SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy.

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Chinese securities and in the consumer, discretionary and staples sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sectors. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country,

industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand; competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in China and Risks Related to Investing in the Consumer Discretionary Sector .

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if China's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

 

Emerging Markets Risk: China is an emerging market country, which may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

 

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

 

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in China, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to China, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in China. China is located in a part of the world that has historically been prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis, and is economically sensitive to environmental events.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be

deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

 

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Nationalization Risk: Investments in China may be subject to loss due to expropriation or nationalization of assets and property or the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments and repatriation of capital.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

 

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index,

even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: China has privatized, or has begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Chinese economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Chinese economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risk of Investing in Hong Kong: Investments in Hong Kong issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security, and economic risk specific to Hong Kong. China is Hong Kong’s largest trading partner, both in terms of exports and imports. Any changes in the Chinese economy, trade regulations or currency exchange rates, or a tightening of China’s control over Hong Kong, may have an adverse impact on Hong Kong’s economy.

Risks Related to Investing in China: Investment exposure to China subjects the Fund to risks specific to China. China may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability. China is an emerging market and demonstrates significantly higher volatility from time to time in comparison to developed markets. Over the past 25 years, the Chinese government has undertaken reform of economic and market practices and expansion of the sphere for private ownership of property in China. However, Chinese markets generally continue to experience inefficiency, volatility and pricing anomalies resulting from governmental influence, a lack of publicly available information and/or political and social instability. Internal social unrest or confrontations with other neighboring countries, including military conflicts in response to such events, may also disrupt economic development in China and result in a greater risk of currency fluctuations, currency convertibility, interest rate fluctuations and higher rates of inflation. Export growth continues to be a major driver of China’s rapid economic growth. Reduction in spending on Chinese products and services, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers, or a downturn in any of the economies of China’s key trading partners may have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. The recent presidential election in the U.S. may have increased the probability of new trade regulations and other protective trade measures being implemented in relation to China.  While policy implications remain uncertain, new regulations or trade barriers could lead to a decrease in trade activity between China and the U.S., which could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. China has implemented a number of tax reforms in recent years, and may amend or revise its existing tax laws and/or procedures in the future, possibly with retroactive effect. Changes in applicable Chinese tax law could reduce the after-tax profits of the Fund, directly or indirectly, including by reducing the after-tax profits of companies in China in which the Fund invests. Uncertainties in Chinese tax rules could result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

Risks Related to Investing in the Consumer Discretionary Sector: The consumer discretionary sector may be affected by changes in domestic and international economies, exchange and interest rates, competition, consumers’ disposable income and consumer preferences, social trends and marketing campaigns.

Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves a risk of loss because the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. If the Fund is not able to recover the securities loaned, it may sell the collateral and purchase a replacement security in the market. Lending securities entails a risk of loss to the Fund if and to the extent that the market value of the loaned securities increases and the collateral is not increased accordingly. Additionally, the Fund will bear any loss on the investment of cash collateral it receives. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. As securities on loan may not be voted by the Fund, there is a risk that the Fund may not be able to recall the securities in sufficient time to vote on material proxy matters.

 

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result

because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: A decrease in U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates or an economic slowdown in the United States may have an adverse impact on China's economy and, as a result, securities to which the Fund has exposure.

 

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy.

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Chinese securities and in the energy and utilities sectors, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sectors. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and

demand; competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in China , Risks Related to Investing in the Energy Sector , and Risks Related to Investing in the Utilities Sector .

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if China's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: China is an emerging market country, which may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

 

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in China, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to China, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in China. China is located in a part of the world that has historically been prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis, and is economically sensitive to environmental events.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Nationalization Risk: Investments in China may be subject to loss due to expropriation or nationalization of assets and property or the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments and repatriation of capital.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

 

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: China has privatized, or has begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Chinese economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Chinese economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risk of Investing in Hong Kong: Investments in Hong Kong issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security, and economic risk specific to Hong Kong. China is Hong Kong’s largest trading partner, both in terms of exports and imports. Any changes in the Chinese economy, trade regulations or currency exchange rates, or a tightening of China’s control over Hong Kong, may have an adverse impact on Hong Kong’s economy.

