First Trust Premiers Its First Laddered Autocallable Barrier & Income ETF

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02/25/2026 - 09:25 AM

ACYN provides a single-ticker solution to access autocallable strategies, seeking income generation while limiting downside market volatility.
The fund holds multiple synthetic autocallable contracts with staggered maturity dates to help smooth income potential and reduce timing risk.
ACYN offers a transparent and liquid way to gain exposure to autocallable strategies through an ETF structure.

WHEATON, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- First Trust Advisors L.P. (“First Trust” or “FTA”), a leading exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) provider and asset manager, announced today that it has launched the FT Vest Laddered Autocallable Barrier & Income ETF (NYSE Arca: ACYN) (the “fund”). ACYN is an actively managed ETF that seeks to provide investors with distributions while limiting downside market volatility. The fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by entering into swap agreements and/or option contracts structured similarly to swap agreements that seek to deliver returns that reflect the performance of a laddered portfolio of theoretically created Synthetic Autocallable Contracts (“autocallables”).^{^}

ACYN’s structure seeks to offer investors a more efficient way to access the income potential and defined-risk characteristics, subject to the terms of the underlying autocallables, through a single ETF. “This ETF provides a transparent and liquid version of a strategy that’s gained popularity among investors, aiming to deliver attractive income potential while attempting to limit downside risk,” said Ryan Issakainen, CFA, Senior Vice President, ETF Strategist at First Trust.

Autocallables are linked to one or more broad-based U.S. equity indexes such as the S&P 500^® Index (“SPX”), Russell 2000^® Index (“RTY”), and Nasdaq-100 Index^® (“NDX”), or to one or more ETFs that seek to track the performance of such equity market indices. These contracts are designed to replicate the defined return characteristics of autocallable yield notes, which are debt instruments linked to equity market performance and seek to provide income when certain market conditions are met. Each contract has built-in rules that determine whether income (“coupon”) payments are made, whether the contract is automatically called (terminates early), or whether losses may be incurred at maturity. These outcomes are based on the value of the Underlying Asset on scheduled “observation” dates relative to their value at the start of the contract (the “initial value”).

Rather than investing in one contract at a time, the fund takes a “laddered” approach by seeking, on a recurring basis, exposure to a diversified series of autocallables with staggered maturities and call observation dates. As each contract matures or is automatically called, it is replaced or “rolled” into a new autocallable with dates that extend beyond those of the remaining contracts. This laddering helps diversify risk across time periods rather than concentrating it in a single maturity. Each time a contract rolls, key features such as coupon payment amounts, coupon and maturity barrier levels, and initial values of the Underlying Assets are reset based on current market conditions.

“ACYN brings an institutional-style autocallable approach into an ETF wrapper,” said Jeff Chang, President of Vest Financial LLC, the fund’s sub-advisor. “By offering this strategy in a liquid, transparent format, the fund provides investors with an additional way to access income-oriented exposure tied to equity market performance."

Karan Sood and Trevor Lack, of Vest, will serve as portfolio managers for the fund. The portfolio managers are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the fund.

For more information about First Trust, please contact Ryan Issakainen at (630) 765-8689 or RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com.

Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against loss.

^The fund invests in a basket of short-term (i.e., generally less than 12 months) U.S. Treasury securities, including for purposes of collateralizing swap agreements, and in box spreads. The fund may also maintain a sizeable cash position from time to time. During such times, the fund may earn less income than it otherwise would had it invested such cash and therefore be less likely to achieve its investment objective. The fund’s investment strategy may include active and frequent trading. The fund will not invest 25% or more of the value of its total assets in securities of issuers in any one industry or group of industries, except to the extent that an industry or group of industries comprise more than 25% of the underlying referenced indices or ETFs of the Synthetic Autocallable Contracts. This restriction does not apply to obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government, its agencies or instrumentalities, or securities of other investment companies.

About First Trust

First Trust is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the funds’ investment advisor. First Trust and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. (“FTP”), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately held companies that provide a variety of investment services. First Trust has collective assets under management or supervision of approximately $309 billion as of December 31, 2025, through unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, mutual funds and separate managed accounts. First Trust is the supervisor of the First Trust unit investment trusts, while FTP is the sponsor. FTP is also a distributor of mutual fund shares and exchange-traded fund creation units. First Trust and FTP are based in Wheaton, Illinois. For more information, visit www.ftportfolios.com.

