ESBG provides leveraged exposure to stocks, bonds, and gold within a single solution

Company Website: http://www.ftportfolios.com/
WHEATON, Ill. -- (Business Wire)

First Trust Advisors L.P. (“First Trust”), a leading exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) provider with more than $216 billion in ETF assets under management as of October 31, 2025, announced today that it has launched a new actively managed ETF, the First Trust Enhanced Stocks, Bonds & Gold ETF (NYSE Arca: ESBG) (the “fund”) which seeks to provide long-term total return.

"We are excited to introduce ESBG, a single ticker solution that combines the growth potential of stocks, the historical stability of bonds, and the potential hedging capabilities of gold,” said Ryan Issakainen, CFA, Senior Vice President, ETF Strategist at First Trust. “We believe this ETF represents a sophisticated solution for investment professionals seeking to better position their clients’ portfolios for periods of market volatility, potentially enhancing long-term returns and reducing overall portfolio risk."

ESBG invests in futures contracts tied to the S&P 500^® Index, intermediate U.S. Treasuries, and gold and seeks to provide a portfolio with a notional exposure of approximately 210%. This means the fund’s futures positions collectively represent exposure to about twice the value of its assets, allowing it to efficiently allocate across stocks, bonds, and gold and potentially enhance overall return potential. On a monthly basis, such exposure is to be divided approximately equally across the S&P 500^® Index, intermediate U.S. Treasuries, and Gold Futures (i.e., the notional exposure of each underlying asset is expected to be approximately 70%). ESBG does not invest directly in Gold Futures. The fund gains exposure to Gold Futures exclusively by investing in a Subsidiary that is advised by First Trust Advisors L.P. and invests primarily in Gold Futures.

ESBG is overseen by the First Trust Alternatives team with John Gambla, CFA, FRM, PRM and Rob Guttschow, CFA, serving as Senior Portfolio Managers.

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

About First Trust

First Trust is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the fund’s 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 $304 billion as of October 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 https://www.ftportfolios.com.

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You should consider a 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 a 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.

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

The failure or bankruptcy of a fund's and the subsidiary's clearing broker could result in substantial loss of fund assets.

Investments linked to the prices of commodities may be considered speculative and subject a fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities.

To avoid exceeding position limits set by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a fund may have to liquidate commodity contract positions at disadvantageous times or prices which may result in substantial loss of fund assets.

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.

Investments in debt securities subject the holder to the credit risk of the issuer and the value of debt securities will generally change inversely with changes in interest rates. In addition, debt securities generally do not trade on a securities exchange making them less liquid and more difficult to value.

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.

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.

Extension risk is the risk that, when interest rates rise, certain obligations will be paid off by the issuer (or other obligated party) more slowly than anticipated, causing the value of these debt securities to fall. Rising interest rates tend to extend the duration of debt securities, making their market value more sensitive to changes in interest rates.

The frequent trading of commodity futures contracts may increase the amount of commissions or mark-ups that a fund pays when it buys and sells contracts which may detract from a fund's performance.

The risk of a position in a futures contract may be very large compared to the relatively low level of margin a fund is required to deposit and a relatively small price movement in a futures contract may result in immediate and substantial loss relative to the size of margin deposit.

A commodity price may change substantially between periods of trading due to adverse news announcements.

The performance of a fund with significant exposure to gold through the use of gold futures may be materially affected by changes in the price of gold. Gold prices are influenced by supply and demand factors, including mining output, production costs, jewelry and technology demand, and central bank activity. Interest rates, inflation expectations, and monetary policy can also impact gold prices. While gold is often viewed as a hedge against inflation or market stress, there is no guarantee it will perform as expected, and prices may decline during periods of economic growth or reduced investor demand. Regulatory or tax changes related to gold may further affect a fund's performance.

A fund's income may decline when interest rates fall or if there are defaults in its portfolio.

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.

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.

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.

A fund that holds cash or invests in money market or short-term securities may be less likely to achieve its investment objective and could lose money.

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.

High portfolio turnover may result in higher levels of transaction costs and may generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders.

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.

Subsidiary investment risk applies to a fund that invests in certain securities through a wholly-owned subsidiary of the fund that is organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands ("Subsidiary"). Changes in the laws of the U.S. and/or Cayman Islands could result in the inability of a fund to operate as intended. The Subsidiary is not registered under the 1940 Act and is not subject to all the investor protections of the 1940 Act. Thus, a fund that is as an investor in the Subsidiary will not have all the protections offered to investors in registered investment 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. 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.

"Whipsaw" markets in which significant price movements develop but then repeatedly reverse, may cause substantial losses for a fund.

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).

First Trust Advisors L.P. is registered as a commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor and is also a member of the National Futures Association.

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.

Definitions

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

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251119223912/en/

Contacts:

Ryan Issakainen
First Trust
(630) 765-8689
RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com

Source: First Trust Advisors L.P.