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FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF

FFHG

 

FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF

FFSG

 

FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF

FFTG

 

FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF

FFTI

 

each a series of Northern Lights Fund Trust IV

 

PROSPECTUS

 

September 28, 2022

 

  Advised by:
  FormulaFolio Investments, LLC
  1745 S. Naperville Road, Suite 200
  Wheaton, IL60189

 

formulafoliofunds.com 888-562-8880(toll-free)

 

This Prospectus provides important information about the Funds that you should know before investing. Please read it carefully and keep it for future reference.

 

These securities have not been approved or disapproved by the Securities and Exchange Commission nor has the Securities and Exchange Commission passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

Shares of the Funds are listed and traded on Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. (the “Exchange”)

 

 

FormulaFolios ETFs

Each a series of the Northern Lights Fund Trust IV (the “Trust”)

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF 1
Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF 6
Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF 11
Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF 16
Additional Information about Principal Investment Strategies and Related Risks 20
Investment Objective 20
Principal Investment Strategies 20
Principal Investment Risk 23
Temporary Investments 28
Portfolio Holdings Disclosure 28
Operational and Cybersecurity Risk 28
Securities Lending 28
Management 30
Investment Adviser 30
Portfolio Managers 30
How Shares Are Priced 31
How to Buy and Sell Shares 32
Frequent Purchases and Redemptions of Fund Shares 33
Distribution and Service Plan 33
Dividends, Other Distributions and Taxes 33
Fund Service Providers 35
Other Information 35
Financial Highlights 36
PRIVACY NOTICE 40

 

 

Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF
 

Investment Objective:

The Fund seeks to provide capital growth.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund:

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
 
Management Fees 0.80%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses 0.38%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(1) 0.18%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 1.36%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(2) (0.23%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement 1.13%

 

(1) Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Fund’s financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund.

 

(2) The Fund’s adviser has contractually agreed to reduce its fees and/or absorb expenses of the Fund, until at least September 30, 2023, to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or reimbursement (exclusive of any front-end or contingent deferred loads, taxes, brokerage fees and commissions, borrowing costs (such as interest and dividend expense on securities sold short), acquired fund fees and expenses, fees and expenses associated with investments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example option and swap fees and expenses), or extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 0.95% of the Fund’s net assets. These fee waivers and expense reimbursements are subject to possible recoupment from the Fund in future years (within the three years from the date the fees have been waived or reimbursed) if such recoupment can be achieved within the lesser of the foregoing expense limits or those in place at the time of recapture. This agreement may be terminated only by the Trust’s Board of Trustees only on 60 days’ written notice to the Fund’s adviser.

 

Example:

This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $115 $408 $722 $1,615
         

Portfolio Turnover:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 72% of the average value of its portfolio.

 

Principal Investment Strategies:

The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in domestic equity securities of any market capitalization and U.S. Treasuries through other unaffiliated ETFs (including leveraged ETFs and inverse ETFs). The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions.

 

The adviser’s first investment model identifies trends in the equity markets. If the model indicates that the Fund should be in the market because the market is doing well as measured by a blend of various technical momentum indicators, the model suggests investments in leveraged ETFs. Leveraged ETFs are ETFs that use financial derivatives and debt to amplify the returns of an underlying index. If the model indicates that the Fund should not be in the market because the market is doing poorly as measured by a blend of various technical momentum indicators, the model suggests hedging risk by investing in U.S. Treasuries, U.S. short-term bonds and/or inverse equity index ETFs. Inverse ETFs are ETFs constructed by using various derivatives for the purpose of profiting from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark such as an equity index. The Fund does not invest more than 15% of its assets in leveraged and inverse ETFs. The technical momentum indicators used to determine if the market is doing well or poorly include moving average crossovers (bearish when the shorter-term averages cross below the longer-term averages), oscillators (bearish when the current prices are closer to more recent low prices rather than more recent high prices), and price acceleration measurements (bearish when trading volume increases as prices are moving down, indicating faster downward price pressure).

 

1

 

The adviser’s second investment model uses two sub-strategies. The adviser allocates the Fund’s assets that are allocated to this investment model equally between the two sub-strategies. The first sub-strategy identifies trends in the equity markets and suggests investments in a diversified mix of U.S. equity ETFs if the market is doing well and suggests investments in U.S. Treasury ETFs to help hedge against market risk if the market is doing poorly. If the model indicates that the Fund should be in the market because the market is doing well, the second sub-strategy analyzes the nine sectors of the S&P 500 to determine the sectors with the greatest momentum and lowest volatility. The Fund then invests in the single sector that the model indicates has the highest risk-adjusted returns (lowest volatility and the greatest momentum). If the model indicates that the Fund should not be in the market because the market is doing poorly, the Fund hedges risk by investing in U.S. Treasuries, short-term U.S. government bonds and inverse equity ETFs.

