First Trust Advisors Announces the First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund

The First Wind Energy ETF

LISLE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Trust Advisors L.P. (“First Trust”) today announced the anticipated launch of the First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund. The industry’s first wind energy exchange-traded fund (ETF) is anticipated to begin trading on June 18th on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol (NYSE Arca:FAN). First Trust will be the investment advisor for the ETF.

“First Trust is pleased to introduce an ETF product that focuses entirely on wind energy,” said Robert Carey, CFA, and Chief Investment Officer of First Trust.

“We are watching the wind energy industry rapidly mature due to investment from around the globe. In 2007, companies involved in wind energy generation participated in a 27% growth of installed global wind generation capacity, bringing the global total to more than 94,000 megawatts,” Carey added.

“Industry experts are predicting continued growth of installed wind generation capacity worldwide for a number of reasons, including concerns about supply security, rising fossil fuel costs, and mitigation efforts related to environmental problems and climate change. First Trust sees the acceleration in the building of global wind generation capacity as a strong signal that wind generation has become an important global growth industry,” Carey said.

The First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund will seek investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund’s fees and expenses) of the ISE Global Wind Energy Index (symbol: GWE), a modified market capitalization weighted equity index consisting of a portfolio of companies throughout the world that are active in the wind energy industry based on an analysis of the products and services offered by these companies. The index includes only companies with market capitalizations of at least $100 million.

About the ISE Global Wind Energy Index

The ISE Global Wind Energy Index is owned and was developed by the International Securities Exchange LLC, in consultation with Standard & Poor’s, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Index components are reviewed for eligibility and the index is rebalanced semi-annually according to the index methodology. The index is calculated and maintained by Standard & Poor’s.

About First Trust Advisors L.P.

Based in Lisle, Illinois, First Trust Advisors L.P. and its affiliate, First Trust Portfolios L.P., are privately-held investment services companies which were established in 1991 and operate nationwide and also in Canada and Europe.

The firms provide a variety of investment services, including asset management, financial advisory services, and municipal and corporate investment banking, with collective assets under management or supervision of over $34 billion as of May 31, 2008 through closed-end funds, unit investment trusts, separate managed accounts and exchange-traded funds.

First Trust employs an enhanced indexing approach for its ETF products. Enhanced indexing builds on the basic principles of index construction with an emphasis on performance rather than market tracking. The First Trust ISE Global Wind Energy Index Fund will be First Trust’s 37th ETF. For more information, please visit www.ftportfolios.com.

Principal Risk Factors

An investor should consider the fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For a copy of the prospectus which contains this and other information about the fund, call First Trust at 1-800-621-1675. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

RISKS

The fund’s shares will change in value, and you could lose money by investing in the fund. One of the principal risks of investing in the fund is market risk. Market risk is the risk that a particular stock owned by the fund, fund shares or stocks in general may fall in value.

The fund’s return may not match the return of the Index. The fund may not be fully invested at times. Securities held by the fund will generally not be bought or sold in response to market fluctuations and the securities may be issued by companies concentrated in a particular industry. The fund may invest in micro-cap, small-cap and mid-cap companies. Such companies may experience greater price volatility than larger, more established companies.

The fund is expected to contain the securities of companies in the wind energy, utility and industrial sectors, among others.

Companies in the industrials sector face risks that arise from the general state of the economy, intense competition, consolidation, domestic and international politics, excess capacity and consumer demand, spending trends in that they may be significantly affected by overall capital spending levels, economic cycles, technical obsolescence, delays in modernization, labor relations and government regulations.

Companies in the utilities sector may face the imposition of rate caps, increased competition due to deregulation, difficulty in obtaining an adequate return on invested capital or in financing large construction projects, the limitations on operations and increased costs and delays attributable to environmental considerations, and the risks associated with capital market's ability to absorb utility debt, taxes, government regulation, international politics, price and supply fluctuations and volatile interest rates.

Companies in the wind energy business can be significantly affected by obsolescence of existing technology, short product cycles, falling prices and profits, competition from new market entrants and general economic conditions. Shares of the companies involved in the wind energy business have been significantly more volatile than shares of companies operating in other more established businesses. This industry is relatively nascent and under-researched in comparison to more established and mature industries, and should therefore be regarded as having greater investment risk. Because many wind energy companies have been newly created and are unseasoned, the shares of these companies may be considered to be speculative and subject to extreme volatility and a greatly increased risk of loss.

Investors buying or selling fund shares on the secondary market may incur customary brokerage commissions. Investors who sell fund shares may receive less than the share’s net asset value. Shares may be sold throughout the day on the exchange through any brokerage account. However, shares may only be redeemed directly from the fund by authorized participants, in very large creation/ redemption units.

The fund is classified as “non-diversified.” A non-diversified fund generally may invest a larger percentage of its assets in the securities of a smaller number of issuers. As a result, the fund may be more susceptible to the risks associated with these particular companies, or to a single economic, political or regulatory occurrence affecting these companies.

Not FDIC Insured • Not Bank Guaranteed • May Lose Value