Launched on 08/08/2017, the First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF (EDOW) is a smart beta exchange traded fund offering broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend category of the market.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
For a long time now, the ETF industry has been flooded with products based on market capitalization weighted indexes, which are designed to represent the broader market or a particular market segment.
Because market cap weighted indexes provide a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns, they work well for investors who believe in market efficiency.
If you're the kind of investor who would rather try and beat the market through good stock selection, then smart beta funds are your best choice; this fund class is known for tracking non-cap weighted strategies.
By attempting to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance, non-cap weighted indexes are based on certain fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such.
While this space offers a number of choices to investors, including simplest equal-weighting, fundamental weighting and volatility/momentum based weighting methodologies, not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results.
Fund Sponsor & Index
The fund is sponsored by First Trust Advisors. It has amassed assets over $322.19 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Blend. EDOW, before fees and expenses, seeks to match the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average Equal Weight Index.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average Equal Weight Index is an equally weighted index designed to be a price neutral version of the price-weighted DJIA.
Cost & Other Expenses
For ETF investors, expense ratios are an important factor when considering a fund's return; in the long-term, cheaper funds actually have the ability to outperform their more expensive cousins if all other things remain the same.
Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.50% for this ETF, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.23%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.
For EDOW, it has heaviest allocation in the Information Technology sector --about 21.1% of the portfolio --while Financials and Healthcare round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) accounts for about 3.9% of the fund's total assets, followed by Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) and Amgen Inc. (AMGN).
EDOW's top 10 holdings account for about 36.52% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
Year-to-date, the First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF has added roughly 11.29% so far, and it's up approximately 16.9% over the last 12 months (as of 09/09/2026). EDOW has traded between $39.13 $46.73 in this past 52-week period.
EDOW has a beta of 0.83 and standard deviation of 12.56% for the trailing three-year period. With about 31 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers .
Alternatives
First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF is a reasonable option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Blend segment of the market. However, there are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) tracks S&P 500 Index and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares (VOO) tracks S&P 500 Index. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $871.05 billion in assets, Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF Shares has $1048.71 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and VOO changes 0.03%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Blend
Bottom Line
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First Trust Dow 30 Equal Weight ETF (EDOW): ETF Research Reports
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