 

Principal Investment Risks:

As with all funds, there is a risk that you could lose money through your investment in the Fund. Many factors affect the Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) and performance.

 

The following describes the risks of investing in the Fund. As with any fund, there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its goal.

 

Credit Risk. Credit risk is the risk that the issuer of a security and other instrument will not be able to make principal and interest payments when due. Credit risk may be substantial for the Fund.

 

Equity Securities Risk. Fluctuations in the value of equity securities held by the Fund will cause the NAV of the Fund to fluctuate.

 

Common Stock Risk. Common stock of an issuer in the Fund’s portfolio may decline in price if the issuer fails to make anticipated dividend payments. Common stock will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of the same issuer. In addition, common stocks have experienced significantly more volatility in returns than other asset classes.

 

Preferred Stock Risk. Generally, preferred stockholders (such as the Fund) have no voting rights with respect to the issuing company unless certain events occur. In addition, preferred stock will be subject to greater credit risk than debt instruments of an issuer, and could be subject to interest rate risk like fixed income securities, as described below. An issuer’s board of directors is generally not under any obligation to pay a dividend (even if dividends have accrued), and may suspend payment of dividends on preferred stock at any time. There is also a risk that the issuer of any of the Fund’s holdings will default and fail to make scheduled dividend payments on the preferred stock held by the Fund.

 

ETF Investment Risk. Other investment companies, such as ETFs (“Underlying Funds”), in which the Fund invests are subject to investment advisory and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by the Fund. As a result, the cost of investing in the Fund will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying Funds and may be higher than other funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each of the Underlying Funds is subject to its own specific risks, but the adviser expects the principal investments risks of such Underlying Funds will be similar to the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

ETF Structure Risk. The Fund and each Underlying Fund are structured as ETFs and as a result the Fund is subject to special risks, including:

 

Not Individually Redeemable. ‘The Fund’s shares (“Shares”) are not individually redeemable to retail investors and may be redeemed by the Fund only to an authorized participant at NAV in large blocks known as “Creation Units.” An authorized participant may incur brokerage costs purchasing enough Shares to constitute a Creation Unit.

 

Trading Issues. An active trading market for Shares may not be developed or maintained. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange. If Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as authorized participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for the Shares.

 

Market Price Variance Risk. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares and will include a “bid-ask spread” charged by the exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. There may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. This means that Shares may trade at a discount to NAV.

 

In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role market making in Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

2

 

To the extent authorized participants exit the business or are unable to process creations or redemptions and no other authorized participant can step in to do so, there may be a significantly reduced trading market in Shares, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

The market price for Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price.

 

When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

In stressed market conditions, the market for Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

Fluctuation of NAV Risk. The NAV of Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of the Fund’s holdings trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. In addition, unlike conventional ETFs, the Fund is not an index fund. The Fund is actively managed and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. Index based ETFs have generally traded at prices which closely correspond to NAV per share. Actively managed ETFs have a limited trading history and, therefore, there can be no assurance as to whether and/or the extent to which Shares will trade at premiums or discounts to NAV.

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Since the Fund’s investments may include ETFs with foreign securities, the Fund is subject to risks beyond those associated with investing in domestic securities. Foreign companies are generally not subject to the same regulatory requirements of U.S. companies thereby resulting in less publicly available information about these companies. In addition, foreign accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards generally differ from those applicable to U.S. companies. The value of foreign securities is also affected by the value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar.

 

Growth Stock Risk. Growth stocks can react differently to issuer, political, market, and economic developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. The stocks of such companies can therefore be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies or the stock market in general.

 

Income Risk. The Fund’s income may decline when yields fall. This decline can occur because the Fund or the Underlying Fund may subsequently invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, are near maturity or are called, bonds in the Underlying Fund’s index are substituted, or the Fund or the Underlying Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.

 

Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Fund or the Underlying Fund to decline, may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income markets and may adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments. The Fund takes positions in ETFs that invest in U.S. Treasuries and other futures and interest rate swaps. As a result, when interest rates decline, the Fund will underperform funds with long-only investments in the same investment grade bonds as the Fund. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will have positive performance even in environments of sharply rising interest rates. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will be able to successfully mitigate interest rate risk.

 

Inverse ETF Risk. Investments in inverse ETFs prevent the Fund from participating in market-wide or sector-wide gains and may not prove to be an effective hedge. The use of leverage by the inverse ETFs, such as short selling or the use of options, cause the Fund to incur additional expenses and magnify the Fund’s gains or losses. Many inverse ETFs utilize daily futures contracts to produce their returns, and this frequent trading often increases fund expenses. Investments in inverse ETFs are speculative and are not meant to be long-term investments. During periods of increased volatility, inverse ETFs may not perform in the manner they are designed.

