IQ
FCEF
First Trust Income Opportunities ETF
Category AllocationIssuer First TrustNet assets $81mFee 3.69%

FCEF bid-ask spread and liquidity

See what FCEF costs to trade and how closely it tracks its value.

·
Not scored

IQ Liquidity Score

· 3 of 6 measured · Nov 11, 2026
$18
one way, a $10,000 order
$1.0m
its holdings can absorb a day
0.00%
latest close, Nov 11
±0.13%
95% of days within
0 · Hard to trade100 · Trades like a giant

How easily this fund trades, from 0 to 100 on the same anchors for every fund; 100 is best. Method →

Cost to trade
0.35% median spread, 30 days to Nov 10, 2026
37.8
Capacity
Holdings can absorb $1.0m a day, Nov 11, 2026
0.4
Price fidelity
Not measured · 2 days of closing premium are held, under the 20 needed
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Primary market
3 active dealers of 22; largest 64% of creations and redemptions, N-CEN to Aug 31, 2025
65.0
Bad-day behaviour
Not measured · 0 of the 10 worst days and 2 other days are held, under the 5 and 60 needed
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Depth
Not measured · needs trade and quote data
·

Capacity: what its holdings can absorb in a day. Price fidelity: how close its price stays to NAV, the value of what it holds. Primary market: the dealers who create and redeem its shares. Bad-day behaviour: its premium on the market’s worst days. Depth: the dollars quoted at the bid and the ask. How to read the score →

FCEF is not scored: its spread is not read, so it has no point on this chart. 17 scored Allocation ETFs are plotted for comparison, Nov 12, 2026.

Spread against score

FCEF among Allocation ETFs

Cheaper to trade sits left, easier to trade sits up.

17 scored
Hard to tradeThinLiquid with careLiquidTrades like a giantNov 12, 2026

What a trade costs

One way, half its 30-day median spread; sizes above $10,000 are estimates
FCEF: cost for your order at each size, one way
OrderDollarsPercentBasis
$1,000$1.750.17%spread
$10,000$180.17%spread
$100,000$3450.35%estimate
$1,000,000$7,1280.71%estimate
Spread 0.35%, the median over the 30 days to Nov 10, 2026. A round trip costs twice this. Above $10,000 it adds an estimate of price impact.
Premium or discount to valueDaily, 2 days to Nov 11, 2026 · the ±1% band marked

Above zero: a premium. Below: a discount.

FCEF premium or discount to NAV, 2 days+1%0−1%Nov 10, 2026Nov 11, 2026
Latest close, Nov 11
0.00%
95% of days within
±0.13%
Days more than 1% from NAV
0 of 2
Widest
+0.13%, Nov 10, 2026
CapacityWhat its holdings making up 95% of the weight can absorb a day, at 10% of each one’s volume
Holdings can absorb
$1.0m

FCEF’s holdings can absorb $1.0m a day, measured on its own holdings, as of Nov 11, 2026. A $1m order is 97.28% of a day’s capacity.

The holding that sets the limit: Source Capital (SOR), 2.61% of the fund, $282,621 a day traded, the median of 20 days to Nov 12, 2026.

Who makes the market

Authorized participants · N-CEN, the year to Aug 31, 2025
Active dealers
3
of 22 authorized
Largest
64%
of creations and redemptions
One dealer
No
3 active

3 of 22 authorized participants created or redeemed FCEF shares in the year to Aug 31, 2025. From the fund’s Form N-CEN, filed Nov 12, 2025.

APs create and redeem shares. Every AP →

Active APs, largest first, by share of dollars created and redeemed: BofA Securities, Inc. (64.1%), Virtu Americas LLC (28.8%), Jane Street Capital, LLC (7.1%). 19 more were listed and created or redeemed nothing.

What retail orders paid

One way on $10,000, Sep 2026
All wholesalers read
$4.02
Fidelity customers
$3.73
Schwab customers
$6.78

In Sep 2026, retail market orders in FCEF paid $4.02 one way on $10,000, against $18 at the quote.

