1. Report's Industry Investment Rating No information regarding the industry investment rating is provided in the report. 2. Core Viewpoints of the Report - The US ETF market has witnessed continuous and rapid growth in scale, with an increasing proportion of alternative products. Newly issued products show characteristics such as a focus on single - stock products, a higher number of active products than passive ones, and a significant increase in strategy complexity and comprehensiveness. - The US ETF market presents trend - like features, including intense competition among core broad - based products, significant differences in fees based on strategy complexity and scarcity, large differences in institutional ownership among different product types, and managers' forward - looking layout of potential market concerns. - For the domestic ETF business, it is necessary to focus on management details for highly crowded broad - based products, make forward - looking layouts for industry - themed products, and strengthen the "timely promotion" of different products [2]. 3. Summary According to the Directory 3.1 US ETF Scale Continues to Break Through Rapidly, and the Proportion of Alternative Products Increases - In 2025, the total scale of US ETFs reached $13.45 trillion, with a scale increase of 30%. The number of newly issued ETFs reached 1,078, and the total number of all US ETFs reached 4,814, a net increase of 950 compared to the end of 2024. The proportion of alternative products in the newly issued products increased significantly, driving the proportion of alternative products in the entire market to reach 30%. Newly issued bond and money - market funds also had good scales [2][8][10]. - **Single - stock products become the focus of issuance**: Single - stock products were first issued in 2022, and the number of newly issued products in 2025 was the highest. Leveraged products had the largest scale and number, followed by option products. These products are more and more widely distributed, covering different sectors, and the market capitalization of the underlying stocks is also decreasing. The issuance is related to market attention. The single - stock Covered Call products are mainly for high - volatility stocks, aiming to achieve more certain returns through stable high - option premium dividends [18][19]. - **The number of active products exceeds that of passive products**: As of the end of 2025, the number of active ETF products in the US reached 2,682, exceeding the 2,132 passive products, with a total scale of $1.5 trillion. Alternative products are the category with the highest proportion in terms of both quantity and scale. The scale of option - strategy products exceeds $200 billion, making it the most important type of active ETF. The scale of active ETFs has grown rapidly in the past two years, with a compound annual growth rate of 57% from 2019 to 2025 [24][29]. - **The complexity and comprehensiveness of strategies are significantly improved**: As of the end of 2025, there were 697 option - strategy products in the US, with a scale of $224.727 billion, and 221 new products were issued in 2025. Option strategies are increasingly used as an "add - on" to traditional strategies to increase returns. Other types of products also have more complex strategies, and the standardization of ETF strategies is decreasing [34][38][40]. 3.2 Trendy Features of US ETFs - **Intense competition among core broad - based products, and returns have a certain impact on scale**: In 2025, the scale ranking of S&P 500 ETFs changed significantly. The long - time leader, SPY, was continuously surpassed by VOO and IVV, and the gap widened rapidly. Over the past 10 years, VOO has been the best - performing product in 7 years. In 2025, the total inflow of US ETFs was $1.4753 trillion, with significant inflows into broad - based stock and bond ETFs, and the inflow proportion of alternative products mainly based on option strategies significantly exceeded their scale proportion [43][49]. - **Fees vary greatly based on strategy complexity and scarcity**: As of 2025, the scale - weighted average fee of US ETFs was about 0.17%, with the lowest fee as low as 0.01% and the highest exceeding 5%. Most types of active products have an average fee more than 20 basis points higher than passive products, and alternative products have the same average fee. Different asset types also have different fee levels, with broad - based stock and bond products having the lowest fees, and more focused industry - themed products and alternative option - strategy products having higher fees [53]. - **Large differences in institutional ownership among different product types**: Active products generally have a higher institutional ownership than passive products. Different types of products target different customer groups. For example, leveraged products in alternative products are mainly for individual customers with high - risk preferences, while more complex option - strategy products are mainly for institutional customers [56][59]. - **Managers' forward - looking layout of potential market concerns**: US managers continue to actively layout, and the layout direction is often closely related to market concerns and future possible events. For example, in response to the possible concentration risk of the S&P 500, some managers have launched improved S&P 500 ETFs, which have received recognition from institutional customers [60][61]. 3.3 Thoughts on the Domestic ETF Business - **Focus on management details for highly crowded broad - based products**: As of December 2025, domestic non - monetary ETFs had a total scale of 5.8 trillion yuan and 1,369 products. Broad - based products account for 44% of the total scale, but the homogenization competition is fierce. In the competition of domestic broad - based products, after the fee reduction, the competition has entered a stage of "competing on tracking error" and "competing on excess returns". Lower tracking error and higher excess returns are more likely to attract capital inflows [64][71][72]. - **Continue to make forward - looking layouts for industry - themed products**: Although the number of products tracking the same target is relatively small compared to broad - based products, domestic industry - themed products are numerous, widely distributed, and highly segmented, with fierce competition. Some products that were initially unpopular may attract large - scale capital inflows when the market conditions arrive. Therefore, it is still valuable to make early layouts in long - term promising niche segments, but in - depth fundamental research is required before layout [75][80]. - **Strengthen the "timely promotion" of different products**: In addition to early layout, it is also crucial to promote products reasonably at appropriate times. Overseas institutions' Model Portfolio marketing model has had an important impact on ETFs. Domestic managers are also beginning to try ETF portfolio strategies and investment research services to improve investors' investment experience, and this area still has great development potential [81][82][84].