 

Leveraged ETF Risk. Investing in leveraged ETFs amplifies the Fund’s gains and losses. Most leveraged ETFs “reset” daily because leveraged ETF typically use daily futures contracts to magnify the exposure to a particular index. It does not amplify the annual returns of an index; instead, it follows the daily changes. Due to the effect of compounding, the performance of leveraged ETFs over longer periods of time can differ significantly from the performance of their underlying index or benchmark during the same period of time.

 

Management Risk. The adviser may be incorrect in its assessment of the intrinsic value of the securities the Fund holds which may result in a decline in the value of Shares and failure to achieve its investment objective. The Fund’s portfolio managers use qualitative analyses and/or models. Any imperfections or limitations in such analyses and models could affect the ability of the portfolio managers to implement strategies.

 

3

 

Market Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, international conflicts, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on the U.S. financial market. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on the U.S. financial market. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, may last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund often buys and sells investments frequently. Such a strategy often involves higher transaction costs, including brokerage commissions, and may increase the amount of capital gains (in particular, short-term gains) realized by the Fund. Shareholders may pay tax on such capital gains.

 

Sector Exposure Risk. The Fund may focus its investments in securities of a particular sector. Economic, legislative or regulatory developments may occur that significantly affect the sector. This may cause the Fund’s NAV to fluctuate more than that of a fund that does not focus in a particular sector.

 

Financial Sector Risk. Financial services companies are subject to extensive governmental regulation which may limit both the amounts and types of loans and other financial commitments they can make, the interest rates and fees they can charge, the scope of their activities, the prices they can charge and the amount of capital they must maintain. Profitability is largely dependent on the availability and cost of capital funds and can fluctuate significantly when interest rates change or due to increased competition. In addition, deterioration of the credit markets generally may cause an adverse impact in a broad range of markets, including U.S. and international credit and interbank money markets generally, thereby affecting a wide range of financial institutions and markets. Certain events in the financial sector may cause an unusually high degree of volatility in the financial markets, both domestic and foreign, and cause certain financial services companies to incur large losses. Securities of financial services companies may experience a dramatic decline in value when such companies experience substantial declines in the valuations of their assets, take action to raise capital (such as the issuance of debt or equity securities), or cease operations. Credit losses resulting from financial difficulties of borrowers and financial losses associated with investment activities can negatively impact the sector. Insurance companies may be subject to severe price competition. Adverse economic, business or political developments could adversely affect financial institutions engaged in mortgage finance or other lending or investing activities directly or indirectly connected to the value of real estate.

 

Securities Market Risk. The value of securities owned by the Fund may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting particular companies or the securities markets generally. A general downturn in the securities market may cause multiple asset classes to decline in value simultaneously.

 

Small and Medium Capitalization Stock Risk. The earnings and prospects of small and medium sized companies are more volatile than larger companies and may experience higher failure rates than larger companies. Small and medium sized companies normally have a lower trading volume than larger companies, which may tend to make their market price fall more disproportionately than larger companies in response to selling pressures and may have limited markets, product lines, or financial resources and lack management experience.

 

U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. U.S. Treasury obligations are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government and generally have negligible credit risk. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.

4

 

Performance:

The bar chart and performance table below show the variability of the Fund’s returns, which is some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows performance of the Fund’s shares for each calendar year since the Fund’s inception. The performance table compares the performance of the Fund over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at no cost by visiting www.formulafoliofunds.com/hedged-growth-etf or by calling toll-free 888-562-8880.

 

Performance Bar Chart For Calendar Year Ended December 31

 

(BAR CHAT)

 

Best Quarter: 4th Quarter 2020 22.19%
Worst Quarter: 1st Quarter 2020 (21.24%)
     

The Fund’s year-to-date return as of the most recent quarter, which ended June 30, 2022 was (16.09)%.

 

Performance Table
Average Annual Total Returns
(For periods ended December 31, 2021)

 

  One Year Since
Inception
(6/6/17)
Return before taxes 23.57% 10.23%
Return after taxes on distributions 23.46% 9.91%
Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares 13.95% 7.97%
Barclay Hedge Equity Long/Short Index 10.67% 5.59%

 

Investment Adviser: FormulaFolio Investments, LLC (the “Adviser”).

 

Portfolio Manager: Mark DiOrio, has been Chief Investment Officer and led the Investment Committee of the investment adviser, Brookstone Capital Management, LLC since 2015. Following the merger of Brookstone Capital Management, LLC and FormulaFolio Investments, LLC, Mr. DiOrio serves as Chief Investment Officer and has served as the Fund’s portfolio manager since September 2020.

 

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares: Individual Shares may be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through a broker dealer or at market price. Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange and trade at market prices rather than NAV. Shares may trade at a price that is greater than, at, or less than NAV. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (ask) when buying or selling Shares in the second market (the “bid-ask spread”). Information on the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts and bid-asks spreads is available on the adviser’s website at www.formulafoliofunds.com.