Risks Related to Investing in China: Investment exposure to China subjects the Fund to risks specific to China. China may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability. China is an emerging market and demonstrates significantly higher volatility from time to time in comparison to developed markets. Over the past 25 years, the Chinese government has undertaken reform of economic and market practices and expansion of the sphere for private ownership of property in China. However, Chinese markets generally continue to experience inefficiency, volatility and pricing anomalies resulting from governmental influence, a lack of publicly available information and/or political and social instability. Internal social unrest or confrontations with other neighboring countries, including military conflicts in response to such events, may also disrupt economic development in China and result in a greater risk of currency fluctuations, currency convertibility, interest rate fluctuations and higher rates of inflation. Export growth continues to be a major driver of China’s rapid economic growth. Reduction in spending on Chinese products and services, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers, or a downturn in any of the economies of China’s key trading partners may have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. The recent presidential election in the U.S. may have increased the probability of new trade regulations and other protective trade measures being implemented in relation to China.  While policy implications remain uncertain, new regulations or trade barriers could lead to a decrease in trade activity between China and the U.S., which could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. China has implemented a number of tax reforms in recent years, and may amend or revise its existing tax laws and/or procedures in the future, possibly with retroactive effect. Changes in applicable Chinese tax law could reduce the after-tax profits of the Fund, directly or indirectly, including by reducing the after-tax profits of companies in China in which the Fund invests. Uncertainties in Chinese tax rules could result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

 

Risks Related to Investing in the Energy Sector: The value of securities issued by companies in the energy sector may decline for many reasons, including, without limitation, changes in energy prices; international politics; energy conservation; the success of exploration projects; natural disasters or other catastrophes; changes in exchange rates, interest rates, or economic conditions; changes in demand for energy products and services; and tax and other government regulatory policies.

Risks Related to Investing in the Utilities Sector: Companies in the utilities sector may be adversely affected by changes in exchange rates, domestic and international competition and governmental regulations on rates charged to customers. Privatization in the utilities sector may subject companies to greater competition and losses in profitability. Companies in the utilities industry may have difficulty obtaining an adequate return on invested capital, raising capital, or financing large construction programs during periods of inflation or unsettled capital markets. In addition, companies in the utilities sector may be adversely affected due to increase in fuel and operating costs and the costs of complying with regulations.

 

Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Compared to mid- and large-capitalization companies, small-capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid.

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result

because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk : A decrease in U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates or an economic slowdown in the United States may have an adverse impact on China's economy and, as a result, securities to which the Fund has exposure.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy.

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Chinese securities and in the financials sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand;

competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in China and Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector .

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if China's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: China is an emerging market country, which may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

 

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in China, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to China, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in China. China is located in a part of the world that has historically been prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis, and is economically sensitive to environmental events.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Nationalization Risk: Investments in China may be subject to loss due to expropriation or nationalization of assets and property or the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments and repatriation of capital.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: China has privatized, or has begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Chinese economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Chinese economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risk of Investing in Hong Kong: Investments in Hong Kong issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security, and economic risk specific to Hong Kong. China is Hong Kong’s largest trading partner, both in terms of exports and imports. Any changes in the Chinese economy, trade regulations or currency exchange rates, or a tightening of China’s control over Hong Kong, may have an adverse impact on Hong Kong’s economy.

Risks Related to Investing in China: Investment exposure to China subjects the Fund to risks specific to China. China may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability. China is an emerging market and demonstrates significantly higher volatility from time to time in comparison to developed markets. Over the past 25 years, the Chinese government has undertaken reform of economic and market practices and expansion of the sphere for private ownership of property in China. However, Chinese markets generally continue to experience inefficiency, volatility and pricing anomalies resulting from governmental influence, a lack of publicly available information and/or political and social instability. Internal social unrest or confrontations with other neighboring countries, including military conflicts in response to such events, may also disrupt economic development in China and result in a greater risk of currency fluctuations, currency convertibility, interest rate fluctuations and higher rates of inflation. Export growth continues to be a major driver of China’s rapid economic growth. Reduction in spending on Chinese products and services, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers, or a downturn in any of the economies of China’s key trading partners may have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. The recent presidential election in the U.S. may have increased the probability of new trade regulations and other protective trade measures being implemented in relation to China.  While policy implications remain uncertain, new regulations or trade barriers could lead to a decrease in trade activity between China and the U.S., which could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. China has implemented a number of tax reforms in recent years, and may amend or revise its existing tax laws and/or procedures in the future, possibly with retroactive effect. Changes in applicable Chinese tax law could reduce the after-tax profits of the Fund, directly or indirectly, including by reducing the after-tax profits of companies in China in which the Fund invests. Uncertainties in Chinese tax rules could result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector: Performance of companies in the financials sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. Chinese financial sector regulation and ownership may be more intrusive than in the United States and other developed countries, especially with respect to the regulation of non-Chinese banks and other non-Chinese financial companies. Greater Chinese governmental involvement in the financial sector may pose additional risks for investors. Market conditions in China may be particularly subject to change based on government policy. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.

 

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: A decrease in U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates or an economic slowdown in the United States may have an adverse impact on China's economy and, as a result, securities to which the Fund has exposure.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy.

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Chinese securities and in the industrials sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand;

competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in China and Risks Related to Investing in the Industrials Sector .  

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if China's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: China is an emerging market country, which may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

 

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in China, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to China, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in China. China is located in a part of the world that has historically been prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis, and is economically sensitive to environmental events.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Nationalization Risk: Investments in China may be subject to loss due to expropriation or nationalization of assets and property or the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments and repatriation of capital.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.  

