First Trust Smith Unconstrained Bond ETF
Actively managed U.S. bond ETF
As of its 2026 Q2 report, First Trust Smith Unconstrained Bond ETF held 505 positions with $3.28B in net assets. Its ten largest holdings made up 13.7% of the fund. The UCON share class costs 0.86% a year. Over the 12 months to May 2026, UCON returned 5.3%, with dividends reinvested. In 2026 Q3 it added 63 new positions and exited 130.
The investment objective of the First Trust Smith Unconstrained Bond ETF (the Fund ) is to seek to maximize long-term total return.
The fund is managed by sub-advisor Smith Capital Investors on an unconstrained basis, with no requirement to track an index; Smith Capital applies bottom-up credit analysis informed by top-down macroeconomic views to select from a broad universe of fixed income securities including government bonds, corporates, mortgage and asset-backed securities, bank loans, and high-yield bonds, with discretion to hold up to 70% in high-yield securities, up to 25% in emerging market issuers, and to vary average portfolio duration between 0 and 10 years. Because the fund's returns depend on Smith Capital's security selection and macroeconomic positioning decisions rather than a defined benchmark, performance will diverge from any particular index or peer group. The fund may invest up to 50% of assets in non-agency mortgage and asset-backed securities and CLOs.
What you own
| Company | Weight | Value | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT 3.38% · due 2028-02-29 | 2.33% | $76.26M | — |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT 4.63% · due 2045-11-15 | 2.13% | $69.77M | — |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT 4.75% · due 2056-02-15 | 2.12% | $69.33M | — |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT 4.38% · due 2036-05-15 | 1.69% | $55.40M | — |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT 3.88% · due 2031-04-30 | 1.18% | $38.74M | — |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT 4.63% · due 2055-11-15 | 1.04% | $33.99M | — |
Federal National Mortgage Association 4.00% · due 2064-06-01 | 0.96% | $31.38M | — |
BOEING COMPANY (THE) 7.01% · due 2064-05-01 | 0.81% | $26.44M | — |
FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION 4.96% floating · due 2054-11-25 | 0.73% | $24.03M | — |
ALBERTSONS COMPANIES INC / SAFEWAY INC / NEW ALBERTSONS LP / ALBERTSONS LLC 6.50% · due 2028-02-15 | 0.71% | $23.28M | — |
The 200 largest of 505 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%.
| Bonds | 82.20% |
| Securitized | 13.70% |
| Loans | 2.17% |
| Cash & short-term | 0.65% |
| Stocks | 0.57% |
By sector
- Other
- 24.5%
- Government
- 22.7%
- Securitized
- 13.4%
- Financials
- 11.8%
- 12 other sectors
- 27.6%
- Other
- 24.5%
- Government
- 22.7%
- Securitized
- 13.4%
- Financials
- 11.8%
- International
- 6.2%
- Industrials
- 5.1%
- Consumer Discretionary
- 3.4%
- Information Technology
- 3.0%
- Utilities
- 2.1%
- Communication Services
- 1.6%
- Energy
- 1.5%
- Real Estate
- 1.3%
- Health Care
- 1.1%
- Materials
- 0.8%
- Cash
- 0.8%
- Consumer Staples
- 0.5%
How it has done
UCON share class · total returns with dividends reinvested
Volatility over the last 12 months: 2.52%. Past returns are a record, not a forecast.
Jun 2026 and Jul 2026 and Aug 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 Smith Unconstrained Bond ETF is an actively managed U.S. bond ETF.
- Asset class
- Bonds
- Region
- United States
- Management
- Actively managed
- Fund type
- ETF
- Credit quality
- Mixed credit
- Rate sensitivity
- Intermediate duration
- Expense ratio, by class
- 0.86%· UCON 0.86%
- Portfolio turnover
- 305.00% a year · as of 2025 Q4
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.
63 new· the largest 1
130 exited· the largest 5
Debt profile
What this fund holds — value-weighted across its bond and securitized long positions · as of 2026-05-31
Share of the fund's debt by how its coupon behaves — the fact that decides whether a rate move reaches this portfolio at all.
| Fixed rate | 94.1% |
| Floating rate | 4.6% |
| Zero-coupon or unclassified | 1.2% |
Share of the fund's debt value in each maturity band, shortest first.
| <1y | 0.7% |
| 1-3y | 16.4% |
| 3-5y | 22.4% |
| 5-10y | 28.9% |
| 10y+ | 27.3% |
| Unknown | 4.3% |
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
Most of this fund’s sensitivity is to interest rates, with credit spreads carrying nearly as much.
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.
| Interest rates | 55% |
| Credit spreads | 45% |
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.
| Investment grade | +2.72 yr |
| High yield | +0.88 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 | 0.03 yr | 1% |
| 1 yr | 0.62 yr | 14% |
| 5 yr | 1.66 yr | 37% |
| 10 yr | 1.51 yr | 34% |
| 30 yr | 0.61 yr | 14% |
| 3 mo | 0.02 yr | 0% |
| 1 yr | 0.64 yr | 18% |
| 5 yr | 2.14 yr | 60% |
| 10 yr | 0.76 yr | 21% |
| 30 yr | 0.04 yr | 1% |
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 | +0.03 | +0.01 | +0.01 | $1.9k | $3.1k |
| 1 yr | +0.62 | +0.35 | +0.29 | $114.4k | $96.1k |
| 5 yr | +1.66 | +1.60 | +0.54 | $524.8k | $176.8k |
| 10 yr | +1.51 | +0.72 | +0.03 | $237.4k | $10.6k |
| 30 yr | +0.61 | +0.04 | +0.00 | $12.4k | $389 |
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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