 

Tax Information: The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income or long-term capital gains. A sale of shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

5

 

Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF
 

Investment Objective:

The Fund seeks to provide capital growth.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund:

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
 
Management Fees 0.35%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses 0.37%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(1) 0.09%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.81%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(2) (0.12%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement 0.69%

 

(1) Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Fund’s financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund.

 

(2) The Fund’s adviser has contractually agreed to reduce its fees and/or absorb expenses of the Fund, until at least September 30, 2023, to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or reimbursement (exclusive of any front-end or contingent deferred loads, taxes, brokerage fees and commissions, borrowing costs (such as interest and dividend expense on securities sold short), acquired fund fees and expenses, fees and expenses associated with investments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example option and swap fees and expenses), or extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 0.60% of the Fund’s net assets. These fee waivers and expense reimbursements are subject to possible recoupment from the Fund in future years (within the three years from the date the fees have been waived or reimbursed) if such recoupment can be achieved within the lesser of the foregoing expense limits or those in place at the time of recapture. This agreement may be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees only on 60 days’ written notice to the Fund’s adviser.

 

Example:

This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

 

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $70 $246 $438 $990
         

Portfolio Turnover:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 39% of the average value of its portfolio.

 

Principal Investment Strategies:

The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing through other unaffiliated ETFs primarily in domestic and foreign (including emerging markets) growth-oriented equity securities of any market capitalization (which include real estate investment trusts (“REITs”)) and U.S. Treasuries or other cash equivalents. The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions. The Fund is generally 100% invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs when the adviser’s investment models indicate a bullish trend for the equity market, and is generally 50% invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs and 50% invested in U.S. Treasuries and/or U.S. short-term bonds to hedge risk when the adviser’s models indicate a bearish trend for the equity markets.

 

Half of the Fund’s portfolio is allocated to a basket of growth-oriented equity ETFs. The growth-oriented equity ETFs in the basket are selected based on their potential to generate higher than average returns, mainly in the form of capital appreciation, over a long period of time (at least two years) while carrying a higher than average level of risk (higher than average potential for large decreases in portfolio value) based on historical fundamental market research of various growth asset classes (e.g., small-cap U.S. stocks, large-cap U.S. stocks, emerging market stocks, and developed international stocks). The ETFs in the basket must have competitive expense ratios and closely track the asset class to which the ETF’s strategy is seeking exposure.

 

6

 

With the other half of the portfolio, the adviser uses its investment model to identify trends in the equity markets. If the model indicates that the equity markets are in a long-term (at least a year) bullish trend (stock prices are increasing) as measured by a blend of various technical momentum (analysis of price trends and supply and demand in the market in attempt to determine where prices are headed), economic, and behavioral (uses behavioral psychological data to attempt to determine why investors make certain financial decisions) analysis indicators, the model suggests investments in the same basket of growth-oriented equity ETFs as the other half of the portfolio, so the Fund is fully invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs. If the model indicates that the equity markets are in a bearish trend (stock prices are decreasing) as measured by a blend of various technical momentum, economic, and behavioral analysis indicators, the model suggests investments in U.S. Treasuries and/or other cash equivalents with the other half of the portfolio, so the Fund is 50% invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs and 50% invested in U.S. Treasuries and/or other cash equivalents to hedge risk. The technical momentum, economic, and behavioral analysis indicators used to determine if the market is doing well or poorly include moving average crossovers (bearish when the shorter term averages cross below the longer term averages), oscillators (bearish when the current prices are closer to more recent low prices rather than more recent high prices), price acceleration measurements (bearish when trading volume increases as prices are moving down, indicating faster downward price pressure) labor market data (bearish when fewer new jobs are being created and unemployment is trending up), market breadth data (bearish when a higher number of stocks are below their moving averages), earnings data (bearish when earnings estimates are being revised downward and when earnings are falling), and analyst sentiment data (bearish when analysts are revising lower economic growth). This half of the Fund’s portfolio is rebalanced monthly. The Fund typically holds 6-7 ETFs in its portfolio.

 

Principal Investment Risks:

As with all funds, there is a risk that you could lose money through your investment in the Fund. Many factors affect the Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) and performance.

 

The following describes the risks of investing in the Fund. As with any fund, there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its goal.

 

Credit Risk. Credit risk is the risk that the issuer of a security and other instrument will not be able to make principal and interest payments when due. Credit risk may be substantial for the Fund.

 

Emerging Markets Risk. Emerging market countries may have relatively unstable governments, weaker economies, and less-developed legal systems with fewer security holder rights. Emerging market economies may be based on only a few industries and security issuers may be more susceptible to economic weakness and more likely to default. Emerging market securities also tend to be less liquid. There may also be less reliable or publicly available information about emerging markets due to non-uniform regulatory, auditing or financial recordkeeping standards, which could cause errors in the implementation of the Fund’s investment strategy. The Fund’s performance may depend on issues other than those that affect U.S. companies and may be adversely affected by different rights and remedies associated with emerging market investments, or the lack thereof, compared to those associated with U.S. companies.

