This is an active ETF that selects US technology companies, and companies that put technology at the forefront of their business, whose breadth and duration of growth the market is judged to have underpriced. It does not replicate a specific index. The management team decides holdings and weights at its own discretion.

It suits investors who want technology sector exposure, are seeking excess returns from stock selection rather than index tracking, and can accept the higher fees and return dispersion that come with it.

It is an ETF run with an active (actively managed) approach by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The fund targets technology companies and companies that rely on technology as a core competitive advantage, selecting those whose size and duration of growth appear underreflected in their share prices. It centers on information technology but also holds communication services and consumer discretionary names, so its investable range is wider than that of a typical technology index.

• An active structure in which weights are set by the management team's selection rather than by index replication
• Companies outside the technology classification are included based on the nature of their business
• A narrower number of holdings, so the effect of selection flows directly into performance

Assets under management (AUM) stand at $4.3B, and the total expense ratio (Expense Ratio) is 0.65% per year.

The fee burden is relatively heavy compared with passive technology ETFs, so whether stock selection outweighs that gap is the criterion for deciding whether to hold it.

The fund broadly follows the direction of technology stocks, but because its holdings differ from the index, there are periods when performance diverges. In phases when semiconductor concentration is strong, the gap versus broad technology indexes widens, and the earnings season results of the selected stocks drive performance.

The US technology sector is an area with steady capital inflows, backed by the artificial intelligence investment cycle. However, money continues to flow toward low-fee passive products, which leaves active products in an environment where they must prove their reason for existing through performance.

Its strength is the ability to pursue returns that differ from the index through manager selection, while its weaknesses are the fee burden and the risk of poor selection.

The VGT ETF, XLK ETF, and FTEC ETF shown in the table are low-fee passive products that broadly cover the US technology sector through an index, so their fees differ greatly from this ETF's. The IYW ETF is also in the same technology sector, but its fees are at a mid-range level. The SOXX is a product narrowed to semiconductors, so its character is different. Other comparison candidates include the QQQ, which covers the Nasdaq 100 broadly, the SMH, which is concentrated in semiconductors, the IGM, which holds technology and media together, and the TECL, which offers leveraged exposure.

Here are the points to confirm before investing in this ETF. It is not a product that follows an index but an active product picked by the management team, so fees and selection performance should be weighed together, and technology sector concentration and trading conditions should also be checked in advance.

Technology sector concentration combined with active selection widens performance dispersion. In periods when interest rates rise or the preference for growth stocks weakens, declines can be larger than the market average. With no distributions, there is also no cash flow to cushion downturns.

It is worth considering if you find it unsatisfying to hold the technology sector only through an index and are willing to pay for stock selection. If cost is the priority, passive products such as the VGT ETF or FTEC ETF are a better fit, and for a semiconductor focus, the SOXX is the better choice. Please check regularly whether performance is making up for the fee gap.