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: China has privatized, or has begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Chinese economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Chinese economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risks Related to Investing in China: Investment exposure to China subjects the Fund to risks specific to China. China may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability. China is an emerging market and demonstrates significantly higher volatility from time to time in comparison to developed markets. Over the past 25 years, the Chinese government has undertaken reform of economic and market practices and expansion of the sphere for private ownership of property in China. However, Chinese markets generally continue to experience inefficiency, volatility and pricing anomalies resulting from governmental influence, a lack of publicly available information and/or political and social instability. Internal social unrest or confrontations with other neighboring countries, including military conflicts in response to such events, may also disrupt economic development in China and result in a greater risk of currency fluctuations, currency convertibility, interest rate fluctuations and higher rates of inflation. Export growth continues to be a major driver of China’s rapid economic growth. Reduction in spending on Chinese products and services, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers, or a downturn in any of the economies of China’s key trading partners may have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. The recent presidential election in the U.S. may have increased the probability of new trade regulations and other protective trade measures being implemented in relation to China.  While policy implications remain uncertain, new regulations or trade barriers could lead to a decrease in trade activity between China and the U.S., which could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. China has implemented a number of tax reforms in recent years, and may amend or revise its existing tax laws and/or procedures in the future, possibly with retroactive effect. Changes in applicable Chinese tax law could reduce the after-tax profits of the Fund, directly or indirectly, including by reducing the after-tax profits of companies in China in which the Fund invests. Uncertainties in Chinese tax rules could result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

 

Risks Related to Investing in the Industrials Sector: Companies in the industrials sector are subject to fluctuations in supply and demand for their specific product or service. The products of manufacturing companies may face product obsolescence due to rapid technological developments. Government regulation, world events and economic conditions affect the performance of companies in the industrials sector. Companies also may be adversely affected by environmental damage and product liability claims.

 

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: A decrease in U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates or an economic slowdown in the United States may have an adverse impact on China's economy and, as a result, securities to which the Fund has exposure.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or

that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy.

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Chinese securities and in the materials sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand;

competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in China and Risks Related to Investing in the Materials Sector . 

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if China's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: China is an emerging market country, which may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

 

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in China, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to China, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in China. China is located in a part of the world that has historically been prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis, and is economically sensitive to environmental events.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Nationalization Risk: Investments in China may be subject to loss due to expropriation or nationalization of assets and property or the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments and repatriation of capital.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: China has privatized, or has begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Chinese economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Chinese economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risk of Investing in Hong Kong: Investments in Hong Kong issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security, and economic risk specific to Hong Kong. China is Hong Kong’s largest trading partner, both in terms of exports and imports. Any changes in the Chinese economy, trade regulations or currency exchange rates, or a tightening of China’s control over Hong Kong, may have an adverse impact on Hong Kong’s economy.

Risks Related to Investing in China: Investment exposure to China subjects the Fund to risks specific to China. China may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability. China is an emerging market and demonstrates significantly higher volatility from time to time in comparison to developed markets. Over the past 25 years, the Chinese government has undertaken reform of economic and market practices and expansion of the sphere for private ownership of property in China. However, Chinese markets generally continue to experience inefficiency, volatility and pricing anomalies resulting from governmental influence, a lack of publicly available information and/or political and social instability. Internal social unrest or confrontations with other neighboring countries, including military conflicts in response to such events, may also disrupt economic development in China and result in a greater risk of currency fluctuations, currency convertibility, interest rate fluctuations and higher rates of inflation. Export growth continues to be a major driver of China’s rapid economic growth. Reduction in spending on Chinese products and services, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers, or a downturn in any of the economies of China’s key trading partners may have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. The recent presidential election in the U.S. may have increased the probability of new trade regulations and other protective trade measures being implemented in relation to China.  While policy implications remain uncertain, new regulations or trade barriers could lead to a decrease in trade activity between China and the U.S., which could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. China has implemented a number of tax reforms in recent years, and may amend or revise its existing tax laws and/or procedures in the future, possibly with retroactive effect. Changes in applicable Chinese tax law could reduce the after-tax profits of the Fund, directly or indirectly, including by reducing the after-tax profits of companies in China in which the Fund invests. Uncertainties in Chinese tax rules could result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

 

Risks Related to Investing in the Materials Sector: Investments in securities of companies in the materials sector are subject to changes in commodity prices, exchange rates, import controls and worldwide competition. At times, worldwide production of industrial materials has exceeded demand, leading to poor investment returns or outright losses. Issuers in the materials sector are at risk of depletion of resources, technological progress, labor relations, governmental regulations and environmental damage and product liability claims.

   

Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Compared to mid- and large-capitalization companies, small-capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid.

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain

securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: A decrease in U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates or an economic slowdown in the United States may have an adverse impact on China's economy and, as a result, securities to which the Fund has exposure.

 

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy.