 

Equity Securities Risk. Fluctuations in the value of equity securities held by the Fund will cause the NAV of the Fund to fluctuate.

 

Common Stock Risk. Common stock of an issuer in the Fund’s portfolio may decline in price if the issuer fails to make anticipated dividend payments. Common stock will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of the same issuer. In addition, common stocks have experienced significantly more volatility in returns than other asset classes.

 

Preferred Stock Risk. Generally, preferred stockholders (such as the Fund) have no voting rights with respect to the issuing company unless certain events occur. In addition, preferred stock will be subject to greater credit risk than debt instruments of an issuer, and could be subject to interest rate risk like fixed income securities, as described below. An issuer’s board of directors is generally not under any obligation to pay a dividend (even if dividends have accrued), and may suspend payment of dividends on preferred stock at any time. There is also a risk that the issuer of any of the Fund’s holdings will default and fail to make scheduled dividend payments on the preferred stock held by the Fund.

 

ETF Investment Risk. Other investment companies, such as ETFs (“Underlying Funds”), in which the Fund invests are subject to investment advisory and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by the Fund. As a result, the cost of investing in the Fund will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying Funds and may be higher than other funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each of the Underlying Funds is subject to its own specific risks. The Fund will be subject to the principal investment risks of Underlying Funds by virtue of the Fund’s investment in each such funds.

 

7

 

ETF Structure Risk. The Fund and each Underlying Fund are structured as an ETF and as a result the Fund is subject to special risks, including:

 

Not Individually Redeemable. The Fund’s shares (“Shares”) are not individually redeemable to retail investors and may be redeemed by the Fund only to authorized participants at NAV in large blocks known as “Creation Units.” An authorized participant may incur brokerage costs purchasing enough Shares to constitute a Creation Unit.

 

Trading Issues. An active trading market for Shares may not be developed or maintained. Trading in shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange. If Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as authorized participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for the Shares.

 

Market Price Variance Risk. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares and will include a “bid-ask spread” charged by the exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. There may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. This means that Shares may trade at a discount to NAV.

 

In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role market making in Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

To the extent authorized participants exit the business or are unable to process creations or redemptions and no other authorized participant can step in to do so, there may be a significantly reduced trading market in Shares, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

The market price for Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price.

 

When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

In stressed market conditions, the market for Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value Risk. The NAV of Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of the Fund’s holdings trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. In addition, unlike conventional ETFs, the Fund is not an index fund. The Fund is actively managed and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. Index based ETFs have generally traded at prices which closely correspond to NAV per share. Actively managed ETFs have a limited trading history and, therefore, there can be no assurance as to whether and/or the extent to which Shares will trade at premiums or discounts to NAV.

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Since the Fund’s investments may include ETFs with foreign securities, the Fund is subject to risks beyond those associated with investing in domestic securities. Foreign companies are generally not subject to the same regulatory requirements of U.S. companies thereby resulting in less publicly available information about these companies. In addition, foreign accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards generally differ from those applicable to U.S. companies. The value of foreign securities is also affected by the value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar.

 

Growth Stock Risk. Growth stocks can react differently to issuer, political, market, and economic developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. The stocks of such companies can therefore be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies or the stock market in general.

 

8

 

Income Risk. The Fund’s income may decline when yields fall. This decline can occur because the Fund or the Underlying Fund may subsequently invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, are near maturity or are called, bonds in the Underlying Fund’s index are substituted, or the Fund or the Underlying Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.

 

Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Fund or the Underlying Fund to decline, may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income markets and may adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments. The Fund takes positions in ETFs that invest in U.S. Treasuries and other futures and interest rate swaps. As a result, when interest rates decline, the Fund will underperform funds with long-only investments in the same investment grade bonds as the Fund. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will have positive performance even in environments of sharply rising interest rates. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will be able to successfully mitigate interest rate risk.

 

Management Risk. The adviser may be incorrect in its assessment of the intrinsic value of the securities the Fund holds which may result in a decline in the value of Shares and failure to achieve its investment objective. The Fund’s portfolio managers use qualitative analyses and/or models. Any imperfections or limitations in such analyses and models could affect the ability of the portfolio managers to implement strategies.

 

Market Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, international conflicts, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on the U.S. financial market. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on the U.S. financial market. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, may last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment.

 

REITs Risk. Underlying Funds may invest in REITs. The value of the Underlying Funds’ investments in REITs may change in response to changes in the real estate market such as declines in the value of real estate, lack of available capital or financing opportunities, and increases in property taxes or operating costs. Shareholders of the Fund will indirectly be subject to the fees and expenses of the individual REITs in which the Underlying Funds invest.

