{"url":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/","section":"funds","title":"FCEF Bid-Ask Spread, Liquidity and NAV Premium | ETFIQ","description":"As of Nov 10, 2026, FCEF\u2019s median bid-ask spread over 30 days was 0.35%. A $10,000 order costs about $18 one way.","as_of":"Nov 11, 2026","structured_data":[{"@type":"Dataset","@id":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/#data","name":"FCEF trading costs and liquidity","description":"As of Nov 10, 2026, FCEF\u2019s median bid-ask spread over 30 days was 0.35%. A $10,000 order costs about $18 one way.","url":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/","dateModified":"2026-11-11","creator":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org"},"license":"https://etfiq.com/license/","isAccessibleForFree":true,"creditText":"ETFIQ (etfiq.com)","variableMeasured":["30-day median bid-ask spread","Premium or discount to NAV","Capacity","Active authorized participants","IQ Liquidity Score","Cost to trade by order size"],"distribution":[{"@type":"DataDownload","encodingFormat":"application/json","contentUrl":"https://etfiq.com/data/trading-score.json"}],"publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org"},"inLanguage":"en","creativeWorkStatus":"Published"},{"@type":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is FCEF\u2019s bid-ask spread?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"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\u00a2 a share at the Nov 11 close."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Does FCEF trade at a premium or discount to NAV?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It closed 0.00% from its NAV on Nov 11, 2026. On 95% of the 2 days to then it was within \u00b10.13%, and it closed more than 1% from NAV on 0 of them."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Who is the AP for FCEF?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"FCEF\u2019s 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."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Who is the LMM for FCEF?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"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\u2019s own program, so this does not mean it has no LMM."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What does it cost to trade $10,000 of FCEF?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"About $18 one way, 0.17%: half its 30-day median spread. In and out costs twice that."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I place a limit order for FCEF?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Set the limit at the midpoint + 5\u00a2 to buy, or the midpoint \u2212 5\u00a2 to sell, in your broker\u2019s quote. At the Nov 11 close of $22.97, that\u2019s $23.02 to buy and $22.92 to sell."}}]},{"@type":"InvestmentFund","@id":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef#fund","name":"First Trust Income Opportunities ETF","alternateName":"FCEF","url":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef","identifier":[{"@type":"PropertyValue","propertyID":"tickerSymbol","value":"FCEF"}],"mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef#webpage"}},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ETFIQ","item":"https://etfiq.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"FCEF","item":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Trading","item":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/"}]},{"@type":"WebPage","name":"FCEF Bid-Ask Spread, Liquidity and NAV Premium","description":"As of Nov 10, 2026, FCEF\u2019s median bid-ask spread over 30 days was 0.35%. A $10,000 order costs about $18 one way.","url":"https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/","dateModified":"2026-11-11","isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".lede",".faq"]},"publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org"}}],"characters":7189,"truncated":false,"content":"ETFIQ / FCEF / Trading \n \n As of Nov 11, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.\n FCEF bid-ask spread and liquidity\n As of Nov 10, 2026, FCEF\u2019s median bid-ask spread over 30 days was 0.35%.\n IQ Liquidity Score\n Not scored, 3 of 6 measured.\n A fixed 0 to 100 scale of trading conditions, the same anchors for every fund; 100 is the easiest to trade. It measures how cheaply and reliably the fund can be bought and sold, not whether to own it. How the score is built \n Cost to trade, 37.8 0.35% median spread, 30 days to Nov 10, 2026 Capacity, 0.4 Holdings can absorb $1.0m a day, Nov 11, 2026 Price fidelity Not measured: 2 days of closing premium are held, under the 20 needed Primary market, 65.0 3 active dealers of 22; largest 64% of creations and redemptions, N-CEN to Aug 31, 2025 Bad-day behaviour Not measured: 0 of the 10 worst days and 2 other days are held, under the 5 and 60 needed Depth Not measured: needs trade and quote data (Phase 2) \n Cost for your order\n FCEF one-way cost at each order size: half its 30-day median spread to Nov 10, 2026; sizes above $10,000 add an estimate of market impact. Source: ETFIQ. Order Dollars Percent Basis \n $1,000 $1.75 0.17% spread \n $10,000 $18 0.17% spread \n $100,000 $345 0.35% estimate \n $1,000,000 $7,128 0.71% estimate \n Premium or discount to NAV\n Latest close, Nov 11, 2026: 0.00%\n 95% of days within: \u00b10.13%\n Days more than 1% from NAV: 0 of 2\n Widest: +0.13%, Nov 10, 2026\n Close against the NAV its issuer struck the same day, 2 days from Nov 10, 2026 to Nov 11, 2026. Source: ETFIQ from the issuer\u2019s NAV and closing price.