Scores of technology exchange traded funds are on torrid paces this year as the sector is the best-performing group in the S&P 500. Most of these ETFs are heavy on the largest technology titans, such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).
The First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund (NYSEArca: FXL) uses a different weighting methodology, but that has not prevented the fund from surging 19% year-to-date and from hitting a record high last Friday.
Traditional market capitalization-weighted funds are still the dominant offerings in the world of exchange traded funds, but data continue to point rapid, accelerating growth for alternatively-indexed ETFs.
First Trust’s AlphaDEX ETFs are based “on growth factors including three, six and 12-month price appreciation, sales to price and one year sales growth, and, separately, on value factors including book value to price, cash flow to price and return on assets,” according to First Trust.
Eight industry groups are represented in FXL. The ETF allocates over 53% of its combined weight to software and semiconductor stocks. None of FXL’s holdings command more than 2.5% of the ETF’s weight.