 

Securities Market Risk. The value of securities owned by the Fund may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting particular companies or the securities markets generally. A general downturn in the securities market may cause multiple asset classes to decline in value simultaneously.

 

Small and Medium Capitalization Stock Risk. The earnings and prospects of small and medium sized companies are more volatile than larger companies and may experience higher failure rates than larger companies. Small and medium sized companies normally have a lower trading volume than larger companies, which may tend to make their market price fall more disproportionately than larger companies in response to selling pressures and may have limited markets, product lines, or financial resources and lack management experience.

 

U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. U.S. Treasury obligations are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government and generally have negligible credit risk. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.

9

 

Performance:

The bar chart and performance table below show the variability of the Fund’s returns, which is some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows performance of the Shares for each calendar year since the Fund’s inception. The performance table compares the performance of the Fund over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at no cost by visiting www.formulafoliofunds.com/smart-growth-etf or by calling toll-free 888-562-8880.

 

Performance Bar Chart For Calendar Year Ended December 31

 

(BAR CHAT)

 

Best Quarter: 2nd Quarter 2020 19.51%
Worst Quarter: 1st Quarter 2020 (24.97%)
     

The Fund’s year-to-date return as of the most recent quarter, which ended June 30, 2022 was (17.94)%.

 

Performance Table
Average Annual Total Returns
(For periods ended December 31, 2021)

 

  One Year Since
Inception
(11/1/17)
Return before taxes 22.16% 12.02%
Return after taxes on distributions 21.35% 11.49%
Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares 13.10% 9.33%
Dow Jones Aggressive Portfolio Index 18.57% 11.49%

 

Investment Adviser: FormulaFolio Investments, LLC (the “Adviser”).

 

Portfolio Manager: Mark DiOrio, has been Chief Investment Officer and led the Investment Committee of the investment adviser, Brookstone Capital Management, LLC since 2015. Following the merger of Brookstone Capital Management, LLC and FormulaFolio Investments, LLC, Mr. DiOrio serves as Chief Investment Officer and has served as the Fund’s portfolio manager since September 2020.

 

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares: Individual Shares may be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through a broker dealer or at market price. Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange and trade at market prices rather than NAV. Shares may trade at a price that is greater than, at, or less than NAV. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (ask) when buying or selling Shares in the second market (the “bid-ask spread”). Information on the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts and bid-asks spreads is available on the Adviser’s website at www.formulafoliofunds.com.

 

Tax Information: The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income or long-term capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

10

 

Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF
 

Investment Objective:

The Fund seeks long-term total return.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund:

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
 
Management Fees 0.60%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses 0.34%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(1) 0.15%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 1.09%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(2) (0.14%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement 0.95%

 

(1) Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Fund’s financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund.

 

(2) The Fund’s adviser has contractually agreed to reduce its fees and/or absorb expenses of the Fund, until at least September 30, 2023, to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or reimbursement (exclusive of any front-end or contingent deferred loads, taxes, brokerage fees and commissions, borrowing costs (such as interest and dividend expense on securities sold short), acquired fund fees and expenses, fees and expenses associated with investments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example option and swap fees and expenses), or extraordinary expenses such as litigation) will not exceed 0.80% of the Fund’s net assets. These fee waivers and expense reimbursements are subject to possible recoupment from the Fund in future years (within the three years from the date the fees have been waived or reimbursed) if such recoupment can be achieved within the lesser of the foregoing expense limits or those in place at the time of recapture. This agreement may be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees only on 60 days’ written notice to the Fund’s adviser.

 

Example:

This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

 

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $97 $332 $586 $1,313
         

Portfolio Turnover:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 55% of the average value of its portfolio.

 

Principal Investment Strategies:

The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. It seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in foreign and domestic growth-oriented equity securities of any market capitalization, domestic investment grade fixed income securities (bonds) of any maturity or duration, domestic real estate investment trusts (“REITs”), and commodities (gold) securities through unaffiliated ETFs. The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions.

 

The adviser uses its proprietary investment model to rank 5 major asset classes (U.S. stocks, foreign stocks of developed countries, real estate, gold, and U.S. aggregate bonds) based on the strongest price momentum, which measures the rate of the rise or fall in stock prices. The three highest-ranked asset classes are allocated to the portfolio with equal weightings, while the two lowest ranked asset classes are left out of the portfolio. In addition, if an asset class is not displaying positive momentum, it is not included in the portfolio even it is one of the three highest ranked asset classes. To represent the aforementioned asset classes, the adviser generally invests in one low-cost, index-tracking ETF for each represented asset class. These ETFs must, in the adviser’s opinion, have a competitive expense ratio (lowest quartile of peers), illustrate the ability to closely track its index, and maintain an appropriate amount of daily trading volume (the 50-day Average Dollar Volume of the underlying ETFs is at least 20 times greater than the 50-day Average Dollar Volume traded within the Fund) to help avoid liquidity issues. This process is repeated monthly. The weighting for any individual asset class depends on the prevailing market conditions, with a maximum weight of 33.33% for any one asset class. When 2 or less asset classes meet the model’s price momentum criteria, the Fund may invest heavily in U.S. Treasuries and U.S. short-term bonds until more asset classes become favorable for investing.

