First Trust Multi-Strategy Fund (FTMIX)
First Trust Capital Management L.P. is the Investment Manager for this fund. For more information visit www.firsttrustcapital.com.
Investment Objective/Strategy - The First Trust Multi-Strategy Fund (the "Fund") seeks long-term capital appreciation by pursuing positive absolute returns across market cycles. In pursuing its objective, the Fund seeks to generate attractive long-term returns with low sensitivity to traditional equity and fixed-income indices. The Fund allocates its assets among a carefully chosen group of alternative investment strategies operated by portfolio managers with deep backgrounds in their respective disciplines. These strategies may include, without limitation, relative value, arbitrage, and structured debt that invest in different asset classes, securities, and derivative instruments. This mix of strategies seeks to generate an uncorrelated return stream using fundamentally and technically driven approaches.
There can be no assurance that the Fund's investment objectives will be achieved. The Fund may not be appropriate for all investors.
Fund Overview
Ticker FTMIX
Investment Manager First Trust Capital Management L.P.
CUSIP 46141T679
Share Class Class I
Inception Date 4/30/2012
Minimum Investment Amount $1,000
Total Expense Ratio* 1.89%
Net Expense Ratio* 1.67%
*As of 9/30/2024
Pursuant to contract, First Trust Capital Management has agreed to waive fees and/or pay Fund expenses to prevent the annual net expense ratio from exceeding 1.55% of the average daily net assets until 1/31/2025. Currently, the net expense ratio is the amount applied to each share's NAV. Expense limitations may be terminated or modified prior to their expiration only with the approval of the Board of Trustees of the First Trust Series Fund.

Fund Performance (as of 9/30/2024)
  3 Month YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since Fund
Inception
Fund Performance *
Net Asset Value (NAV) 2.13% 7.02% 9.69% 3.56% 4.33% 4.25% 3.70%
Index Performance **
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index 5.20% 4.45% 11.57% -1.39% 0.33% 1.84% 1.87%

*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.

NAV represent the Fund's net assets (assets less liabilities) divided by the Fund's outstanding shares. Returns are average annualized total returns, except those for periods of less than one year, which are cumulative. The fund's performance reflects fee waivers and expense reimbursements, absent which performance would have been lower.

**Index performance information is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent actual fund performance. Indexes do not charge management fees or brokerage expenses and no such fees or expenses were deducted from the performance shown. All Index returns assume that dividends are reinvested when they are received. Indexes are unmanaged and an investor cannot invest directly in an index.

Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index - The Index covers the investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market, including Treasuries, government-related and corporate securities, MBS, ABS, and CMBS.

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 or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about the fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.

The Fund is subject to the following risks:

You could lose money by investing in a fund. An investment in a fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed. There can be no assurance that a fund's objective(s) will be achieved. Please refer to each fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for additional details on a fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.

Alternative Investments may employ complex strategies, have unique investment and risk characteristics and may not be appropriate for all investors.

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.

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

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.

Investments in companies that are the subject of a publicly announced transaction carry the risk the transaction is renegotiated, takes longer to complete than originally planned and that the transaction is never completed. Any such event could cause a fund to incur a loss. The risk/reward payout of merger arbitrage strategies typically is asymmetric, with the losses in failed transactions often far exceeding the gains in successful transactions.

Collateralized loan obligations ("CLOs") carry additional risks, including the possibility that distributions from collateral securities will not be adequate to make interest or other payments, the quality of the collateral may decline in value or default, the possibility that the investments in CLOs are subordinate to other classes or tranches, and the complex structure of the security may not be fully understood at the time of investment and may produce disputes with the issuer or unexpected investment results.

Certain structured products may be thinly traded or have a limited trading market and as a result may be characterized by the fund as illiquid securities.

Special purpose acquisition companies ("SPACs"), have no operating history or ongoing business other than seeking acquisitions. The value of a SPAC's securities is particularly dependent on the ability of its management to identify and complete a profitable acquisition. There is no guarantee that the SPACs in which a fund may invest will complete an acquisition or that any acquisitions completed by the SPACs will be profitable.

Leverage may result in losses that exceed the amount originally invested and may accelerate the rates of losses. Leverage tends to magnify, sometimes significantly, the effect of any increase or decrease in a fund's exposure to an asset or class of assets and may cause the value of a fund's shares to be volatile and sensitive to market swings.

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.

Short selling creates special risks which could result in increased gains or losses and volatility of returns. Because losses on short sales arise from increases in the value of the security sold short, such losses are theoretically unlimited.

Investments in debt securities subject the holder to the credit risk of the issuer and the value of debt securities will generally change inversely with changes in interest rates. In addition, debt securities generally do not trade on a securities exchange making them less liquid and more difficult to value.

Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in a fund's portfolio will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities.

An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due and the value of a security may decline as a result.

High yield securities, or "junk" bonds, are less liquid and are subject to greater market fluctuations and risk of loss than securities with higher ratings, and therefore, are considered to be highly speculative.

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.

Securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to additional risks, including currency fluctuations, political risks, withholding, lack of liquidity, lack of adequate financial information, and exchange control restrictions impacting non-U.S. issuers.

Investments in emerging market securities are generally considered speculative and involve additional risks relating to political, economic and regulatory conditions.

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.

High portfolio turnover may result in higher levels of transaction costs and may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders.

A fund may invest in the shares of ETFs, which involves additional expenses that would not be present in a direct investment in the underlying funds. In addition, a fund's investment performance and risks may be related to the investment performance and risks of the underlying funds.

The risk of a position in a futures contract may be very large compared to the relatively low level of margin a fund is required to deposit and a relatively small price movement in a futures contract may result in immediate and substantial loss relative to the size of margin deposit.

A fund normally pays its income as distributions and therefore, a fund may be required to reduce its distributions if it has insufficient income. Additionally at times, a fund may need to sell securities when it would not otherwise do so and could cause distributions from that sale to constitute return of capital. Because of this, a fund may not be an appropriate investment for investors who do not want their principal investment in a fund to decrease over time or who do not wish to receive return of capital in a given period.

Prepayment risk is the risk that the issuer of a debt security will repay principal prior to the scheduled maturity date. Debt securities allowing prepayment may offer less potential for gains during a period of declining interest rates, as a fund may be required to reinvest the proceeds of any prepayment at lower interest rates.

During periods of falling interest rates if an issuer calls higher-yielding debt instruments, a fund may be forced to invest the proceeds at lower interest rates, likely resulting in a decline in the fund's income.

Subordinated debt has lower credit ratings and lower priority than other obligations of an issuer during bankruptcy, presenting a greater risk of nonpayment.

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.

Value characteristics of a stock may not be fully recognized for a long time or a stock judged to be undervalued may actually be appropriately priced at a low level.

Securities of micro, small- and mid-capitalization companies may experience greater price volatility and be less liquid than larger, more established companies.

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

Stocks with growth characteristics tend to be more volatile than certain other stocks and their prices may fluctuate more dramatically than the overall stock market.

Securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. government sponsored instrumentalities may or may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

Extension risk is the risk that, when interest rates rise, certain obligations will be paid off by the issuer (or other obligated party) more slowly than anticipated, causing the value of these debt securities to fall. Rising interest rates tend to extend the duration of debt securities, making their market value more sensitive to changes in interest rates.

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.

Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-US currencies may affect the value of a fund's investments and the value of a fund's shares.

First Trust Capital Management is the adviser to the Fund. The Fund's distributor is First Trust Portfolios L.P.
Not FDIC Insured • Not Bank Guaranteed • May Lose Value