Environmental, Social and Governance Investing Risk. The Index’s environmental, social and corporate governance screening may cause the Fund to forgo certain investment opportunities, and/or forgo opportunities to gain exposure to certain industries, sectors,
regions, countries and companies that could have benefited the Fund. In addition, the Fund may be required to sell a security when it might otherwise be disadvantageous for it to do so.
Foreign Securities Risk.
Investments in or exposure to foreign securities involve certain risks not associated with investments in or exposure to securities of U.S. companies. Foreign securities subject the Fund to the risks associated with investing in the particular
country of an issuer, including political, regulatory, economic, social, diplomatic and other conditions or events (including, for example, military confrontations, war, terrorism and disease/virus epidemics), occurring in the country or region, as
well as risks associated with less developed custody and settlement practices. Foreign securities may be more volatile and less liquid than securities of U.S. companies, and are subject to the risks associated with potential imposition of economic
and other sanctions against a particular foreign country, its nationals or industries or businesses within the country. In addition, foreign governments may impose withholding or other taxes on the Fund’s income, capital gains or proceeds from
the disposition of foreign securities, which could reduce the Fund’s return on such securities. The performance of the Fund may also be negatively affected by fluctuations in a foreign currency's strength or weakness relative to the U.S.
dollar, particularly to the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in foreign securities or other assets denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Additionally, the Fund’s foreign investments may
trade in markets that may not be open on the same day or at the same time as the Fund, or foreign markets may close after the Fund has calculated its NAV for a given business day, which may cause a difference in the market price of such foreign
securities and the value attributed to such securities by the Fund.
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.
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.
Limitations of Intraday Indicative Value (IIV) Risk. The Exchange intends to disseminate the approximate per share value of the Fund’s published basket of portfolio securities every 15 seconds (the ‘‘intraday indicative value’’ or
‘‘IIV’’). The IIV should not be viewed as a ‘‘real-time’’ update of the NAV per share of the Fund because (i) the IIV may not be calculated in the same manner as the NAV, which is computed once a day,
generally at the end of the business day, (ii) the calculation of NAV may be subject to fair valuation at different prices than those used in the calculations of the IIV, (iii) unlike the calculation of NAV, the IIV does not take into account Fund
expenses, and (iv)