 

11

 

Principal Investment Risks:

As with all funds, there is a risk that you could lose money through your investment in the Fund. Many factors affect the Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) and performance.

 

The following describes the risks of investing in the Fund. As with any fund, there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its goal.

 

Commodity Risk. Investing in the commodities markets may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. Commodity prices may be influenced by unfavorable weather, animal and plant disease, geologic and environmental factors as well as changes in government regulation such as tariffs, embargoes or burdensome production rules and restrictions.

 

Credit Risk. Credit risk is the risk that the issuer of a security and other instrument will not be able to make principal and interest payments when due.

 

Equity Securities Risk. Fluctuations in the value of equity securities held by the Fund will cause the net asset value (“NAV”) of the Fund to fluctuate.

 

Common Stock Risk. Common stock of an issuer in the Fund’s portfolio may decline in price if the issuer fails to make anticipated dividend payments. Common stock will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of the same issuer. In addition, common stocks have experienced significantly more volatility in returns than other asset classes.

 

Preferred Stock Risk. Generally, preferred stockholders (such as the Fund) have no voting rights with respect to the issuing company unless certain events occur. In addition, preferred stock will be subject to greater credit risk than debt instruments of an issuer, and could be subject to interest rate risk like fixed income securities, as described below. An issuer’s board of directors is generally not under any obligation to pay a dividend (even if dividends have accrued), and may suspend payment of dividends on preferred stock at any time. There is also a risk that the issuer of any of the Fund’s holdings will default and fail to make scheduled dividend payments on the preferred stock held by the Fund).

 

ETF Investment Risk. Other investment companies, such as ETFs (“Underlying Funds”), in which the Fund invests are subject to investment advisory and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by the Fund. As a result, the cost of investing in the Fund will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying Funds and may be higher than other funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each of the Underlying Funds is subject to its own specific risks. The Fund will be subject to the principal investments risks of Underlying Funds by virtue of the Fund’s investment in each such funds.

 

ETF Structure Risk. The Fund and each Underlying Fund are structured as ETFs and as a result the Fund is subject to special risks, including:

 

Not Individually Redeemable. The Fund’s shares (“Shares”) are not individually redeemable to retail investors and may be redeemed by the Fund only to authorized participants at NAV in large blocks known as “Creation Units.” An authorized participant may incur brokerage costs purchasing enough Shares to constitute a Creation Unit.

 

Trading Issues. An active trading market for Shares may not be developed or maintained. Trading in shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange. If Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as authorized participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for the Shares.

 

Market Price Variance Risk. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares and will include a “bid-ask spread” charged by the exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. There may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. This means that Shares may trade at a discount to NAV.

 

In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role market making in Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

12

 

To the extent authorized participants exit the business or are unable to process creations or redemptions and no other authorized participant can step in to do so, there may be a significantly reduced trading market in Shares, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

The market price for Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s’ NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price.

 

When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

In stressed market conditions, the market for Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

Fixed Income Risk. When the Fund invests in fixed income securities, the value of your investment in the Fund fluctuates with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in interest rates causes a decline in the value of fixed income securities owned by the Fund. In general, the market price of fixed income securities with longer maturities will increase or decrease more in response to changes in interest rates than shorter-term securities. Other risk factors include credit risk (the debtor may default), extension risk (an issuer may exercise its right to repay principal on a fixed rate obligation held by the Fund later than expected), and prepayment risk (the debtor may pay its obligation early, reducing the amount of interest payments). These risks could affect the value of a particular investment by the Fund, possibly causing Share price and total return to be reduced and fluctuate more than other types of investments.

 

Fluctuation of NAV Risk. The NAV of Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of the Fund’s holdings trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. In addition, unlike conventional ETFs, the Fund is not an index fund. The Fund is actively managed and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. Index based ETFs have generally traded at prices which closely correspond to NAV per share. Actively managed ETFs have a limited trading history and, therefore, there can be no assurance as to whether and/or the extent to which Shares will trade at premiums or discounts to NAV.

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Since the Fund’s investments may include ETFs with foreign securities, the Fund is subject to risks beyond those associated with investing in domestic securities. Foreign companies are generally not subject to the same regulatory requirements of U.S. companies thereby resulting in less publicly available information about these companies. In addition, foreign accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards generally differ from those applicable to U.S. companies. The value of foreign securities is also affected by the value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar.

 

Growth Stock Risk. Growth stocks can react differently to issuer, political, market, and economic developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. The stocks of such companies can therefore be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies or the stock market in general.

