JEMA vs MEM

JEMAAJPMorgan ActiveBuilders Emerging Markets Equity ETF

MEMDMatthews Emerging Markets Equity Active ETF

In short

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.

MEM An Asia specialist's take on the whole emerging world. Matthews runs MEM as a concentrated active book of roughly 40 names, with the prospectus objective pointing primarily at the Asia Pacific region.

Stated mandate

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

MEM The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation and invests primarily in the Asia Pacific region.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• MEM Matthews built its research franchise on Asia, and this fund applies that lens to broad emerging markets rather than tracking an index.matthewsasia.com
• Concentrated by design: roughly 40 names, at least 80% of net assets in emerging-market common and preferred stock, with stock picking framed by a top-down macro view and beta controls.matthewsasia.com
• Simple plumbing. A 1940 Act ETF that owns the stocks directly: no swaps, no leverage, no notes.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• MEM At 0.79% a year it runs above the typical active EM ETF, and several times the 0.33% charged by systematic rivals like AVEM or the 0.39% at DFEM.
• Thinly traded next to the category's giants, so the spread you pay getting in and out is part of the real cost.
• It sits in the lower tier of its active EM peer group on cost and tradability, and with about 40 holdings, individual country and stock calls carry real weight.

Full JEMA profile⁠

Full MEM profile⁠