Matthews Korea Active ETF

Matthews Korea Active ETF (MKOR) is an actively managed fund from Matthews International Capital Management. It holds mostly South Korean stocks chosen by its managers rather than copied from an index. It leans heavily on Samsung Electronics and other chip and electronics makers. At 0.79% a year, it costs more than its most direct index-based comparison, the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY), at 0.59%.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, MKOR returned +65.3%, 1st of 7 among similar funds.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2024 (-15.7%); its best was 2025 (+70.4%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 29.4% (Jun 18, 2026 to Jul 29, 2026), not yet recovered.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 51 securities; the ten largest made up 52.84% of assets, and 3.82% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $2.5M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +34.76%, +20.08%, -1.42%.

MKOR does not track an index. Its managers at Matthews put at least 80% of net assets into common and preferred stocks of companies tied to South Korea. A company counts if, for example, it is organized or headquartered there, earns at least half its revenue there, or trades mainly on Korean exchanges. The prospectus notes these tests give the manager latitude. The MSCI Korea 25/50 Index is the fund's benchmark, a yardstick for judging results, not a list it must follow.

The managers pick stocks based on company fundamentals: balance sheets, cash flow, management quality, product lines, governance and financial health. Holdings are usually medium or large companies, but they can be any size, and the fund can lean heavily on one sector. As of June 30, 2026, it held 51 companies, with 52.8% of assets in the top 10. Samsung Electronics made up 20.2%, plus another 2.7% in its preferred shares. SK Hynix, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and SK Square were next, at about 4.5% to 4.7% each.

There is no fixed rebalancing schedule. The managers trade when their views change. Portfolio turnover was 70%, meaning trades equal to about 70% of the fund's assets in a year. The holdings are priced in Korean won, so a weaker won cuts returns in dollars. The fund is allowed to hedge currency, but it held no derivatives as of June 30, 2026.

• MKOR charges 0.79% a year, versus an average of 0.3% for the similar funds below (7th of 7, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $81 in the first year and $978 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

MKOR is a single-country, actively managed fund with about a fifth of its assets in one company and large swings in both directions.

MKOR could add focused exposure to South Korea's chip and electronics makers, but its swings are large. In its prospectus record, it fell 22.4% in the first quarter of 2020 and still finished that year up 40.8%. It lost 25.4% in 2022, 22.2% in 2018 and 16.1% in 2024, then gained 70.1% in 2025. Its share price fell 29.4% between June 18 and July 29, 2026, and had not recovered as of October 27, 2026. Anyone forced to sell during a drop like that would lock in the loss. Income is modest: the yield was 1.65% as of October 27, 2026, paid once a year. The fee is 0.79% a year. In the SEC's standard example, that comes to $978 over 10 years on a $10,000 investment. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by closest holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports (no similar fund shares 20% or more of its holdings).