About Vest:

Vest delivers the benefits of derivatives seeking precise, outcome-driven solutions—removing some uncertainty while bringing clarity to portfolios. Vest’s Target Outcome Investments^® simplify derivative strategies into trusted, outcome-focused products, accessible through a broad range of investment solutions. As the leader in Target Buffer ETFs^® and creators of over 300 innovative products, Vest manages $58B+ in AUM/AUS with an excellent track record of target delivery. Combining technical experience, practical execution, and trusted partnerships, Vest is committed to making derivatives work for everyone. For more information about Vest, visit www.vestfin.com or contact Daniella Jones at djones@vestfin.com or (203) 249-5416.

You should consider the fund’s investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. Contact First Trust Portfolios L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 or visit www.ftportfolios.com to obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about the fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.

Risk Considerations

You could lose money by investing in a fund. An investment in a fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed. There can be no assurance that a fund's objective(s) will be achieved. Investors buying or selling shares on the secondary market may incur customary brokerage commissions. Please refer to each fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for additional details on a fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.

There can be no assurance that an active trading market for fund shares will develop or be maintained.

Unlike mutual funds, shares of the fund may only be redeemed directly from a fund by authorized participants in very large creation/redemption units. If a fund's authorized participants are unable to proceed with creation/redemption orders and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or redeem, fund shares may trade at a premium or discount to a fund's net asset value and possibly face delisting and the bid/ask spread may widen.

A fund may seek to replicate autocallable yield notes, which differ from traditional debt securities and do not guarantee principal return. These notes cap upside potential due to the automatic call feature, which may limit returns compared to direct investments in the underlying assets. If called early, investors miss remaining coupon payments and may not find comparable reinvestment opportunities. If not called and the maturity barrier is breached, investors may incur losses even if some underlying assets perform well. Returns are based only on performance at call or maturity dates, and outcomes depend on the worst-performing asset.

Synthetic autocallable contracts include coupon and maturity barriers that determine the level of loss in the underlying asset(s) (e.g., a U.S. equity index) a fund can absorb before forfeiting coupon payments or principal. If the coupon barrier is breached on an observation date, a fund forfeits that period's coupon. If the maturity barrier is breached, a fund may lose the full amount of the worst-performing asset's decline, not just the amount beyond the barrier, potentially resulting in the loss of the entire notional investment and any unpaid coupons. As a result, shareholders could lose their entire investment despite the downside protection intended to be provided by the synthetic autocallable contracts and the risk mitigation intended to be provided by the laddered portfolio.

A Box Spread is an options strategy with risk and return characteristics similar to cash equivalents. It consists of a synthetic long position (buying a call and selling a put at the same strike price) and a synthetic short position (buying a put and selling a call at a different strike price) on the same reference asset with the same expiration date. This structure aims to eliminate market risk tied to price movements. However, modifying or closing individual options before expiration can reintroduce risk. The strategy's effectiveness depends on market conditions, interest rates, and the availability of counterparties. If it fails, the fund may be exposed to equity market risks, particularly fluctuations in the S&P 500 Index.

A fund that effects all or a portion of its creations and redemptions for cash rather than in-kind may be less tax-efficient.

A fund may be subject to the risk that a counterparty will not fulfill its obligations which may result in significant financial loss to a fund.

An issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make dividend, interest and/or principal payments when due and the value of a security may decline as a result.

Current market conditions risk is the risk that a particular investment, or shares of the fund in general, may fall in value due to current market conditions. For example, changes in governmental fiscal and regulatory policies, disruptions to banking and real estate markets, actual and threatened international armed conflicts and hostilities, and public health crises, among other significant events, could have a material impact on the value of the fund's investments.

A fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. Such events could cause a fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss.

The use of derivatives instruments involves different and possibly greater risks than investing directly in securities including counterparty risk, valuation risk, volatility risk, and liquidity risk. Further, losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the underlying asset, index or rate may be magnified by certain features of the derivatives.

A fund normally pays its income as distributions and therefore, a fund may be required to reduce its distributions if it has insufficient income. Additionally at times, a fund may need to sell securities when it would not otherwise do so and could cause distributions from that sale to constitute return of capital. Because of this, a fund may not be an appropriate investment for investors who do not want their principal investment in a fund to decrease over time or who do not wish to receive return of capital in a given period.

Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.

Stocks with growth characteristics tend to be more volatile than certain other stocks and their prices may fluctuate more dramatically than the overall stock market.

A fund may be a constituent of one or more indices or models which could greatly affect a fund's trading activity, size and volatility.

As inflation increases, the present value of a fund's assets and distributions may decline.

Information technology companies are subject to certain risks, including rapidly changing technologies, short product life cycles, fierce competition, aggressive pricing and reduced profit margins, loss of patent, copyright and trademark protections, cyclical market patterns, evolving industry standards and regulation and frequent new product introductions.

Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the debt securities in a fund's portfolio will decline because of rising interest rates. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter term debt securities and higher for longer-term debt securities.

The laddered portfolio strategy may not perform as intended and may fail to provide expected risk mitigation during prolonged unfavorable market conditions, if multiple Synthetic Autocallable Contracts breach coupon or maturity barriers across periods, or if a fund is unable to effectively roll these contracts at call or maturity.

Large capitalization companies may grow at a slower rate than the overall market.

Leverage may result in losses that exceed the amount originally invested and may accelerate the rates of losses. Leverage tends to magnify, sometimes significantly, the effect of any increase or decrease in a fund's exposure to an asset or class of assets and may cause the value of a fund's shares to be volatile and sensitive to market swings.

Certain fund investments may be subject to restrictions on resale, trade over-the-counter or in limited volume, or lack an active trading market. Illiquid securities may trade at a discount and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value.

The portfolio managers of an actively managed portfolio will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not have the desired result.

Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of a fund in general may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as general economic conditions, political events, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of a fund could decline in value or underperform other investments as a result. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, recessions, natural disasters or other events could have significant negative impact on a fund.

A fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for fund shares due to a limited number of market makers. Decisions by market makers or authorized participants to reduce their role or step away in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of a fund's portfolio securities and a fund's market price.

Large inflows and outflows may impact a new fund's market exposure for limited periods of time.

A fund classified as "non-diversified" may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, a fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly concentrated in certain issuers.

A fund and a fund's advisor may seek to reduce various operational risks through controls and procedures, but it is not possible to completely protect against such risks. The fund also relies on third parties for a range of services, including custody, and any delay or failure related to those services may affect the fund's ability to meet its objective.

The market price of a fund's shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the fund's net asset value ("NAV") as well as the relative supply of and demand for shares on the exchange, and a fund's investment advisor cannot predict whether shares will trade below, at or above their NAV.

A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, country, region, industry, or sector may be more affected by an adverse economic or political development than a broadly diversified fund.

Securities of small- and mid-capitalization companies may experience greater price volatility and be less liquid than larger, more established companies.

If, in any year, a fund which intends to qualify as a Registered Investment Company (RIC) under the applicable tax laws fails to do so, it would be taxed as an ordinary corporation.

Swap agreements may involve greater risks than direct investment in securities and could result in losses if the underlying reference asset does not perform as anticipated. In addition, many swaps trade over-the-counter and may be considered illiquid.

A fund may use swap agreements that seek to replicate the return characteristics of autocallable yield notes. Swap positions may require a fund to recognize income without receiving cash. Because a fund that intends to qualify as a regulated investment company (RIC) must distribute substantially all of its taxable income, which is based on gross income, it may be required to make distributions without having received corresponding cash. In such cases, a fund may need to sell assets or borrow to meet this requirement, which could adversely affect returns.

If, in any year, a fund which intends to qualify as a Registered Investment Company (RIC) under the applicable tax laws fails to do so, it would be taxed as an ordinary corporation. The federal income tax treatment of the securities in which a fund may invest, including a fund's option strategy, may not be clear or may be subject to recharacterization by the Internal Revenue Service. It could be more difficult to comply with the tax requirements applicable to RICs if the tax characterization of investments or the tax treatment of the income from such investments were successfully challenged by the Internal Revenue Service.

Trading on an exchange may be halted due to market conditions or other reasons. There can be no assurance that a fund's requirements to maintain the exchange listing will continue to be met or be unchanged.

Securities issued or guaranteed by federal agencies and U.S. government sponsored instrumentalities may or may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

A fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including "fair valued" assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. There is no assurance that a fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time.

A fund may invest in securities that exhibit more volatility than the market as a whole.

First Trust Advisors L.P. (FTA) is the adviser to the First Trust fund(s). FTA is an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P., the distributor of the fund(s).

The information presented is not intended to constitute an investment recommendation for, or advice to, any specific person. By providing this information, First Trust is not undertaking to give advice in any fiduciary capacity within the meaning of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or any other regulatory framework. Financial professionals are responsible for evaluating investment risks independently and for exercising independent judgment in determining whether investments are appropriate for their clients.

The Target Outcome registered trademarks are registered trademarks of Vest Financial LLC.

Definitions

SPX – The S&P 500^® Index is an unmanaged index of 500 companies used to measure large-cap U.S. stock market performance.

NDX – The Nasdaq-100 Index^® includes 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization.

RTY – The Russell 2000 Index^® is comprised of the smallest 200 companies in the Russell 3000 Index.