First Trust Senior Loan Fund
Actively managed U.S. bond ETF
As of its 2026 Q2 report, First Trust Senior Loan Fund held 283 positions with $2.29B in net assets. Its ten largest holdings made up 22.3% of the fund. The FTSL share class costs 0.7% a year. Over the 12 months to May 2026, FTSL returned 4.4%, with dividends reinvested. In 2026 Q3 it added 127 new positions and exited 78.
The First Trust Senior Loan Funds (the Fund ) primary investment objective is to provide high current income. The Funds secondary investment objective is the preservation of capital.
The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in first and second lien senior floating rate bank loans, primarily below investment grade quality, selected through fundamental credit analysis for attractive relative value. The advisor combines credit selection with relative value analysis and macroeconomic perspectives to manage risk across the bank loan market. Because the fund may invest significantly in covenant-lite loans, which lack traditional lender protections, recovery values may be impaired in stress scenarios. The fund may also hold up to 20% in non-senior-loan debt securities, equities, and other instruments, and up to 15% in distressed or defaulted loans.
What you own
| Company | Weight | Value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|
MORGAN STANLEY INSTITUTIONAL LIQUIDITY FUNDS | 9.54% | $218.16M | — |
Whatabrands LLC 6.15% floating · due 2028-08-03 | 2.04% | $46.53M | — |
AthenaHealth Group Inc 6.40% floating · due 2029-02-15 | 1.80% | $41.12M | — |
IRB Holding Corp 6.15% floating · due 2030-12-15 | 1.59% | $36.44M | — |
White Cap Supply Holdings LLC(f/k/a White Cap Buyer LLC) 6.92% floating · due 2029-10-19 | 1.30% | $29.66M | — |
Transdigm Inc 5.90% floating · due 2030-03-22 | 1.24% | $28.36M | — |
TAMKO Building Products Inc 6.43% floating · due 2030-09-20 | 1.24% | $28.34M | — |
Proofpoint Inc 6.70% floating · due 2028-08-31 | 1.23% | $28.21M | — |
Quikrete Holdings Inc 5.90% floating · due 2029-03-19 | 1.18% | $27.07M | — |
Acrisure LLC 6.90% floating · due 2032-06-21 | 1.18% | $26.96M | — |
The 200 largest of 283 holdings, with the share counts as filed, open with a free account.
What the fund is made of
Percentages are of fund net assets. Rounding, liabilities and short positions can make totals differ from 100%.
| Loans | 83.70% |
| Bonds | 11.66% |
| Cash & short-term | 9.54% |
How it has done
FTSL share class · total returns with dividends reinvested
Volatility over the last 12 months: 2.02%. Past returns are a record, not a forecast.
Jun 2026 and Jul 2026 have been filed since the trailing figures were struck, so they are not in the table above or the curve — every figure here shares one cut-off, which is what makes them comparable with other funds.
Fees & fund details
First Trust Senior Loan Fund is an actively managed U.S. bond ETF.
- Asset class
- Bonds
- Region
- United States
- Management
- Actively managed
- Fund type
- ETF
- Credit quality
- High yield
- Rate sensitivity
- Short duration
- Expense ratio, by class
- 0.70%· FTSL 0.70%
- Portfolio turnover
- 127.00% a year · as of 2026 Q2
Turnover is how much of the portfolio was replaced in a year.
Classified from what the fund holds, not from its name · 2026 Q2. The summary is a paraphrase of the prospectus; the objective is verbatim.
What changed this quarter
Positions that entered or left the fund since its previous filing. Positions that were only resized are not listed.
127 new· the largest 8
78 exited· the largest 8
Debt profile
What this fund holds — value-weighted across its bond and securitized long positions · as of 2026-04-30
Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.
| Floating rate | 84.0% |
| Fixed rate | 12.2% |
| Zero-coupon or unclassified | 3.8% |
Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.
| <1y | 1.0% |
| 1-3y | 24.2% |
| 3-5y | 28.9% |
| 5-10y | 45.9% |
Based on what filers reported; a filer that never reported a flag also reads as none.
Risk profile
Interest-rate and credit-spread sensitivity, both in years · as of 2026Q2
More of this fund’s sensitivity sits in credit spreads than in interest rates — a rate rally that comes with a credit selloff works against it.
Where the loss would come from. The two shocks are the same size, so this is the balance of the fund's two sensitivities rather than a bet on one moving more.
| Credit spreads | 81% |
| Interest rates | 19% |
Filers report the impact of a 0.01% move only, so the total is our own scaling of that one number and overstates the loss on most bonds — read it as approximate, never as precise. The two sensitivities overlap rather than add up: they measure the same positions against different shocks, which is why the durations above are shown side by side and never summed.
Share of the fund's spread duration carried by each credit tier.
| High yield | +1.61 yr |
| Investment grade | +0.10 yr |
Share of duration at each point, shortest first. A positive figure loses value when spreads widen; a negative one offsets — a credit hedge.
| 3 mo | 0.05 yr | 12% |
| 1 yr | 0.10 yr | 26% |
| 5 yr | 0.20 yr | 51% |
| 10 yr | 0.05 yr | 11% |
| 3 mo | 0.01 yr | 1% |
| 1 yr | 0.98 yr | 57% |
| 5 yr | 0.72 yr | 42% |
| 10 yr | 0.00 yr | 0% |
The two bands measure the same positions against different shocks and do not add — a Treasury carries rate duration and no spread duration, a floating-rate credit the reverse. Rate tenors are also summed across every currency the fund discloses.
Show the numbers
| Tenor | Rate yrs | IG yrs | HY yrs | IG $/bp | HY $/bp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 mo | +0.05 | +0.00 | +0.01 | $372 | $2.0k |
| 1 yr | +0.10 | +0.06 | +0.91 | $13.9k | $209.1k |
| 5 yr | +0.20 | +0.03 | +0.68 | $7.5k | $156.2k |
| 10 yr | +0.05 | +0.00 | +0.00 | $0 | $795 |
| 30 yr | +0.00 | +0.00 | +0.00 | $0 | $0 |
Dollar change per 1bp of spread movement, as filed and sign-anchored. A blank cell was not filed; a zero was.
A newer credit-spread reading (2026Q3) is on file. This page holds one quarter across every figure on it, so that one appears here next quarter.
Understand how this fund fits with the rest.
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