\n Capacity\n Its holdings can absorb $1.0m a day, measured on its own holdings, as of Nov 11, 2026. The holding that sets the limit is Source Capital (SOR), 2.61% of the fund.\n Dealers\n 3 active of 22 authorized participants; the largest did 64% of creations and redemptions, in the year to Aug 31, 2025 (Form N-CEN filed Nov 12, 2025).\n The active authorized participants, largest first, by share of the 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.\n How to trade FCEF\n Order type Limit: midpoint + 5\u00a2 to buy, midpoint \u2212 5\u00a2 to sell. At the Nov 11 close of $22.97, that\u2019s $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 minutes before the close. ETFIQ measures this fund\u2019s own day once it has trade data. 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. On 95% of days it is within \u00b10.13%; beyond that a buyer pays more, and a seller gets less, than the holdings are worth. What retail orders paid\n 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.\n FCEF: what retail market orders paid one way on $10,000, Sep 2026, half the effective spread. Source: SEC Rule 605 reports; computed by ETFIQ. Orders One way on $10,000 \n All wholesalers read $4.02 \n Fidelity customers $3.73 \n Schwab customers $6.78 \n FCEF: what retail market orders paid one way on $10,000, by month, at the wholesalers. Old format: orders of 100 to 9,999 shares, to Jul 2026. Month One way on $10,000 \n Aug 2025 (old format) $4.86 \n Sep 2025 (old format) $3.53 \n Oct 2025 (old format) $3.54 \n Nov 2025 (old format) $2.91 \n Dec 2025 (old format) $1.51 \n Jan 2026 (old format) $3.25 \n Feb 2026 (old format) $3.78 \n Mar 2026 (old format) $2.93 \n Apr 2026 (old format) $5.98 \n May 2026 (old format) $4.26 \n Jun 2026 (old format) $8.22 \n Jul 2026 (old format) $4.63 \n Aug 2026 $5.71 \n Sep 2026 $4.02 \n FCEF ranked 2975th of 4,090 ETFs by retail order activity in Sep 2026, an ETFIQ estimate. It drew 0.0003% of the market-order dollars in 3 retail brokers\u2019 reports. Retail activity ranking \n Where it trades\n In Q2 2026, 80% of FCEF\u2019s shares traded off exchange on the median day. Odd lots, under 100 shares, were 9.9% of its exchange volume.\n Coming with trade data\n Spread through the day, buyers against sellers, large trades and the closing auction\u2019s share, each once ETFIQ has trade and quote data.\n Questions people ask\n What is FCEF\u2019s 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\u00a2 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 \u00b10.13%, and it closed more than 1% from NAV on 0 of them. Who is the AP for FCEF? FCEF\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u00a2 to buy, or the midpoint \u2212 5\u00a2 to sell, in your broker\u2019s quote. At the Nov 11 close of $22.97, that\u2019s $23.02 to buy and $22.92 to sell. Sources and dates\n Spread: First Trust (fund page), 30 days to Nov 10, 2026 ( the issuer\u2019s page ).\n Premium: ETFIQ, close against the issuer\u2019s NAV, Nov 10, 2026 to Nov 11, 2026.\n Capacity: ETFIQ, from each holding\u2019s 20-day median dollar volume, to Nov 11, 2026.\n Dealers: Form N-CEN, the year to Aug 31, 2025, accession 0000940400-25-005820.\n Retail orders: SEC Rule 605 reports, Sep 2026, from Charles Schwab, G1 Execution Services, Fidelity Brokerage Services, Robinhood, HRT Financial, Jane Street Capital, Vanguard. Computed by ETFIQ. Citadel Securities refused ETFIQ\u2019s request, so its orders are not counted.\n Where it trades: SEC MIDAS, Q2 2026, against the fund\u2019s daily volume from Tiingo.\n Where to next\n FCEF fund page ETF trading costs and liquidity Limit orders vs market orders for ETFs Why low volume does not mean illiquid How the IQ Liquidity Score is built Compare FCEF with another fund The score measures trading conditions, not the fund. ETFIQ is an independent publisher, not an adviser, and makes no recommendations. Standards and sources \n Cite this page. ETFIQ, FCEF trading: cost, capacity, premium and dealers, data as of Nov 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/ Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms. The underlying files are at Open data .\n Other forms Plain ETFIQ, FCEF trading: cost, capacity, premium and dealers, data as of Nov 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/ APA ETFIQ. (Nov 11, 2026). FCEF trading: cost, capacity, premium and dealers. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/ Markdown [FCEF trading: cost, capacity, premium and dealers (ETFIQ, Nov 11, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/)","source":"ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.","publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"license":"https://etfiq.com/license/","license_text":"Data ETFIQ computes is free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.","citation":"ETFIQ, FCEF trading: cost, capacity, premium and dealers, data as of Nov 11, 2026. https://etfiq.com/funds/fcef/trading/"}