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Chinese securities and in the information technology sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect

supply and demand; competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in China and Risks Related to Investing in the Information Technology Sector .  

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if China's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: China is an emerging market country, which may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

 

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in China, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to China, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in China. China is located in a part of the world that has historically been prone to natural disasters such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, typhoons or tsunamis, and is economically sensitive to environmental events.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.  

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Nationalization Risk: Investments in China may be subject to loss due to expropriation or nationalization of assets and property or the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments and repatriation of capital.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.  

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: China has privatized, or has begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Chinese economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Chinese economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risks Related to Investing in China: Investment exposure to China subjects the Fund to risks specific to China. China may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability. China is an emerging market and demonstrates significantly higher volatility from time to time in comparison to developed markets. Over the past 25 years, the Chinese government has undertaken reform of economic and market practices and expansion of the sphere for private ownership of property in China. However, Chinese markets generally continue to experience inefficiency, volatility and pricing anomalies resulting from governmental influence, a lack of publicly available information and/or political and social instability. Internal social unrest or confrontations with other neighboring countries, including military conflicts in response to such events, may also disrupt economic development in China and result in a greater risk of currency fluctuations, currency convertibility, interest rate fluctuations and higher rates of inflation. Export growth continues to be a major driver of China’s rapid economic growth. Reduction in spending on Chinese products and services, institution of tariffs or other trade barriers, or a downturn in any of the economies of China’s key trading partners may have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. The recent presidential election in the U.S. may have increased the probability of new trade regulations and other protective trade measures being implemented in relation to China.  While policy implications remain uncertain, new regulations or trade barriers could lead to a decrease in trade activity between China and the U.S., which could have an adverse impact on the Chinese economy. China has implemented a number of tax reforms in recent years, and may amend or revise its existing tax laws and/or procedures in the future, possibly with retroactive effect. Changes in applicable Chinese tax law could reduce the after-tax profits of the Fund, directly or indirectly, including by reducing the after-tax profits of companies in China in which the Fund invests. Uncertainties in Chinese tax rules could result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

 

Risks Related to Investing in the Information Technology Sector: Companies in the technology sector are subject to rapid changes in technology product cycles; rapid product obsolescence; government regulation; and increased competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology tend to be more volatile than the overall market, and are also are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights. In addition, technology companies may have limited product lines, markets, financial resources or personnel.

Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Compared to mid- and large-capitalization companies, small-capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid.

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

 

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: A decrease in U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates or an economic slowdown in the United States may have an adverse impact on China's economy and, as a result, securities to which the Fund has exposure.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the economy of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Cash Transaction Risk: Unlike most exchange traded funds ("ETFs"), the Fund intends to effect primarily all creations and redemptions principally for cash, rather than in-kind securities. As a result, an investment in the Fund may be less tax-efficient than an investment in a more conventional ETF.

Commodity Exposure Risk: The Fund invests in securities and markets that are susceptible to fluctuations in certain commodity markets. Any negative changes in commodity markets could have a great impact on these economies.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in ASEAN related securities and in the financials sector, the Fund will be susceptible to losses due to adverse occurrences affecting these countries or sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand; competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in the ASEAN Region and Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector .

Currency Risk: The Fund may invest in securities denominated in foreign currencies. Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if the ASEAN currencies depreciate against the U.S. dollar.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: The Fund is expected to invest in securities in the following emerging market countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The Fund’s investments in emerging market countries may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in Southeast Asia, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to Southeast Asia, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in Southeast Asia.

 

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

 

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder

purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: Economies in emerging market countries generally are dependent heavily upon commodity prices and international trade and, accordingly, may be affected adversely by the economies of their trading partners, trade barriers, exchange controls, managed adjustments in relative currency values, and may suffer from extreme and volatile debt burdens or inflation rates. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , European Economic Risk , and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risk of Investing in Indonesia: Investments in Indonesian issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security and economic risk specific to Indonesia. Among other things, the Indonesian economy is heavily dependent on trading relationships with certain key trading partners, including China, Japan, Singapore and the United States.

Risk of Investing in Malaysia: Investments in Malaysian issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency and economic risk specific to Malaysia. Among other things, Malaysia’s economy is heavily dependent on trading relationships with certain key trading partners, including the United States, China, Japan and Singapore. Reduction in spending on Malaysian products and services, or economic or other changes in the U.S. or any of the Asian economies, trade regulations or currency exchange rates may have an adverse impact on the Malaysian economy.

Risk of Investing in Singapore: Investments in Singaporean issuers involve risks that are specific to Singapore, including legal, regulatory, political and economic risks. In addition, because Singapore’s economy is export-driven, Singapore relies heavily on its trading partners. Political and economic developments of Singapore's neighbors may have an adverse effect on Singapore's economy.

Risk of Investing in Thailand: Investments in Thai issuers may subject the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security, and economic risks specific to Thailand. Among other things, Thailand’s economy is heavily dependent on trading relationships with certain key trading partners, including the United States, China, Japan and other Asian countries.

