This type of fund has been around for 9 years, reaching its highest profit record!

In the just-released annual reports for 2025 by public funds, the FOF—dubbed the “public-fund shopper” (FOF)—has quietly set a record: total profits in 2025 exceeded 18 billion yuan, the highest record since its debut in 2017.

According to statistics compiled by a reporter from China Securities Journal, over the past 9 years, public-fund FOFs have had 6 years with net gains, including two years when profit size exceeded 10 billion yuan; the last time was in 2020. Over the 9-year period, the profit scale of a single FOF has also risen, from initial profits of less than 20 million yuan to nearly 1 billion yuan.

Behind the record profits of FOFs is the continued strengthening of the quality of FOFs’ diversified allocation. By the end of 2025, the complete disclosed holdings by FOFs cover asset types including stocks, bonds, ETFs, and active equity. The number of public REITs products held in FOF portfolios has reached 38. As of the end of 2025, the FOFs’ most favored asset is gold ETFs, but based on the FOFs’ latest projections at the start of the second quarter of 2026, they have become more cautious about gold assets.

Over the past 9 years, there have been 6 years of net gains

According to the analytical report titled “FOF Fund 2025 Annual Report Roundup” provided by Tianxiang Investment Consulting (referred to below as the “Tianxiang report”), public-fund FOFs recorded total profit of 18.68B yuan in 2025. From the Tianxiang FOF fund three-level classification, among 2025 hybrid FOF funds, the overall profit was the highest at 2.7B yuan, with an average profit per product of 24.76 million yuan; the overall profit of stock FOF funds was the lowest at 128 million yuan.

Overall profits for FOFs come from different managers. Specifically, looking at the top ten managers, last year all of their FOFs generated positive total profit. E Fund came in first with 2.51B yuan, followed by Xingzheng Global Fund, whose FOF total profit was 2.32B yuan. Four public-fund managers—CICE Fund, 广发基金, 华夏基金, and 汇添富基金—each had profit scales of more than 1 billion yuan from their FOFs. In addition, the top ten managers also include Bank of Communications Schroder Fund, Harvest Fund, Southern Fund, and Industrial and Commercial Ruiqin Fund; the profit scales of their FOFs were 931 million yuan, 754 million yuan, 653 million yuan, and 548 million yuan, respectively.

It should be noted that the 2025 profits of public-fund FOFs set the highest record in the 9 years since their launch in 2017. Based on a review by reporters from China Securities Journal, over the nine annual periods, FOFs had three years of net losses; among the six years of net gains, there were two years when the net gain scale exceeded 10 billion yuan. Prior to this record, the highest net gain record for FOFs occurred in 2020.

Looking specifically at the figures, at the start of their launch in 2017, public-fund FOF profits were only just over 30 million yuan. In 2018, the market overall fell slightly, and FOFs lost 464 million yuan. After 2019, the market entered a round of structural opportunities; in the three years up to 2021, public-fund FOFs continuously generated profits, with profit scales of 5.73B yuan, 5.03B yuan, and 1.53M yuan, respectively. In 2022 and 2023, amid an increasingly volatile market environment, FOFs consecutively suffered losses, with loss scales exceeding 16 billion yuan and 8 billion yuan, respectively. After 2024, the market rebounded again; FOFs generated full-year profit of 5.026 billion yuan, and in 2025 their profit scale increased to more than 18 billion yuan on that basis, setting the highest record since 9 years of development.

On a retrospective view, over the past 9 years, FOF profits have continued to improve, and the net gain scale per product has also risen accordingly. In 2017, the maximum net gain scale of a single FOF (counted separately for different share classes) was less than 20 million yuan. In 2019, the profit scale of a single product began to exceed 100 million yuan, reaching 269 million yuan. By 2020, the profit scale of a single FOF was already close to 1 billion yuan. However, by the end of 2025, the profit scale of a single FOF had not yet broken through 1 billion yuan.

Diversification characteristics have become even more pronounced

The underlying assets of public-fund FOFs mainly consist of public funds. Over the past 9 years, changes in profit scale are closely related to the underlying market environment and active equity funds among other assets. In addition, changes in FOF profit scale are also associated with the expansion of FOF products and innovation in product formats. As of now, FOF product formats have covered types such as retirement FOFs; the underlying assets have also expanded from active equity funds initially to public REITs, making the diversification characteristics increasingly evident.

