Is ETF the new battleground? Several prominent retail investors rank among the top three holders, focusing on these areas.

Reporter | Ren Fei Editor | Zhao Yun

By 2025, the annual reports of public funds have been released, and the top ten fund holders are also revealed. Unlike the previous deep involvement of institutions in ETFs, more and more individual investors are also holding large positions in ETFs.

The “Daily Economic News” reporter noticed that several prominent retail investors have already become among the top three holders, highlighting their pricing influence. Moreover, some investors hold only one ETF, showing a clear characteristic of heavy industry bets.

In terms of industry distribution, healthcare, technology semiconductors, and overseas indices are key investment directions. Industry insiders believe that compared to the investment style of heavy holdings in small- and mid-cap stocks, ETFs have advantages in liquidity and stable returns, and their low fees create conditions for low-cost, steady investing.

Recently, the 2025 annual reports of public funds have been disclosed, and the latest data on ETF holder structures with high attention has been compiled. Among the top ten holders, individual investors are particularly noteworthy, frequently appearing in the “top ten,” with several prominent investors also ranking among the top three holders.

Wind statistics show that, based on the number of holdings and market value at the end of the period among the top ten investors, several prominent investors are included, such as Ge Suqin, Zhang Junhong, and Di Yanping.

Ge Suqin’s investment choices are quite representative. This prominent investor holds 1.05B shares, making her the second-largest holder of GF’s Hong Kong-listed innovative drug ETF. Previously, Ge Suqin often ranked among the top ten circulating shareholders in A-shares, but she had previously focused more on tech stocks like Far East Transmission, Changxin Bichuang, and Jaxing Feihong, and entered the top ten circulating shareholders of these stocks in the third quarter of 2023.

This time, her heavy investment in ETFs focusing on Hong Kong’s innovative drug sector is different from before. In terms of investment categories, through ETF allocations, her funds can be dispersed across multiple innovative drug companies within the industry, significantly reducing the impact of fluctuations in any single stock on the overall portfolio. Wind data shows that GF’s Hong Kong-listed innovative drug ETF gained 64.69% in 2025.

Coincidentally, Zhang Junhong, who holds 414 million shares of healthcare ETFs from Huabao, and Di Yanping, who holds 339 million shares of semiconductor ETFs from Guolian An, also choose to achieve exposure to quality sectors through industry ETFs rather than betting on individual stocks. In the third quarter of 2025, Zhang Junhong became a new top ten circulating shareholder of Hongbo Co., and Di Yanping ranked as the fourth-largest circulating shareholder of Taiji Group in the mid-year report of 2025.

Many other prominent investors also focus heavily on ETFs, but their holdings vary significantly. Several individual investors hold more than 300 million shares, with Di Yanping and Ge Suqin each holding over 1 billion shares. Many investors have more dispersed holdings, with some holding between 1 million and 5 million shares.

Additionally, based on the ranking of holdings by share amount, many of the top ten individual investors or prominent investors are among the top three holders within ETFs, highlighting their pricing influence. Industry insiders believe that the shift in investment preferences among prominent investors is not accidental but a rational response to changing market conditions.

In the past, prominent investors achieved excess returns through in-depth research of individual stocks’ fundamentals and keen market insights. However, with the full implementation of the registration system, increased market volatility, and frequent black swan events in individual stocks, the risk-return ratio of traditional stock trading has continued to decline. ETFs’ advantages have gradually become more prominent, making them the “new favorite” of these investors.

Compared to the investment style of heavy holdings in small- and mid-cap stocks, ETFs excel in liquidity and stable returns, and their low fees facilitate low-cost, steady investing.

In fact, many public fund FOFs are currently adopting strategies that mainly invest in ETFs, especially combining broad-based ETFs and industry ETFs to implement a “core + satellite” investment approach. According to the 2025 annual report data, many prominent investors’ ETF allocations also reflect this strategy.

For example, Di Yanping’s disclosed holdings include the ChiNext 50 ETF from Huaxia, the Communication ETF from Guotai, and the Semiconductor ETF from Guolian An, balancing broad market and industry index exposure; Su Weidong has allocated products like the Hang Seng Tech ETF from Huxtai and the Hang Seng ETF from Ping An, and is the first major holder. Additionally, Li Jiandong and Teng Wei have also allocated multiple ETFs, many of which are among the top ten circulating shareholders.

Of course, some investors focus solely on specific sectors, with healthcare being a key focus. Zhang Junhong and Zhang Shaofen both adopt a “full position in a single ETF” strategy. Zhang Junhong holds 414 million shares, ranking as the third-largest holder of Huabao’s healthcare ETF, while Zhang Shaofen holds 236 million shares of E Fund’s medical ETF, ranking seventh among the major holders.

Siyin Fund’s analysis points out that regarding the healthcare sector, innovative drugs remain the main theme, with the sector still in rapid growth, and more companies expected to turn profitable this year; the upstream recovery trend of CXO and scientific services is relatively certain; and as policy disruptions gradually clear, domestic demand for some medical device companies is expected to recover continuously, with outbound expansion logic also likely to be sustained.

Of course, some investors build “Hang Seng series ETF portfolios,” such as Su Weidong, who holds many Hong Kong stocks ETFs. Additionally, many individual investors (or prominent investors) have heavy positions in technology sectors like robotics, internet, and semiconductors, showing their optimistic outlook on valuation recovery opportunities in these sectors.

Looking ahead, as ETF categories continue to diversify, prominent investors’ allocations are expected to become more refined. Based on current holdings, core areas of interest will remain in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, innovative drugs, medical devices, and the internet and technology sectors in Hong Kong stocks. Industry insiders remind ordinary investors to learn from prominent investors’ sector selection logic but to control their positions according to their own risk tolerance and avoid blindly following trends or overly concentrated allocations.

Appendix: Statistics on prominent investors’ ETF holdings (based on 2025 fund annual reports), data source: Wind

Cover image source: AIGC

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