First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund

This ETF offers exposure to the U.S. tech sector, making it one of many options available to investors seeking to access an industry that is capable of remarkable rallies and steep declines over short periods of time. Given the sector-specific focus, FXL is probably too granular for those building a long-term, buy-and-hold portfolio, but can be useful for investors putting on a tactical tilt or looking to beef up tech sector exposure. FXL's primary appeal is the use of the 'AlphaDex' methodology which seeks to select the best tech companies from the Russell 1000 Index universe. This is done by ranking the firms on a variety of growth and value factors including momentum, ROE, and CF/P just to name a few. Thanks to this method, the fund casts a much smaller net than others in the sector, holdings just 85 securities compared to several hundred for many of the other products in the Category. For those looking for a more qualitative approach to the tech sector FXL could make for a solid choice although VGT and XLK offer generally similar exposure, while the equal-weighted RYT gives investors an option that will be more balanced in nature and avoid concentrations in a small handful of tech giants.