According to Wind statistics, based on 2025 annual report data, including the top ten largest holdings, as of last year-end there were more than 3,500 funds in the entire market that are held by public-fund FOFs. Looking at the full year, the asset class most favored by FOFs still is passive index funds. Among them, the Hu’an Gold ETF had more than 200 FOF positions, with holding shares of over 224 million and a market value of more than 2 billion yuan. In addition, there are four other ETFs whose FOF holding counts are also above 100: Haitong PRC Short-Term Financing ETF (海富通中证短融ETF), Pengyang China Bond 30-Year Treasury ETF (鹏扬中债30年期国债ETF), Huaxia Hang Seng Tech ETF (华夏恒生科技ETF), and 广发中证港股通非银行金融主题ETF.

Compared with the 2025 half-year reports, among the above five ETFs, four of them received FOF increases. Specifically, the FOF increase for Huaxia Hang Seng Tech ETF and 广发中证港股通非银行金融主题ETF exceeded 400 million shares and 100 million shares, respectively. However, the Hu’an Gold ETF was reduced by FOFs by 1.53M shares in the second half of last year. In addition, in the second half of last year, FOFs also increased positions in futures ETFs: the Huaxia Feed Soybean Meal Futures ETF increased by more than 17 million shares, and the Dacheng Nonferrous Metals Futures ETF increased by more than 170 million shares.

In terms of holdings ranking from 11th to 20th, FOFs still favor ETFs, including some equity-themed ETFs such as the J.P. Morgan? Wait—嘉实上证科创板芯片ETF and 易方达中证香港证券投资主题ETF. Besides that, the active equity funds that FOFs favored early on are also included in the 11th to 20th positions in FOF holdings, such as 富国稳健增长 and 景顺长城品质长青.

One point worth mentioning is that in the complete holdings disclosed in the 2025 annual reports, FOFs’ panoramic holdings of public REITs are shown. As of the end of 2025, there were 38 public REITs with FOF positions, with total holding shares exceeding 95 million. Among them, the most favored by FOFs is the CICC Prologis Warehousing and Logistics REIT, with FOF holdings in 17 funds. Products such as China Aviation Industry Holding Beijing Shougang Biomass REIT, Huaxia Beijing Affordable Housing REIT, and CICC Anhui Jiao? Wait—中金安徽交控REIT also have FOF holding counts of more than 10 each.

In the second quarter, FOFs are more cautious about gold assets

At the time the FOF annual reports were released, the market had already entered the second quarter, with a time span between the two of as long as three months. Based on the latest projections from FOF investment and research personnel, their focus in the second quarter had also shown a significant difference from the end of 2025. The most obvious point is that the gold assets that were highly favored in 2025 have, for the second quarter of 2026, prompted FOF forecasts that are already relatively cautious.

Zhang Yun, head of the FOF investment department at Everbright-Prudential Fund, said that recent changes have occurred in the gold market. Expectations of U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts moving back and forth could negatively affect gold prices. However, in the first quarter, the market saw multiple rounds of sharp sell-offs, showing that asset crowding is high and liquidity problems have emerged; the original safe-haven attributes have failed. Gold is currently in a slow recovery phase. After a large sell-off, the composition of positions has to some extent been cleared, but risk-return characteristics such as volatility and Sharpe ratio have been completely different from the past two years. It still takes some time and catalysts to re-enter an upward channel.

Zhang Yun added that in 2026, more attention should be paid to risk control—especially the tail risk of a sell-off under a multi-asset synchronized decline, including scenarios where the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury yields rise in phases and expectations of tighter liquidity increase. This includes assets such as gold and U.S. stocks that previously showed high Sharpe ratios; it will be difficult for them to continue maintaining past levels this year. Assets such as soybean meal are not currently under as much attention. Agricultural product (000061) assets with a relatively good position structure are worth focusing on.

The YN?—YIMI Eastern Gold? Wait—盈米东方金匠投顾 team stated that from the perspective of actual execution, for gold assets what they conduct is more tactical adjustment rather than structural changes to the overall allocation framework. This is mainly based on the fact that there have been significant gains beforehand and the team’s expectation that volatility of gold prices will rise in the future. At the same time, the team increased allocation to absolute return strategies, such as CTA strategies and multi-strategy FOF products. These strategies have stronger adaptability under different market environments, and can also provide more stable performance in stages with higher uncertainty.

“If we look from the angle of diversified asset allocation, the team’s ranking for gold is still relatively high, but the possibility of making new highs in the short term is not large. Going forward, we will continue to monitor gold’s position crowding and the degree of price drawdown to judge the timing of buying. At present, gold’s implied volatility remains in a relatively high position; the cost-effectiveness of investing in gold declines over the next period. In the short term, the downside risks may be greater than the upside risks,” said He Zhe, chief investment officer of FOF at HSBC Jintrust Fund.

(责任编辑：李悦 ）

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