Which returned more over the last year, FEX or FTA?

In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FEX returned +17.6% and FTA +19.8%.

Which is cheaper, FEX or FTA?

FEX is cheaper, by 0.01 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $1. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.

How much do FEX and FTA overlap with the S&P 500?

By their latest filed holdings, 86% of FEX and 93% of FTA by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

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FEX vs FTA: how they differ

FEX and FTA hold 57% of their weight in the same names, and FTA returned +19.8% over the year. First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund and First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund.

FEX costs 0.01 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 2.2 points; FEX is 1.2 times larger.

	FEX	FTA
Expense ratio	0.57%	0.58%
Net assets	$1.6bn	$1.4bn
Total return, 1 year	+17.6%	+19.8%
Holdings in common	57%
Nasdaq-100, total return, 1 year	+23.6%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund	5.0%	9.5%
Below its high	4.1%, high on Aug 14, 2026	6.0%, high on Aug 24, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 9, 2026.

+17.6%

FEX total return, 1 year

+19.8%

FTA total return, 1 year

0.57%

FEX expense ratio

0.58%

FTA expense ratio

What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, FEX and FTA hold 57% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Above 50%, holding both is close to holding one of them twice. Holdings dated Oct 9, 2026.

50%

half

57% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first

Holding FEX FTA

PTC Inc. 0.60% 0.97%

HF Sinclair Corp. 0.49% 0.99%

Ovintiv Inc. 0.48% 0.97%

Constellation Brands, Inc. (Class A) 0.47% 0.95%

EQT Corporation 0.47% 0.95%

Occidental Petroleum Corporation 0.47% 0.95%

Permian Resources Corp. 0.47% 0.95%

Carnival Corporation Ltd. 0.46% 0.94%

ConocoPhillips 0.46% 0.94%

EOG Resources, Inc. 0.46% 0.94%

PG&E Corporation 0.46% 0.94%

PayPal Holdings, Inc. 0.46% 0.74%

Only in FEX

Everpure, Inc. (Class A) 0.51%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company 0.50%

NetApp, Inc. 0.49%

Okta, Inc. 0.48%

Dell Technologies Inc. (Class C) 0.47%

Fortinet, Inc. 0.47%

Snowflake Inc. (Class A) 0.47%

Arista Networks, Inc. 0.46%

Only in FTA

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On the same fields

FEX

First Trust Large Cap Core AlphaDEX Fund

FTA

First Trust Large Cap Value AlphaDEX Fund

Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF

Issuer First Trust First Trust

What it is Tracks an index Tracks an index

Total return, 1 year +17.6% +19.8%

S&P 500 over the same days +17.3% +17.3%

Gap to the S&P 500 +0.4 pts +2.5 pts

Expense ratio 0.57% 0.58%

Already in the S&P 500 85.6% 93.0%

Holdings 375 187

Net assets $1.6bn $1.4bn

FEX and FTA on the fields both publish, as of Oct 9, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

FEX in plain words

FEX tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +17.6% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.57% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 9, 2026, 86% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 375 positions, with the top ten at 5.0%. It sat 4.1% below its high of Aug 14, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

FTA in plain words

FTA tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 9, 2026 it returned +19.8% with distributions reinvested, against +17.3% for the S&P 500 and +23.6% for the Nasdaq-100. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.58% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 9, 2026, 93% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 187 positions, with the top ten at 9.5%. It sat 6.0% below its high of Aug 24, 2026 on Oct 9, 2026.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, FEX or FTA?: In the year to Oct 9, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FEX returned +17.6% and FTA +19.8%.
Which is cheaper, FEX or FTA?: FEX is cheaper, by 0.01 percentage points a year. On $10,000 held for a year that difference is about $1. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do FEX and FTA overlap with the S&P 500?: By their latest filed holdings, 86% of FEX and 93% of FTA by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.

Other comparisons

FEX vs ILCV FEX vs SDOG FEX vs RWK FEX vs SMIG FTA vs FXO FTA vs FTXR FTA vs RPV FTA vs REGL

FEX on its own →FTA on its own →Hold both: look the portfolio through →Rankings →Standards and sources →

Where these figures came from

FEX and FTA filings on SEC EDGAR ↗FEX and FTA prospectus with the expense ratio (SEC) ↗First Trust page for FEX ↗First Trust page for FTA ↗

ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.

How this is computed

Weight overlap is an ETFIQ calculation: for every security both funds hold, the smaller of the two weights, summed.

Cite this page

ETFIQ, FEX against FTA, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/fex-vs-fta

Open data

Free to use with attribution for figures ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms.