Hyper-local vs. hyper-focused: Two China ETFs go on different paths

Two exchange-traded funds are looking for profits in China with two different strategies.

While the Rayliant Quantamental China Equity ETF dives into specific regions, the newly launched Roundhill China Dragons ETF buys the country’s biggest stocks.

“[It’s] focused just on nine companies, and these companies are the companies that we identified as having similar characteristics to magnitude in the U.S.,” Roundhill Investments CEO Dave Mazza told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.

Since its inception on Oct. 3, the Roundhill China Dragon ETF is down almost 5% as of Friday’s close.

Meanwhile, Jason Hsu of Rayliant Global Advisors is behind the hyper-local Rayliant Quantamental China Equity ETF. It has been around since 2020.

“These are local shares, local names that you would have to be a local Chinese person to buy easily,” the firm’s chairman and chief investment officer told CNBC. “It paints a very different picture because China is sort of a different part of its growth curve.”

Hsu wants to give access to names that are less familiar to U.S. investors, but can deliver big gains on par with recent Big Tech stocks.

“Technology is important, but a lot of the higher growth stocks are actually people who sell water [and] people who run restaurant chains. So, often they actually have a higher growth than even many of the tech names,” he said. “There’s very little research, at least outside of China, and they may represent what is more of a thematic in the moment trade inside China.”

 As of Friday’s close, the Rayliant Quantamental China Equity ETF is up more than 24% so far this year.