96% of shares filled better than the quote.

Aug 2025Grey: old format, orders of 100 to 9,999 sharesSep 2026

FCEF ranked 2975th of 4,090 ETFs by retail order activity in Sep 2026, an ETFIQ estimate.

0.0003% of the market-order dollars in 3 retail brokers’ reports. Buys and sells together. Retail activity ranking →

Where it trades

Q2 2026, 62 trading days
Off exchange
80%
Odd lots, of exchange volume
9.9%

In Q2 2026, 80% of FCEF’s shares traded off exchange on the median day.

Off exchange means wholesalers and dark pools. Odd lots are orders under 100 shares, a sign of retail trading.

How to place the order

To buy or to sell, up to $100,000
Order type
Limit: midpoint + 5¢ to buy, midpoint − 5¢ to sell.At the Nov 11 close of $22.97, that’s $23.02 to buy and $22.92 to sell.
When
ETF spreads are usually widest in the first minutes after the open and the last before the close.
Size
Up to $10,279 is 1% of what its holdings can absorb in a day, for a buy or a sell.
Watch
The premium to NAV, charted above: a buyer pays more, and a seller gets less, when it is wide.
Why low volume does not mean illiquid →Limit orders vs market orders for ETFs →
Not measured yet: these need trade data
Spread through the day

Median spread by half hour, 30 days.

Buyers against sellers

Volume bought at the ask against volume sold at the bid.

Large trades

Trades above $500k: how many, and their share of volume.

Closing auction

Share of the day’s volume at the close.

Questions people ask

What is FCEF’s bid-ask spread?

0.35% of the midpoint, the median over the 30 days to Nov 10, 2026, as its issuer states it. Half of it is about 5¢ a share at the Nov 11 close.

Does FCEF trade at a premium or discount to NAV?

It closed 0.00% from its NAV on Nov 11, 2026. On 95% of the 2 days to then it was within ±0.13%, and it closed more than 1% from NAV on 0 of them.

Who is the AP for FCEF?

FCEF’s latest Form N-CEN, for the period ending Aug 31, 2025, lists 22 authorized participants (APs), and 3 created or redeemed shares. The largest were BofA Securities, Inc. (64.1%), Virtu Americas LLC (28.8%), Jane Street Capital, LLC (7.1%) of the dollars its APs created and redeemed.

Who is the LMM for FCEF?

FCEF is on none of the lead market maker (LMM) lists ETFIQ reads, from NYSE Arca, Cboe BZX and Nasdaq. Each list covers only that exchange’s own program, so this does not mean it has no LMM.

What does it cost to trade $10,000 of FCEF?

About $18 one way, 0.17%: half its 30-day median spread. In and out costs twice that.

How do I place a limit order for FCEF?

Set the limit at the midpoint + 5¢ to buy, or the midpoint − 5¢ to sell, in your broker’s quote. At the Nov 11 close of $22.97, that’s $23.02 to buy and $22.92 to sell.
Where to next
ETF trading costs and liquidity→Cost-to-trade checker→Why low volume does not mean illiquidguide →Limit orders vs market orders for ETFsguide →How the IQ Liquidity Score is builtmethod →FCEF fund page→
Sources and dates
SpreadFirst Trust (fund page), 30-day median · to Nov 10, 2026
Premium to NAVETFIQ, close against the issuer’s NAV · Nov 10, 2026 to Nov 11, 2026
CapacityETFIQ, each holding’s 20-day median dollar volume · to Nov 11, 2026
DealersForm N-CEN · the year to Aug 31, 2025
Retail ordersSEC Rule 605 reports · Sep 2026
Where it tradesSEC MIDAS · Q2 2026

The score measures trading conditions, not the fund. ETFIQ makes no recommendations.

Cite this pageCitation, APA and Markdown

ETFIQ, FCEF trading: cost, capacity, premium and dealers, data as of Nov 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/

Open data →

The score measures trading conditions, not the fund. ETFIQ makes no recommendations.