Risks Related to Investing in the ASEAN Region: Investments in the ASEAN region involve risks not typically associated with investments in securities of issuers in more developed countries that may negatively affect the value of your investment in the Fund. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines present different economic and political conditions from those in Western markets, and less social, political and economic stability. In the past, some of these economies have experienced high interest rates, economic volatility, inflation, currency devaluations and high unemployment rates. Political instability could have an adverse effect on economic or social conditions in these economies and may result in outbreaks of civil unrest, terrorist attacks or threats or acts of war in the affected areas, any of which could materially and adversely affect the companies in which the Fund may invest.

 

Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector: Performance of companies in the financials sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.

Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves a risk of loss because the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. If the Fund is not able to recover the securities loaned, it may sell the collateral and purchase a replacement security in the market. Lending securities entails a risk of loss to the Fund if and to the extent that the market value of the loaned securities increases and the collateral is not increased accordingly. Additionally, the Fund will bear any loss on the investment of cash collateral it receives. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. As securities on loan may not be voted by the Fund, there is a risk that the Fund may not be able to recall the securities in sufficient time to vote on material proxy matters.

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result

because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

 

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: Decreasing U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates, a recession in the United States or continued increases in foreclosures rates may have an adverse impact on the economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

 

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Cash Transaction Risk: Unlike most exchange traded funds ("ETFs"), the Fund intends to effect primarily all creations and redemptions principally for cash, rather than in-kind securities. As a result, an investment in the Fund may be less tax-efficient than an investment in a more conventional ETF.

Commodity Exposure Risk: The Fund invests in Colombian securities, which are susceptible to fluctuations in certain commodity markets. Any negative changes in commodity markets could have a great impact on the Colombian economy.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Colombian securities and in the financials sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country and sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand; competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in Colombia and Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector .

 

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if Colombia's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: Colombia is an emerging market country. Emerging markets may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in Colombia, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to Colombia, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in Colombia.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the

Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.  

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

Latin American Economic Risk: The economy of Colombia is affected by the economies of Latin American countries, some of which have experienced high interest rates, economic volatility, inflation, currency devaluations and high unemployment rates. Any adverse economic event in one country can have a significant effect on other countries of this region.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

 

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index,

even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Colombian economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Latin American Economic Risk and U.S. Economic Risk .

Risks Related to Investing in Colombia: Investment in Colombian issuers and companies that have significant operations in Colombia involves risks that are specific to Colombia, including legal, regulatory, political and economic risks. The Colombian economy has grown steadily during the past several years, but there can be no assurance that economic growth will continue. The Colombian economy depends heavily on oil, coal and other commodity exports, making it vulnerable to commodity prices.

Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector: Performance of companies in the financials sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.

Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves a risk of loss because the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. If the Fund is not able to recover the securities loaned, it may sell the collateral and purchase a replacement security in the market. Lending securities entails a risk of loss to the Fund if and to the extent that the market value of the loaned securities increases and the collateral is not increased accordingly. Additionally, the Fund will bear any loss on the investment of cash collateral it receives. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. As securities on loan may not be voted by the Fund, there is a risk that the Fund may not be able to recall the securities in sufficient time to vote on material proxy matters.

 

Security Risk: The country in which the Fund invests has experienced security concerns. Incidents involving a country's or region's security may cause uncertainty in Colombian markets and may adversely affect their economies and the Fund's investments.

Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Compared to mid- and large-capitalization companies, small-capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid.

Structural Risk: Colombia may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability.

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

 

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: Decreasing U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates, a recession in the United States or continued increases in foreclosures rates may have an adverse impact on the economy of Colombia.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Argentine Tax Treatment Uncertainty of ADRs:  Due to recent changes in Argentinian tax laws, the sale, exchange or other transfer of shares and other securities is subject to a capital gain tax at a rate of 15% for Argentine resident individuals and foreign beneficiaries. Many aspects of the amended tax law remain unclear, and pursuant to certain announcements made by Argentine tax authorities, they are subject to further rulemaking and interpretation, which may adversely affect the tax treatment of the Funds’ investments in Argentine ADRs. 

Asian Economic Risk: Decreasing Asian imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Asia or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the economy of Argentina.

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Argentinian securities and in the energy sector, the Fund will be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting this country or sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand; competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in Argentina and Risks Related to Investing in the Information Technology Sector .

 

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if Argentina's currency depreciates against the U.S. dollar.

