First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio
Data updated: 2026-08-21
C000241976 — First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio. United States Large Cap Blend / Core Equity. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
C000241976 Fund Overview
First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio is a US mutual fund managed by First Trust Variable Insurance Trust, categorised as United States Large Cap Blend / Core Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: First Trust Variable Insurance Trust
- Category: United States Large Cap Blend / Core Equity
- Assets under management: $17.29M
- 1-year return: -1.2%
- SEC CIK: 0001537395
- SEC series ID: S000080226
- Share class ID: C000241976
C000241976 Investment Objective and Strategy
First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by First Trust Variable Insurance Trust.
Investment objective
"The First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio (the "" Fund"") seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation."
Principal investment strategy
"Under normal market conditions, the Fund will pursue its investment objective by investing primarily in the securities that comprise The Capital Strength TM Index (the Index ) and by utilizing an option strategy consisting of purchasing and writing (selling) U.S. exchange-traded put and call options on the S&P 500 Index or exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 Index ( ""Underlying ETFs"" ). Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities and/or investments that provide exposure to equity securities. The Funds investment sub-advisor is Vest Financial LLC ( ""Vest"" or the ""Sub-Advisor"" ). Equity Strategy The securities held by the Fund are selected by the portfolio managers from the common stocks and equity securities of real estate investment trusts ( ""REITs"" ) in the Index.
The Index is designed to provide exposure to well-capitalized companies with strong market positions. The Index screens companies for strong balance sheets, a high degree of liquidity, the ability to generate earnings growth, and a record of financial strength and profit growth. The Index is composed of 50 securities selected objectively based on cash on hand, debt ratios and volatility, among other factors. Securities from the same issuer will be subject to conditions controlled by the Index Provider to determine Index eligibility. The constituents and individual security weighting of the equity portfolio will be actively managed by the portfolio managers in order to seek to achieve the Funds investment objective and strategy. The Fund may invest in securities of any market capitalization.
As of March 31, 2026, the equity portfolio had an expected market capitalization range between $18.31 billion and $3.73 trillion. Hedged Put/Spread Collar Strategy The Fund will also employ an option overlay strategy in which the Fund systematically purchases and sells exchange-traded options that seek to lower volatility over a full market cycle. The Fund purchases and sells exchange-traded put options and sells exchange-traded call options to provide an option overlay strategy known as a put/spread collar strategy. The exchange-traded options are either on the S&P 500 Index or on Underlying ETFs. The put/spread collar strategy seeks to provide investors with a level of downside protection from the put options while still allowing for a portion of upside participation in the returns of the S&P 500 Index based on the call options.
When the Fund sells a call option, the Fund has the obligation to sell the reference asset at a specified price (the strike price) if the buyer exercises the call option within a specified time period. When the Fund purchases a put option, the Fund has the right (but not the obligation) to sell the reference asset at the strike price within a specified time period. When the Fund sells a put option, the Fund has the obligation to buy the reference asset at the strike price if the buyer exercises the option within a specified time period. The Fund creates a put/spread collar by buying a put option on the S&P 500 Index or on Underlying ETFs at a higher strike price and selling a put option on the S&P 500 Index or on Underlying ETFs at a relatively lower strike price, which results in a put option spread.
The put option spread is meant to hedge against a portion of any market decline. If the market decreases, the Funds returns may decrease less than the market because the Sub-Advisor will sell or exercise the put options. Simultaneously, the Fund sells a call option on the S&P 500 Index or on Underlying ETFs at the highest strike price possible to cover the premium needed to offset the purchased put option spread. The put option spread provides the Fund with protection from a decrease in the S&P 500 Index or Underlying ETFs, whereas the sold call option creates the collar because the Fund gives up the opportunity to benefit from potential increases in the value of the S&P 500 Index or Underlying ETFs above the exercise prices of such options. The value of the Funds put options is expected to increase in proportion to the decrease in value of the reference asset, but the amount by which the Funds options increase or decrease in value depends on how far the market has moved from the time the options positions were entered into and the relative strike prices of the purchased and sold put options.
This put/spread collar seeks to protect the Fund against a decline in value, which tends to be less expensive than a strategy of only purchasing put options. The premiums received from selling call options can help offset the cost of the put option spread. Any savings generated between the premiums received from selling call options and the premiums of the put options are passed on to shareholders. This strategy, however, provides investors less downside risk when there is only a small decline in the price of the reference asset. This is because the protection offered by the collar is limited to the difference between the strike prices of the purchased put option and the sold put option. The options overlay strategy will reset on a quarterly basis. As of March 2, 2026, the Fund had significant investments in financial companies and industrials companies, although this may change from time to time.
Over time, the Fund may have significant investments in investment sectors that it may not have had as of March 2, 2026. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in a given investment sector, the Fund may be exposed to the risks associated with that investment sector. The Fund is classified as non-diversified under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act )."
C000241976 Holdings
Top 10 holdings of First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| Cisco Systems, Inc. | 2.78% |
| Monster Beverage Corp. | 2.56% |
| T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. | 2.40% |
| Automatic Data Processing, Inc. | 2.28% |
| Cincinnati Financial Corp. | 2.27% |
| Agilent Technologies, Inc. | 2.23% |
| Johnson & Johnson | 2.22% |
| Union Pacific Corp. | 2.21% |
| Visa, Inc. | 2.21% |
| Merck & Company, Inc. | 2.21% |
C000241976 Portfolio Allocation
Asset-class allocation of First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Asset class | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Equity | 101.4% |
| Cash & Equivalents | 0.1% |
C000241976 Performance
Total returns for C000241976 (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| YTD | 0.2% |
| 1 year | -1.2% |
| 3 years (annualised) | -0.5% |
C000241976 Risk Information
Risk metrics for C000241976, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 11.0%
C000241976 Costs and Fees
C000241976 costs about $125 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 1.25%
- Gross expense ratio: 2.32%
- Portfolio turnover: 136%
- Brokerage commissions: 2.41 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
C000241976 Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2026-06, First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio had net inflows of $4.22M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2026-06 | $323.55K |
| 2026-05 | $444.87K |
| 2026-04 | −$108.45K |
| 2026-03 | $634.00K |
| 2026-02 | $670.90K |
| 2026-01 | $110.17K |
C000241976 Debt Constituents
No individual debt constituents are reported in First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
C000241976 Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official First Trust Capital Strength Hedged Equity Portfolio filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2026-04-30
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2025-04-30
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-04-29
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-08-21
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-05-28
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-02-23
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2026-03-12
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-03-14
Related Funds
Other United States Large Cap Blend / Core Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:
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.