FTC vs IWR: Differences, Returns & Fees

FTC and IWR hold 24% of their weight in the same names, and IWR returned +15.1% over the year. Net assets on Oct 20, 2026: $1.3bn for First Trust Large Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund and $57.0bn for iShares Russell Mid-Cap ETF.

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IWR costs 0.40 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 7.2 points; IWR is far larger, $57.0bn against $1.3bn.

FTC vs IWR: Differences, Returns & Fees
FTCIWR
Expense ratio0.58%0.18%
Net assets$1.3bn$57.0bn
Total return, 1 year+7.9%+15.1%
What it tracksNasdaq AlphaDEX Large Cap Growth IndexRussell Midcap Index
Holdings in common24%
Top ten holdings, share of the fund9.6%6.8%
Below its high10.5%, high on Jun 22, 20264.3%, high on Aug 14, 2026

Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 19, 2026.

+7.9%
FTC total return, 1 year
+15.1%
IWR total return, 1 year
0.58%
FTC expense ratio
0.18%
IWR expense ratio

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Client brief · page 1 of 2Report BR-AC35F7468A

FTC and IWR are built for the same job. How do they differ in cost, holdings and results?

  1. What each follows. FTC follows Nasdaq AlphaDEX Large Cap Growth Index and IWR follows Russell Midcap Index.
  2. Holdings in common. 24% of the weight is in the same securities (holdings dated Oct 19, 2026).
  3. One-year total return. Over 1 year to Oct 20, 2026 FTC returned +7.9% and IWR +15.1% with distributions reinvested, a gap of 7.2 points.

Data as of Oct 20, 2026. The differences are picked by a fixed rule, in a fixed order; the PDF prints it. Page 2 has the returns, overlap, risks and sources.

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What they hold in common

By the books each fund has filed, FTC and IWR hold 24% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Oct 19, 2026.

half

24% in common

Positions both hold, largest shared weight first
Holding FTC IWR
Snowflake Inc. (Class A) 0.86% 0.79%
Cloudflare, Inc. (Class A) 0.79% 0.71%
Datadog, Inc. (Class A) 0.88% 0.64%
Moderna, Inc. 0.87% 0.61%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company 0.81% 0.55%
Lumentum Holdings Inc. 0.64% 0.48%
United Rentals, Inc. 0.55% 0.48%
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (Class A) 0.46% 0.55%
Targa Resources Corp. 0.59% 0.46%
Keysight Technologies, Inc. 0.85% 0.43%
W.W. Grainger, Inc. 0.57% 0.43%
AMETEK, Inc. 0.54% 0.42%
Only in FTC
Newmont Corporation 0.95%
Ross Stores, Inc. 0.95%
Fortinet, Inc. 0.89%
Quanta Services, Inc. 0.89%
Amphenol Corporation 0.88%
NVIDIA Corporation 0.88%
Arista Networks, Inc. 0.83%
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 0.81%
Only in IWR
MARATHON PETROLEUM 1.04%
PHILLIPS 66 0.87%
ROYAL CARIBBEAN GROUP 0.53%
DIGITAL REALTY TRUST REIT 0.48%
KINDER MORGAN 0.48%
ALLSTATE CORP 0.47%
CENCORA 0.47%
CHENIERE ENERGY 0.45%

Check overlap with more funds →

On the same fields

FTC
First Trust Large Cap Growth AlphaDEX Fund
IWR
iShares Russell Mid-Cap ETF
Where it sits Stock ETF Stock ETF
What it is Tracks an index Tracks an index
Total return, 1 year +7.9% +15.1%
Its benchmark over the same days +15.8% (IVV) +15.0% (IWV)
Gap to its benchmark −8.0 pts vs IVV +0.1 pts vs IWV
Expense ratio 0.58% 0.18%
Already in the S&P 500 75.0% 61.6%
Holdings 187 825
Net assets $1.3bn $57.0bn

FTC and IWR on the fields both publish, as of Oct 20, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.

About FTC

FTC tracks an index. Over the year to Oct 20, 2026 it returned +7.9% with distributions reinvested, against +15.8% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.58% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 19, 2026, 75% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 187 positions, with the top ten at 9.6%. It sat 10.5% below its high of Jun 22, 2026 on Oct 20, 2026.

About IWR

IWR tracks an index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.18% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 19, 2026, 62% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 825 positions, with the top ten at 6.8%. It sat 4.3% below its high of Aug 14, 2026 on Oct 20, 2026.

Over the year to Oct 20, 2026 it returned +15.1% with distributions reinvested, against +15.0% for its benchmark, the Russell 3000 Index.

Questions people ask

Which returned more over the last year, FTC or IWR?
In the year to Oct 20, 2026, with distributions reinvested, FTC returned +7.9% and IWR +15.1%.
Which is cheaper, FTC or IWR?
IWR is cheaper, by 0.40 percentage points a year. That is about $40 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
How much do FTC and IWR overlap with the S&P 500?
By their latest filed holdings, 75% of FTC and 62% of IWR by weight is stocks the S&P 500 already holds.
Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, FTC against IWR, data as of Oct 20, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/ftc-vs-iwr

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