TIGER US S&P 500 (360750) 🔎 In-depth

The tracking target is the US S&P 500 index. The S&P 500 holds about 500 leading large US companies listed on the US market by the size of their market capitalization (a company's total value), and is widely used as a yardstick representing the entire US stock market. Because a bigger company takes a larger share of the index, a small number of mega-cap companies have a large influence on the index's moves.

Fundamentally, when the US S&P 500 index rises overnight this ETF rises, and when it falls it falls with it, moving at 1x (no leverage). On top of this, one more thing is added — because this product is 'FX-exposed' and does not FX-hedge, the KRW/USD exchange rate is also reflected in returns directly. That is, even if the US index is unchanged, if the dollar strengthens against the won (a rise in the exchange rate) the won-converted value rises and becomes a positive factor, and conversely if the dollar weakens (a fall in the exchange rate) it becomes a negative factor. Ultimately the final return is set by combining 'the movement of the US index + the movement of the KRW/USD exchange rate.'

As a market-representative product that invests broadly and diversifies across the entire US market, it is often used as a basic backbone (core) asset for long-term holding. Spread across 500 names, individual-company risk is reduced, but it takes on two sources of fluctuation together: the volatility inherent in US stocks and exchange-rate movements. In particular, because it does not FX-hedge, it is best approached with an understanding that performance can diverge from the US index depending on the direction in which the exchange rate moves.

In a word, it is an 'ETF that holds America's 500 leading companies at once, in dollars.' Think of it as tracking the US market's ups and downs, while the KRW/USD exchange rate is layered on top and rises and falls with it.