 

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

 

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

Emerging Markets Risk: Argentina is an emerging market country. Emerging markets may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

Frontier Markets Risks: As of the date of this Prospectus, Argentina is a frontier market country. Frontier markets are those emerging markets that are considered to be among the smallest, least mature and least liquid, and as a result, may be more likely to experience inflation, political turmoil and rapid changes in economic conditions than more developed and traditional emerging markets. Investments in frontier markets may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in more developed and traditional emerging markets. Frontier markets often have less uniformity in accounting and reporting requirements, unreliable securities valuations and greater risk associated with custody of securities. Economic, political, liquidity and currency risks may be more pronounced with respect to investments in frontier markets than in emerging markets. Frontier markets countries generally have smaller economies or less developed capital markets than traditional emerging markets, and, as a result, the risks of investing in emerging markets countries are magnified in frontier countries. The economies of frontier countries are less correlated to global economic cycles than those of their more developed counterparts and their markets have low trading volumes and the potential for extreme price volatility and illiquidity. These factors make investing in frontier countries significantly riskier than in other countries and any one of them could cause the price of the Fund's Shares to decline.

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in Argentina, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to Argentina, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in Argentina.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk:   The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years.

 

Latin American Economic Risk: The economy of Argentina is affected by the economies of Latin American countries, some of which have experienced high interest rates, economic volatility, inflation, currency devaluations and high unemployment rates. Any adverse economic event in one country can have a significant effect on other countries of this region.

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

 

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

 

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Privatization Risk: Argentina have privatized, or have begun the process of privatizing, certain entities and industries. Privatized entities may lose money or be re-nationalized.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: The Fund invests in the Argentinean economy, which is heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading, including as a result of adverse economic conditions in a trading partner’s economy, may cause an adverse impact on the Argentinean economy in which the Fund invests. Through its portfolio companies' trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk , Latin American Economic Risk and U.S. Economic Risk .

 

Risk of Investing in Italy: The Fund’s investments in Italian issuers subjects the Fund to legal, regulatory, political, currency and economic risks specific to Italy. Among other things, Italy’s economy has been characterized by slow growth over the past few decades due to factors such as a high tax rate, rigid labor market and a generous pension system. Recently, the Italian government has experienced significant volatility and adverse trends due to concerns about economic downturn and rising government debt levels. Interest rates on Italy’s debt may rise to levels that may make it difficult for it to service high debt levels without significant financial help from the EU and could potentially lead to default. These events have adversely impacted the Italian economy, causing credit agencies to lower Italy’s sovereign debt rating and could decrease outside investment in Italian companies.

Risks Related to Investing in Argentina: Argentina has experienced high interest rates, economic volatility, inflation, currency devaluations and high unemployment rates. The economy is heavily dependent on exports and commodities. Argentina’s default on its debt in 2001, and its recent nationalization of private pensions, continues to impact the confidence of investors in Argentina, which might adversely impact returns in the Fund. In 2014, minority bondholders of Argentina’s previously defaulted debt sought, and won, an injunction that prohibited Argentina from repaying bonds that had been renegotiated, unless they simultaneously paid the holdout minority bondholders their full amount due as well. Argentina’s willingness and ability to repay its sovereign debt is currently in question, and the possibility of default is not unlikely, which could limit its ability to borrow in the future.

Risks Related to Investing in the Information Technology Sector: Companies in the technology sector are subject to rapid changes in technology product cycles; rapid product obsolescence; government regulation; and increased competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology tend to be more volatile than the overall market, and are also are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights. In addition, technology companies may have limited product lines, markets, financial resources or personnel.

Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Compared to mid- and large-capitalization companies, small-capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid.

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result

because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: Decreasing U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates, a recession in the United States or continued increases in foreclosures rates may have an adverse impact on the economy of Argentina.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RISKS

 

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ("NAV"), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective, as well as other risks that are described in greater detail in the Additional Information About the Funds section of this Prospectus and in the Statement of Additional Information ("SAI").

 

Asset Class Risk: Securities in the Underlying Index or otherwise held in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.

 

Asset Fluctuation Risk: Certain shareholders, including an Authorized Participant, the Adviser or an affiliate of the Adviser, may own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. Additionally, from time to time an Authorized Participant, a third party investor, the Adviser, or an affiliate of the Adviser may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time in order to facilitate commencement of the Fund’s operations or to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale.  Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund. If a large shareholder were to redeem all, or a large portion, of its shares, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to maintain sufficient assets to continue operations in which case the Board of Trustees may determine to liquidate the Fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on a national securities exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as "Authorized Participants" (as defined in the SAI). Only Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. To the extent that those Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders, and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem in either of those cases, Shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV, and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from an exchange. Authorized Participant Concentration Risk may be heightened because the Fund invests in non-U.S. securities.

Concentration Risk: Because the Fund's investments are concentrated in Greek securities and in the financials sector, the Fund will be susceptible to losses due to adverse occurrences affecting that country and sector. To the extent that the Underlying Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund will also concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in a country, industry, market, asset class, or sector, the Fund faces more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous countries, industries, markets, asset classes, or sectors. Such risks, any of which may adversely affect the companies in which the Fund invests, may include, but are not limited to, the following: general economic conditions or cyclical market patterns that could negatively affect supply and demand;

competition for resources; adverse labor relations; political or world events; obsolescence of technologies; and increased competition or new product introductions that may affect the profitability or viability of companies in a particular country, industry, market, asset class, or sector. In addition, at times, such country, industry, market, asset class, or sector may be out of favor and underperform other similar categories or the market as a whole. For additional details on these risks, please see Risks Related to Investing in Greece and Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector .

