
8.1%
Apple Inc
7.9%
Microsoft Corp
7.2%
Advanced Micro Devices Inc
4.5%
Amazon.com Inc
4.2%
Broadcom Inc
3.7%
Tesla Inc
3.7%
Dreyfus Government Cash Management
2.7%
Meta Platforms Inc
2.7%
Palantir Technologies Inc
2.4%

Asset allocation

Stocks
94.5%
Cash
5.5%

Risk profile

Last 12 months · Sharpe & Sortino need 3+ years
Volatility (1Y)
10.6%Moderate

Year-on-year price swings

Max drawdown
-19.4%Moderate

Worst peak-to-trough loss

Sharpe (3Y)
0.96Decent risk-adjusted returns
Sortino (3Y)
1.38Good downside protection

Where to buy

Listing

Exchange
NASDAQ Global Select Market

Full fund details

Objective
Seeks to provide current income.
Strategy
Invests primarily in U.S. equity securities and employs a buy-write strategy by writing call options on the Nasdaq-100 Index. Aims to generate income from options premiums while holding a portfolio correlated to the Nasdaq-100.
Inception date
January 6, 2014
Fund family
First Trust

Our take

Structural notes on how this fund behaves. Read our guide on the 6 warning signs.

Covered call
Warning

Covered call ETF — yield ≠ total return

The high distribution yield is not free income — it comes from selling upside via call options. Research finds these strategies systematically underperform their underlying index over full cycles, typically by 100–300 basis points per year depending on the option-overlay design. The monthly distributions make the shortfall hard to see in return summaries.

Source: Israelov & Ndong, 'A Devil's Bargain: When Generating Income Undermines Investment Returns' (NDVR, 2023)

Why we flagged this: strategy=option_income + option_income_strategy

Educational analysis of structural product characteristics. Not investment advice. Always read the fund prospectus and consult a qualified advisor before investing. More

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Data updated on 2026-06-20