create or redeem Creation Units, Fund shares may trade at a discount to NAV
and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting from the Exchange. This risk is heightened in times of market stress, including at both the Fund share level and at the Fund holdings level.
Concentration Risk. The Fund
will concentrate its investments in companies conducting business in a related group of industries within a sector(s) to approximately the same extent as the Index. Companies in the same sector may be similarly affected by economic, regulatory,
political or market events or conditions, which may make the Fund more vulnerable to unfavorable developments in that sector than funds that invest more broadly. Generally, the more broadly a fund diversifies its investments, the more it spreads
risk and potentially reduces the risks of loss and volatility.
Correlation/Tracking Error Risk. The Fund’s value will generally decline when the performance of the Index declines. A number of factors may affect the Fund’s ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index, and there is no
guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation. Failure to achieve a high degree of correlation may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective. The Fund also bears management and other expenses and transaction costs
in trading securities or other instruments, which the Index does not bear. Accordingly, the Fund’s performance will likely fail to match the performance of the Index, after taking expenses into account. It is not possible to invest directly in
an index.
Early Close/Late Close/Trading Halt Risk. An exchange or market may close early, close late or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities may be restricted, which may result in the Fund being unable to buy
or sell these securities. In these circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments, may incur substantial trading losses and/or may be prevented from sufficiently tracking the
performance of the Index.
Fund Shares Liquidity
Risk. Although the Fund’s shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active, liquid or otherwise orderly trading market for shares will be established or maintained by market makers
or Authorized Participants, particularly in times of stressed market conditions. In this regard, there is no obligation for market makers to make a market in the Fund’s shares or for Authorized Participants to submit purchase or redemption
orders for creation units. Accordingly, if such parties determine not to perform their respective roles, this could, in turn, lead to variances between the market price of the Fund’s shares and the underlying value of those shares. Trading in
Fund shares on the Exchange also may be disrupted or even halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Fund shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Fund shares on the Exchange may be subject
to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange “circuit breaker” rules. There also can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund’s
shares will continue to be met or will remain unchanged.
Growth Securities Risk. Growth
securities typically trade at a higher multiple of earnings than other types of equity securities. Accordingly, the market values of growth securities may never reach their expected market value and may decline in price. In addition,
growth securities, at times, may not perform as well as value securities or the stock market in general, and may be out of favor with investors for varying periods of time.
Index Methodology Risk. The
Fund seeks performance that corresponds to the performance of the Index. There is no guarantee or assurance that the Index will achieve high, or even positive, returns. The Index may underperform more traditional indices. The Fund could lose value
while other indices or measures of market performance increase in value or performance. In addition, the Fund may be subject to the risk that the index provider may not follow its stated methodology for construction of the Index and/or achieve the
index provider’s intended performance objective. Errors may result in a negative performance impact to the Fund and its shareholders.
Issuer Risk. An issuer in
which the Fund invests or to which it has exposure may perform poorly or below expectations, and the value of its securities may therefore decline, which may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. Underperformance of an issuer may be caused
by poor management decisions, competitive pressures, breakthroughs in technology, reliance on suppliers, labor problems or shortages, corporate restructurings, fraudulent disclosures, natural disasters, military confrontations, war, terrorism,
disease/virus outbreaks or other events, conditions and factors.
Mid-Cap Stock Risk.
Investments in mid-capitalization companies (mid-cap companies) often involve greater risks than investments in larger, more established companies (larger companies) because mid-cap companies tend to have less
predictable earnings and may lack the management experience, financial resources, product diversification and competitive strengths of larger companies, and may be less liquid than the securities of larger companies.
Large-Cap Stock Risk.
Investments in larger companies may involve certain risks associated with their larger size. For instance, larger companies may be less able to respond quickly to new competitive challenges, such as changes in consumer tastes or innovation from
smaller competitors. Also, larger companies are sometimes less able to achieve as high growth rates as successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic expansion.