 

Currency Risk: Because the Fund's NAV is determined in U.S. dollars, the Fund's NAV could decline if the euro depreciates against the U.S. dollar or if there are delays or limits on repatriation of such currency. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the Fund's NAV may change quickly and without warning, which could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

Custody Risk: Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

Cyber Security Risk: Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund's business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherit limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund's service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.

 

Emerging Markets Risk: As of the date of this Prospectus, Greece is an emerging market country. Emerging markets may be subject to a greater risk of loss than investments in developed markets. Securities markets of emerging market countries are less liquid, subject to greater price volatility, have smaller market capitalizations, have less government regulation, and are not subject to as extensive and frequent accounting, financial, and other reporting requirements as the securities markets of more developed countries.

Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities are subject to changes in value and their values may be more volatile than other asset classes, as a result of such factors as a company’s business performance, investor perceptions, stock market trends and general economic conditions.

 

European Economic Risk: Decreasing European imports, new trade regulations, changes in exchange rates, a recession in Europe, or a slowing of economic growth in this region could have an adverse impact on the securities in which the Fund invests.

 

Foreign Securities Risk: The Fund's investments in foreign securities can be riskier than U.S. securities investments. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers (including investments in ADRs and GDRs) are subject to the risks associated with investing in those foreign markets, such as heightened risks of inflation or nationalization. The prices of foreign securities and the prices of U.S. securities have, at times, moved in opposite directions. In addition, securities of foreign issuers may lose value due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market. During periods of social, political or economic instability in a country or region, the value of a foreign security traded on U.S. exchanges could be affected by, among other things, increasing price volatility, illiquidity, or the closure of the primary market on which the security (or the security underlying the ADR or GDR) is traded. You may lose money due to political, economic and geographic events affecting a foreign issuer or market.

 

Geographic Risk: A natural or other disaster could occur in Greece, which could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies economically tied to Greece, causing an adverse impact on the Fund's investments in Greece.

Government Debt Risk: Greece currently has high levels of debt and public spending, which may stifle economic growth, contribute to prolonged periods of recession or lower Greece’s sovereign debt rating and adversely impact investments by the Fund.

Index-Related Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders.

International Closed Market Trading Risk: To the extent that the underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that may be closed when the securities exchange on which the Fund’s Shares trade is open, there are likely to be

deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the Fund’s quote from the closed foreign market). These deviations could result in premiums or discounts to the Fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other exchange-traded funds ("ETFs").

Investable Universe of Companies Risk: The investable universe of companies in which the Fund may invest may be limited. If a company no longer meets the Index Provider’s criteria for inclusion in the Underlying Index, the Fund may need to reduce or eliminate its holdings in that company. The reduction or elimination of the Fund’s holdings in the company may have an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund’s overall portfolio holdings and on Fund performance.

 

Issuer Risk: Fund performance depends on the performance of individual companies in which the Fund invests. Changes to the financial condition of any of those companies may cause the value of their securities to decline.

 

Listing Standards Risk: Under new continuous listing standards adopted by the Fund’s listing exchange, the Fund will be required to confirm on an ongoing basis that the components of the Underlying Index satisfy the applicable listing requirements. In the event that the Underlying Index does not comply with the applicable listing requirements, the Fund would be required to rectify such non-compliance by requesting that the Index Provider modify the Underlying Index, adopting a new underlying index, or obtaining relief from the SEC. Failure to rectify such non-compliance may result in the Fund being delisted by the listing exchange.

Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the Adviser’s investment management strategy may cause the Fund to underperform the market or its relevant benchmark or adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.

Market Risk: Turbulence in the financial markets and reduced liquidity may negatively affect issuers, which could have an adverse effect on the Fund. In addition, there is a risk that policy changes by the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, or other government actors, which could include increasing interest rates, could cause increased volatility in financial markets and lead to higher levels of Fund redemptions, which could have a negative impact on the Fund. The Fund’s NAV could decline over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.

Market Trading Risk: Shares of the Fund are publicly traded on a national securities exchange which may subject shareholders to numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. Any of these factors may lead to the Shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV.

Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than large-capitalization companies. In addition, mid-capitalization companies may have smaller revenues, narrower product lines, less management depth and experience, smaller shares of their product or service markets, fewer financial resources and less competitive strength than large-capitalization companies.

Non-Diversification Risk: The Fund is classified as a “non-diversified” investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act"). As a result, the Fund is subject to the risk that it may be more volatile than a diversified fund because the Fund may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers or may invest a larger proportion of its assets in a single issuer. As a result, the gains and losses on a single investment may have a greater impact on the Fund’s NAV and may make the Fund more volatile than more diversified funds.

