ASIA vs JEMA

ASIAFMatthews Pacific Tiger Active ETF ASIA

JEMAAJPMorgan ActiveBuilders Emerging Markets Equity ETF

In short

ASIA Most international ETFs spread you across the developed world. ASIA does one job: active stock-picking across the Asia-Pacific, from region specialist Matthews, inside a plain-vanilla 1940 Act ETF wrapper.

JEMA Active emerging-markets management priced like an index fund: J.P. Morgan blends its own country, region and style EM strategies into one roughly 500-stock portfolio built to keep the MSCI EM index's sector and country risk shape.

Stated mandate

ASIA The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through an Asia-focused active equity strategy.

JEMA Seeks long-term capital appreciation through a portfolio of emerging-market equities.

Why people hold it

• ASIA One region, one job: Asia-Pacific equities chosen actively, with long-term capital appreciation as the stated objective. The highest-graded funds in its group are broad developed-international instead.
• Active by design. There's no index to shadow, so the portfolio reflects the manager's Asia growth calls rather than a benchmark's country and sector weights.
• Ordinary ETF plumbing around a specialist strategy: a registered 1940 Act fund with the usual intraday trading and creation/redemption mechanics.

• JEMA 0.33% a year, about half the 0.65% median for active EM funds and level with the cheapest names in the group (AVEM, AVXC, AVSE).
• Not one manager's hunch: the portfolio stitches together a range of J.P. Morgan's actively managed EM strategies across countries, regions and styles.sec.gov
• Active tilts, benchmark shape. It overweights and underweights countries and sectors versus the MSCI EM index while aiming to hold similar sector and geographic risk.sec.gov
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that stands among the strongest implementations in the active EM group on cost and structure.

Worth knowing

• ASIA Fees run 0.79% a year against a 0.60% peer-group median, and far above systematic rivals like DFIC (0.22%) and AVDE (0.23%). Hands-on Asia research carries a price tag.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads at the moment you trade.
• Launched in 2023, so the ETF's own record is short, and payouts arrive only annually or semiannually. This is a growth mandate, not an income one.

• JEMA Active means results ride on the adviser's calls, and the fund has only been trading since 2021, a short record for an EM strategy.sec.gov
• Full-market EM exposure runs hot: volatility screens as the softer part of the picture next to peers, the trade-off for staying in the whole asset class.
• Moderately traded rather than a tape giant, and cash comes back once or twice a year, not monthly.

Full ASIA profile⁠

Full JEMA profile⁠