AFEM — First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF

AFEM Fund Overview

AFEM — First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF is a US ETF managed by First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund III, categorised as Emerging Markets Multi-Cap / All-Cap Blend / Core Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.

• Type: US ETF
• Manager: First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund III
• Category: Emerging Markets Multi-Cap / All-Cap Blend / Core Equity
• Assets under management: $78.66M
• 1-year return: 33.4%
• Ticker: AFEM
• SEC CIK: 0001424212
• SEC series ID: S000052737
• Share class ID: C000165609

AFEM Investment Objective and Strategy

First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund III.

Investment objective

"The First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF's (the "" Fund "") investment objective is to provide capital appreciation."

Principal investment strategy

"Under normal market conditions, the Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets (including investment borrowings) in a portfolio of equity securities of emerging market companies, including through investments in common stock, depositary receipts, and common and preferred shares of real estate investment trusts ( ""REITs"" ), and forward foreign currency exchange contracts and currency spot transactions used to hedge the Fund's exposure to the currencies in which the equity securities of such emerging market companies are denominated (each, an ""Emerging Market currency"" and, collectively, the ""Emerging Market currencies"" ). The Fund considers an emerging market company to be one (i) domiciled or with a principal place of business or primary securities trading market in an emerging market country, or (ii) that derives a substantial portion of its total revenues or profits from emerging market countries.

The Fund considers an emerging market country to be any country whose issuers are included in the Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets Index and/or those countries considered to be developing by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation or the United Nations. The Fund generally focuses its emerging market company investments in Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and/or the United Arab Emirates. The Fund utilizes a dynamic currency hedging strategy through the use of forward foreign currency exchange contracts and currency spot transactions to hedge up to 100% of the Fund's currency exposure.

As a result of this hedging strategy, the portion of the Fund's portfolio securities which are subject to currency hedging transactions may vary widely, from 0% to 100% of the portfolio securities. A forward contract on foreign currency is an obligation to purchase or sell a specific currency at a future date, which may be any fixed number of days agreed upon by the parties from the date of the contract, at a price set on the date of the contract. A forward foreign currency exchange contract may reduce the Fund's exposure to changes in the value of the currency it will deliver and increase its exposure to changes in the value of the currency it will receive for the duration of the contract. The effect on the value of the Fund is similar to selling securities denominated in one currency and purchasing securities denominated in another currency.

The Fund also may enter into currency spot transactions as part of its dynamic currency hedging strategy. A currency spot transaction is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell a specific currency for delivery on a date that is typically two business days from the date of the agreement, as opposed to a date set in the future. The underlying currencies of the forward foreign currency exchange contracts and currency spot transactions included in the Fund's policy relating to the investment of at least 80% of its net assets (including investment borrowings) will be limited to Emerging Market currencies. The Fund also may invest up to 20% of its net assets in equity securities of companies in developed market countries and forward foreign currency exchange contracts and currency spot transactions used to hedge the Fund's exposure to non-Emerging Market currencies as well as any proxy currency hedging transactions involving non-Emerging Market currencies determined to be representative of, and serve as a proxy for, Emerging Market currencies.

Such developed market companies are companies that are (i) domiciled or with a principal place of business or primary securities trading market in a country that is not an emerging market country, or (ii) that derives a substantial portion of its total revenues or profits from countries that are not emerging market countries. The equity securities of developed market companies in which the Fund may invest include investments in common stock, depositary receipts and common and preferred shares of REITs. The securities in which the Fund may invest must be listed on a U.S. or non-U.S. securities exchange. The Fund may invest in small, mid and large capitalization companies. In selecting the portfolio securities of the Fund, RiverFront Investment Group, LLC, the Fund's sub-adviser ( ""RIG"" or the ""Sub-Advisor"" ), assembles a portfolio of eligible countries and/or securities based on several core attributes, including, but not limited to, value, quality and momentum.

The Sub-Advisor considers multiple factors within each core attribute, such as the price-to-book value of a security when determining value and a company's cash as a percentage of the company's market capitalization when determining quality. The Sub-Advisor then assigns each qualifying security a score based on its core attributes and selects the individual securities with the highest scores for investment. In doing so, the Sub-Advisor utilizes its proprietary optimization process to maximize the percentage of high-scoring securities included in the portfolio in accordance with country, sector and risk factor ( e.g. , beta, quality, volatility) limitations. The Sub-Advisor also considers the market capitalization of the companies in which the Fund may invest, and the trading volume of a company's shares in the secondary market.

As of October 31, 2017, the Fund had significant investments in the information technology sector and financial sector. In managing the Fund's currency exposure, the Sub-Advisor deploys a dynamic currency hedging strategy based on a proprietary hedging methodology that considers a combination of quantitative measures, such as interest rate differentials, central bank balance sheet expansion/contraction and price momentum, and qualitative measures, such as formal and informal guidance from central bankers. To the extent permitted under applicable law, percentage limitations described in this prospectus are generally as of the time of investment by the Fund and may be exceeded on a going-forward basis as a result of market fluctuations affecting the Fund's portfolio securities. The Fund is classified as ""non-diversified"" under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the ""1940 Act"" )."

AFEM Holdings

Top 10 holdings of First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

View all AFEM holdings

AFEM Portfolio Allocation

Asset-class allocation of First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.

AFEM Performance

Total returns for AFEM (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.

AFEM Risk Information

Risk metrics for AFEM, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.

• 1-year volatility (annualised): 18.23%

AFEM Costs and Fees

AFEM costs about $85 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.

• Net expense ratio: 0.85%
• Gross expense ratio: 0.85%
• Portfolio turnover: 4%
• Brokerage commissions: 2.06 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)

AFEM Cashflows

Over the 12 months to 2026-04, First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF had net inflows of $31.65M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.

AFEM Debt Constituents

No individual debt constituents are reported in First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

AFEM Prospectus and SEC Filings

Official First Trust RiverFront Dynamic Emerging Markets ETF filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.

• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2026-09-10
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2025-02-28
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-02-28
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-09-24
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-06-22
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-03-25
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2026-01-13
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-01-10

Related Funds

Other Emerging Markets Multi-Cap / All-Cap Blend / Core Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:

• Delaware Emerging Markets Fund (DEMAX)
• WisdomTree Emerging Markets High Dividend Fund (DEM)
• Martin Currie SMASh Series EM Fund (LCSMX)
• Invesco Developing Markets Fund (GTDDX)
• Emerging Markets ex China Core Equity Portfolio (DAADX)

Data Sources

ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.