Operational Risk: The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund's service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and the Adviser seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate for those risks that they are intended to address.

Passive Investment Risk: The Fund is not actively managed and the Adviser does not attempt to take defensive positions in declining markets. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not seek to outperform its Underlying Index. Therefore, it would not necessarily buy or sell a security unless that security is added or removed, respectively, from the Underlying Index, even if that security generally is underperforming. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

 

Premium/Discount Risk: Disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Reliance on Trading Partners Risk: Economies in emerging market countries generally are dependent heavily upon commodity prices and international trade and, accordingly, may be affected adversely by the economies of their trading partners, trade barriers, exchange controls, managed adjustments in relative currency values, and may suffer from extreme and volatile debt burdens or inflation rates.

Risks Related to Investing in Greece: Investments are concentrated in companies in Greece. Greece’s economy is heavily dependent on the services sector and has a large public sector. Key trading partners are member states of the European Union ("EU"), most notably Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. Decreasing demand for Greek products and services or changes in governmental regulations on trade may have a significantly adverse effect on Greece’s economy. Greece’s ability to repay its sovereign debt is in question, and the possibility of default is not unlikely, which could limit its ability to borrow in the future. Greece has been required to impose harsh austerity measures on its population in order to receive financial aid from the IMF and EU member countries. The success of political parties in Greece opposed to austerity measures may increase the possibility that Greece would rescind these austerity measures in the future and consequently fail to receive further financial aid from these institutions. The persistence of these factors may seriously reduce the economic performance of Greece and pose serious risks for the country’s economy in the future. There is the possibility that Greece may exit the European Monetary Union, which would result in immediate devaluation of the euro and potential for default. If this were to occur, Greece would face significant risks related to the process of full currency redenomination as well as the resulting instability of the Euro zone in general, which would have a severe adverse effect on the value of the securities held by the Fund. Increased volatility in the Greek market may result in the increased use of fair value pricing. On June 29, 2015, the Greek government imposed certain capital controls and declared a bank holiday, which resulted in the closing of Greek banks, credit institutions and the Athens Exchange. On June 30, 2015, Greece failed to make certain required payments to the International Monetary Fund. On July 5, 2015, in a public referendum, approximately 61% of Greek voters voted to reject certain terms and conditions related to the European Union’s refinancing of Greek debt. On July 3, 2015, Eurozone leaders approved an additional series of economic rescue programs in principle, which were formally approved on August 14, 2015. This economic program required significant additional financial austerity measures from the Greek government. It is unclear how the situation in Greece may continue to unfold, but it is possible that there may be future economic troubles in Greece. This may include defaults by the Greek government, the implementation of additional or extended capital controls (including the closure of the Athens Exchange for an extended period of time), and the possibility that Greece may exit the European Monetary Union, which would result in immediate devaluation of the Greek currency. Each of these scenarios has potential implications to the markets and may negatively and materially affect the value of the Fund’s investments. The closure, and any related suspension of clearance and settlement mechanisms, of the Athens Exchange could prevent the Fund from buying, selling, or transferring securities traded on the Athens Exchange. During any closure of the Athens Exchange, the Fund will fair value its security holdings for which current market valuations are not currently available using fair value pricing pursuant to the pricing policy and procedures approved by the Fund’s Board of Trustees. In such a situation, it is possible that the Fund’s market price could significantly deviate from its NAV. In addition, any closure of the Athens Exchange, and the related unavailability of current market quotations for securities contained in the Underlying Index could cause the Fund’s NAV to have increased tracking error with respect to the Fund’s Underlying Index, and could also affect the calculation of the Fund’s indicative optimized portfolio value.

Risks Related to Investing in the Financials Sector: Performance of companies in the financials sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.

Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves a risk of loss because the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. If the Fund is not able to recover the securities loaned, it may sell the collateral and purchase a replacement security in the market. Lending securities entails a risk of loss to the Fund if and to the extent that the market value of the loaned securities increases and the collateral is not increased accordingly. Additionally, the Fund will bear any loss on the investment of cash collateral it receives. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. As securities on loan may not be voted by the Fund, there is a risk that the Fund may not be able to recall the securities in sufficient time to vote on material proxy matters.

Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Compared to mid- and large-capitalization companies, small-capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid.

 

Tracking Error Risk: Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund's performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the Fund's portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security's price at the local market close and the Fund's valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the Fund's NAV), differences in transaction costs, the Fund's holding

of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of dividends or interest, tax gains or losses, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. ETFs that track indices with significant weight in emerging markets issuers may experience higher tracking error other than other ETFs that do not track such indices.

Trading Halt Risk: An exchange or market may close or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments. In such circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and/or may incur substantial trading losses.

U.S. Economic Risk: Decreasing U.S. imports, new trade regulations, changes in the U.S. dollar exchange rates, a recession in the United States or continued increases in foreclosures rates may have an adverse impact on the economy of Greece.

Valuation Risk: The sales price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low value or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. The value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's Shares.