> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.focusalpha.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# ETF Wrapper Tiers

> The nine mutually exclusive ETF wrapper tiers — plain beta, leveraged/inverse, structured outcome, option income, physical commodity, futures commodity, crypto, currency, alternative — and the exposure_hidden flag.

The ETF wrapper tier says what kind of instrument a fund is, independently of what it holds. It is one of two label systems FocusAlpha assigns to every ETF — the other is the [four-level holdings taxonomy](/etf/taxonomy) — and it has nine mutually exclusive values. A leveraged fund on the Nasdaq-100 and a plain index fund on the Nasdaq-100 hold related exposure but are completely different instruments; the wrapper tier is the label that separates them.

<Info>
  **Plan:** Fund · **Credits:** 1 per call; the screen facets endpoint that counts funds per tier is free
</Info>

## The Nine ETF Wrapper Tiers

`plain_beta` — an unlevered fund whose holdings are the exposure. The large majority of the US-listed universe.

`leveraged_inverse` — the fund's daily return is a multiple (positive or negative) of an underlying's daily return, delivered through swaps or futures. These funds reset daily and reverse-split routinely; see [ETF Splits](/etf/splits).

`structured_outcome` — defined-outcome ("buffer") funds that shape the payoff of an underlying with option spreads: capped upside in exchange for a downside buffer, over a stated outcome period.

`option_income` — funds that hold an underlying (or synthetic exposure to it) and sell options against it to generate distributable premium — covered-call and put-write funds.

`physical_commodity` — the fund holds the metal or commodity itself in vaults (gold, silver trusts).

`futures_commodity` — commodity exposure held through futures contracts rather than the physical, with the roll mechanics that implies.

`crypto` — funds whose exposure is a digital asset, whether held spot or through futures.

`currency` — funds whose exposure is foreign exchange.

`alternative` — hedge-fund-style wrappers that fit none of the above: managed futures, market neutral, merger arbitrage and similar strategies in an ETF.

## The exposure\_hidden Flag

Alongside the tier, every fund carries `exposure_hidden`. When it is `true`, the market values in the fund's [holdings](/etf/holdings) are margin or option premium rather than economic exposure — the holdings of a 3x fund sum to roughly flat, and a buffer fund's book is a stack of option legs. On such funds, exposure analysis must read `notional_value`, and summing `market_value` as "the portfolio" is wrong by construction. Leveraged/inverse, structured-outcome and option-income funds are where this flag concentrates.

## Wrapper Tier Versus the Holdings Taxonomy

The two label systems answer different questions and are stored side by side, never merged. The wrapper tier says what kind of thing the fund **is**; the [four-level taxonomy](/etf/taxonomy) says what its holdings **show**. A 2x semiconductor fund is `leveraged_inverse` on the wrapper axis and `equity.leveraged_inverse.sector_technology` on the taxonomy axis. Filtering on one axis says nothing about the other, and [ETF Screening](/etf/screening) accepts both at once.

## ETF Wrapper Tier Sources

The wrapper tier is derived by FocusAlpha from the fund's filed structure — the prospectus objective, the filed leveraged/inverse and index flags — and from the shape of its holdings. It is recomputed on the same monthly cadence as the taxonomy; the fund's label-change history dates every switch.

## Query ETF Wrapper Tiers

A fund's tier is returned in the `labels` block of the [ETF profile](/etf/overview). To select funds by tier, pass `tier` to the [ETF screen](/etf/screening) as a comma-separated list — see [Screen ETFs by Wrapper and Structure](/screening/etf/by-wrapper).

## Related Datasets

See also [ETF Classification](/etf/classification) for how the two label systems fit together, [ETF Taxonomy](/etf/taxonomy) for the holdings-derived labels, and [ETF Holdings](/etf/holdings) for reading an exposure-hidden book correctly.

<RequestExample>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl "https://api.focusalpha.ai/v1/etfs/screen?tier=leveraged_inverse,structured_outcome&sort=aum" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOCUSALPHA_API_KEY"
  ```
</RequestExample>

<ResponseExample>
  ```json labels block (TQQQ) theme={null}
  {
    "labels": {
      "wrapper": {
        "tier": "leveraged_inverse",
        "exposure_hidden": true
      },
      "asset_class": {
        "code": "equity",
        "label": "Equity",
        "semantic": "What the fund holds: equity exposure >= l1_dominant_exposure_min of non-cash weight"
      },
      "category": {
        "code": "equity.leveraged_inverse",
        "label": "Leveraged / Inverse",
        "semantic": "Tier: daily leveraged or inverse (vendor flags, cross-checked with N-CEN multi/inverse)"
      },
      "segment": {
        "code": "equity.leveraged_inverse.nasdaq_100",
        "label": "Nasdaq-100",
        "semantic": "Segment: the underlying the packaging is applied to. Nasdaq-100"
      },
      "specializations": [
        {
          "code": "equity.leveraged_inverse.lev_3x",
          "label": "3x"
        }
      ],
      "declared": {
        "name": "ProShares UltraPro QQQ",
        "multi_inverse_index": true,
        "is_index": true,
        "is_fund_of_fund": null
      },
      "labels_as_of": {
        "holdings_as_of": null,
        "label_since": "2026-09-01T00:00:00.000Z"
      },
      "status": "available"
    }
  }
  ```
</ResponseExample>