This is an active ETF that directly researches US-listed companies positioned at the center of long-term structural change and holds them in its portfolio. Rather than tracking a specific index, the management team uses fundamental analysis to pick a small number of stocks and set their weights.

It suits investors who want US stock exposure that relies on the managers' stock selection skill instead of index tracking. Investors must be able to tolerate the volatility that comes with a concentrated portfolio of few holdings.

This is an ETF run by Avory using an active (actively managed) approach.

The fund looks for companies likely to play a central role in long-term shifts in consumer, corporate, and market demand, and holds them in a concentrated portfolio. It examines each company along six axes: management, market growth, market share, margins, multiples, and margin of safety. It then evaluates structural beneficiaries separately from companies that are successfully transforming their business.

• Stock selection based on in-house research rather than index replication
• A concentrated portfolio narrowed to a few dozen holdings
• A structure that handles growth stocks and value stocks together within a single strategy

Assets under management (AUM) stand at $71.8M, and the total expense ratio is 0.89% per year.

Compared with broad core ETFs, the fee burden is noticeably heavier, and trading liquidity is still thin. It is wise to check the bid-ask spread before trading.

Because the portfolio is concentrated, the performance of individual holdings drives returns more than the overall market does. There are periods when the gap versus the benchmark becomes wider than it would be for a broad index ETF.

In recent years, money has steadily shifted toward active ETFs. However, newly listed products start with small asset bases, and inflows tend to come slowly until a performance record builds up.

The structure aims to beat the index by relying on the managers' selection, and the price paid for that is a higher fee and concentration in few stocks.

Products such as ITOT, SCHB, and IWV, shown in the table, are broad core ETFs that hold the US stock market as a whole, and they contrast sharply with this ETF in terms of fees and asset size. Their strengths are low fees and large scale, while this ETF is a structure where you pay for selection. If you want to explore more active management, products such as ARKK and AVUS are worth a look, and among low-fee core options, VTI and VOO are also worth comparing.

Here are the points to check before investing in this ETF. With an active product, you need to consider costs, concentration, track record, and trading conditions together to reach a judgment. Please review the four items below in order.

Concentration in few stocks and reliance on the managers' judgment are the main sources of volatility. If the selection goes wrong, there are periods when the fund lags far behind a broad index. Korean investors investing in won also bear exchange rate fluctuations.

It is safer to hold it as a satellite asset rather than as the core of your US stock exposure. If cost is the priority, core products such as ITOT and SCHB fit better, while this ETF becomes a candidate if you are willing to pay for the managers' selection.