First Trust Capital Strength® Hedged Equity Portfolio
Investment Objective/Strategy - The First Trust Capital Strength® Hedged Equity Portfolio (the "Fund") seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation.
There can be no assurance that the Fund's investment objectives will be achieved.
Fund Overview
Fiscal Year-End12/31
Inception Date8/14/2023
Inception NAV$10.00
Total Expense Ratio
(5/1/2024)
6.87%
Net Expense Ratio1.25%
Expenses are capped contractually at 1.25% per year, at least through August 10, 2025.
Current Fund Data (as of 11/19/2024)
Net Asset Value1$10.28
Dividend FrequencySemi-Annual
NAV 52-Week High/Low$10.54 / $9.44
Top Holdings (as of 10/31/2024)2
Percent
AbbVie Inc. 2.22%
Electronic Arts Inc. 2.14%
Packaging Corporation of America 2.14%
ConocoPhillips 2.13%
Aon Plc (Class A) 2.10%
Snap-on Incorporated 2.08%
Walmart Inc. 2.07%
Visa Inc. (Class A) 2.05%
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. 2.03%
Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. 2.03%
NAV History (Since Inception)
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Sector Breakdown (as of 10/31/2024)2
  Percent
Industrials 29.88%
Financials 19.68%
Consumer Discretionary 12.12%
Consumer Staples 11.65%
Health Care 9.91%
Technology 5.81%
Energy 4.15%
Telecommunications 3.94%
Basic Materials 1.93%
Other 0.93%
Month End Performance (as of 10/31/2024)
  3 Month YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since
Fund
Inception3
Fund Performance *
Fund Performance 2.00% 4.33% 5.97% N/A N/A N/A 2.03%
Index Performance **
S&P 500® Index 3.66% 20.97% 38.02% N/A N/A N/A 23.62%
Quarter End Performance (as of 9/30/2024)
  3 Month YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since
Fund
Inception3
Fund Performance *
Fund Performance 7.25% 5.97% 6.09% N/A N/A N/A 3.60%
Index Performance **
S&P 500® Index 5.89% 22.08% 36.35% N/A N/A N/A 26.62%

*Performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and current performance may be higher or lower than performance quoted. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate and shares when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Returns are average annualized total returns, except those for periods of less than one year, which are cumulative.

Fund expenses and return figures do not reflect the deduction of sales charges or other expenses associated with variable products. If such fees were included, expenses would be higher and the performance would be lower. The Fund's performance reflects fee waivers and expense reimbursements, absent which performance would have been lower.

**Indexes are unmanaged and an investor cannot invest directly in an index. Any Benchmarks or Indexes shown reflect no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes.

S&P 500® Index - The Index is an unmanaged index of 500 companies used to measure large-cap U.S. stock market performance.

Footnotes
1 The NAV represents the fund's net assets (assets less liabilities) divided by the fund's outstanding shares.
2 Market value information used in calculating the percentages is based upon trade date plus one recording of transactions, which can differ from regulatory financial reports (Forms N-CSR and N-PORT Part F) that are based on trade date recording of security transactions. Holdings are subject to change.
3 Inception Date is 8/14/2023

You should consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. You can download a prospectus or contact First Trust Portfolios, L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 to request a prospectus, which contains this and other information about the fund. Read it carefully before you invest.

Risk Considerations

Please refer to the fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for additional details on the fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.

The fund offers its shares only to separate accounts of insurance companies that offer variable annuity and variable life insurance products.

The fund's shares will change in value and you could lose money by investing in the fund. An investment in the fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. There can be no assurance that the fund's investment objective will be achieved.

A fund may be subject to the risk that a counterparty will not fulfill its obligations which may result in significant financial loss to a fund.

Current market conditions risk is the risk that a particular investment, or shares of the fund in general, may fall in value due to current market conditions. As a means to fight inflation, the Federal Reserve and certain foreign central banks have raised interest rates; however, the Federal Reserve has recently lowered interest rates and may continue to do so. Recent and potential future bank failures could result in disruption to the broader banking industry or markets generally and reduce confidence in financial institutions and the economy as a whole, which may also heighten market volatility and reduce liquidity. Ongoing armed conflicts between Russia and Ukraine in Europe and among Israel, Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East, have caused and could continue to cause significant market disruptions and volatility within the markets in Russia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. The hostilities and sanctions resulting from those hostilities have and could continue to have a significant impact on certain fund investments as well as fund performance and liquidity. The COVID-19 global pandemic, or any future public health crisis, and the ensuing policies enacted by governments and central banks have caused and may continue to cause significant volatility and uncertainty in global financial markets, negatively impacting global growth prospects.

A fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. Such events could cause a fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss.

The use of derivatives instruments involves different and possibly greater risks than investing directly in securities including counterparty risk, valuation risk, volatility risk, and liquidity risk. Further, losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the underlying asset, index or rate may be magnified by certain features of the derivatives.

Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.

Industrials and producer durables companies are subject to certain risks, including the general state of the economy, intense competition, consolidation, domestic and international politics, excess capacity and consumer demand and spending trends. They may also be significantly affected by overall capital spending levels, economic cycles, technical obsolescence, delays in modernization, labor relations, and government regulations.

As inflation increases, the present value of a fund's assets and distributions may decline.

Large capitalization companies may grow at a slower rate than the overall market.

Certain fund investments may be subject to restrictions on resale, trade over-the-counter or in limited volume, or lack an active trading market. Illiquid securities may trade at a discount and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value.

A portfolio comprised of low volatility stocks may not produce investment exposure that has lower variability to changes in such stocks' price levels. Low volatility stocks are likely to underperform the broader market during periods of rapidly rising stock prices.

The portfolio managers of an actively managed portfolio will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not have the desired result.

Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of a fund in general may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as general economic conditions, political events, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of a fund could decline in value or underperform other investments as a result. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, recessions, natural disasters or other events could have significant negative impact on a fund.

A fund classified as "non-diversified" may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, a fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly concentrated in certain issuers.

A fund and a fund's advisor may seek to reduce various operational risks through controls and procedures, but it is not possible to completely protect against such risks. The fund also relies on third parties for a range of services, including custody, and any delay or failure related to those services may affect the fund's ability to meet its objective.

The prices of options are volatile and the effective use of options depends on a fund's ability to terminate option positions at times deemed desirable to do so. There is no assurance that a fund will be able to effect closing transactions at any particular time or at an acceptable price.

Real Estate Investment Trusts ("REITs") are subject to the risks of investing in real estate, including, but not limited to, changes in the real estate market, vacancy rates and competition, volatile interest rates and economic recession. Increases in interest rates typically lower the present value of a REIT's future earnings stream and may make financing property purchases and improvements more costly. The value of a fund will generally decline when investors in REIT stocks anticipate or experience rising interest rates.

A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, country, region, industry, or sector may be more affected by an adverse economic or political development than a broadly diversified fund.

A fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including "fair valued" assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. There is no assurance that a fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time.

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Not FDIC Insured • Not Bank Guaranteed • May Lose Value