 

Income Risk. The Fund’s income may decline when yields fall. This decline can occur because the Fund or the Underlying Fund may subsequently invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, are near maturity or are called, bonds in the Underlying Fund’s index are substituted, or the Fund or the Underlying Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.

 

Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Fund or the Underlying Fund to decline, may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income markets and may adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments. The Fund takes positions in ETFs that invest in U.S. Treasuries and other futures and interest rate swaps. As a result, when interest rates decline, the Fund will underperform funds with long-only investments in the same investment grade bonds as the Fund. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will have positive performance even in environments of sharply rising interest rates. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will be able to successfully mitigate interest rate risk.

 

13

 

Management Risk. The adviser may be incorrect in its assessment of the intrinsic value of the securities the Fund holds which may result in a decline in the value of Shares and failure to achieve its investment objective. The Fund’s portfolio managers use qualitative analyses and/or models. Any imperfections or limitations in such analyses and models could affect the ability of the portfolio managers to implement strategies.

 

Market Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, international conflicts, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on the U.S. financial market. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on the U.S. financial market. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, will or would last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment.

 

REITs Risk. The Underlying Funds may invest in REITs. The value of the Underlying Funds’ investments in REITs may change in response to changes in the real estate market such as declines in the value of real estate, lack of available capital or financing opportunities, and increases in property taxes or operating costs. Shareholders of the Fund will indirectly be subject to the fees and expenses of the individual REITs in which the Underlying Funds invest.

 

Sector Exposure Risk. The Fund may focus its investments in securities of a particular sector. Economic, legislative or regulatory developments may occur that significantly affect the sector. This may cause the Fund’s NAV to fluctuate more than that of a fund that does not focus in a particular sector.

 

Precious Metals Risk. Prices of precious metals and of precious metal related securities historically have been very volatile. The production and sale of precious metals by governments or central banks or other larger holders can be affected by various economic, financial, social and political factors, which may be unpredictable and may have a significant impact on the prices of precious metals. Other factors that may affect the prices of precious metals and securities related to them include changes in inflation, the outlook for inflation and changes in industrial and commercial demand for precious metals. In addition, the gains derived from trading in precious metals will be closely monitored to avoid potentially negative tax consequences. As a result, the Fund may hold or sell precious metals when it otherwise would not do so.

 

Securities Market Risk. The value of securities owned by the Fund may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting particular companies or the securities markets generally. A general downturn in the securities markets may cause multiple asset classes to decline in value simultaneously.

 

Small and Medium Capitalization Stock Risk. The earnings and prospects of small and medium sized companies are more volatile than larger companies and may experience higher failure rates than larger companies. Small and medium sized companies normally have a lower trading volume than larger companies, which may tend to make their market price fall more disproportionately than larger companies in response to selling pressures and may have limited markets, product lines, or financial resources and lack management experience.

 

US Treasury Obligations Risk. U.S. Treasury obligations are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government and generally have negligible credit risk. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.

14

 

Performance:

The bar chart and performance table below show the variability of the Fund’s returns, which is some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows performance of the Fund’s shares for each calendar year since the Fund’s inception. The performance table compares the performance of the Fund over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at no cost by visiting https://formulafoliofunds.com/tactical-growth-etf/ or by calling toll-free 888-562-8880.

 

Performance Bar Chart For Calendar Year Ended December 31

 

(BAR CHAT)

 

Best Quarter: 2nd Quarter 2020 16.29%
Worst Quarter: 1st Quarter 2020 (17.45%)
     

The Fund’s year-to-date return as of the most recent quarter, which ended June 30, 2022 was (20.10)%.

 

Performance Table
Average Annual Total Returns
(For periods ended December 31, 2021)

 

  One Year Since
Inception
(11/1/17)
Return before taxes 9.79% 6.85%
Return after taxes on distributions 9.42% 6.42%
Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares 5.79% 5.18%
Barclay Hedge Global Macro Index 8.83% 4.56%

 

Investment Adviser: FormulaFolio Investments, LLC (the “Adviser”).

 

Portfolio Manager: Mark DiOrio, has been Chief Investment Officer and led the Investment Committee of the investment adviser, Brookstone Capital Management, LLC since 2015. Following the merger of Brookstone Capital Management, LLC and FormulaFolio Investments, LLC, Mr. DiOrio serves as Chief Investment Officer and has served as the Fund’s portfolio manager since September 2020.

 

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares: Individual Shares may be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through a broker dealer or at market price. Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange and trade at market prices rather than NAV. Shares may trade at a price that is greater than, at, or less than NAV. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (ask) when buying or selling Shares in the second market (the “bid-ask spread”). Information on the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts and bid-asks spreads is available on the Adviser’s website at www.formulafoliofunds.com.

 

Tax Information: The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income or long-term capital gains. A sale of shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

15

 

Fund Summary - FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF
 

Investment Objective:

The Fund seeks to provide income.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund:

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.

 

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
 
Management Fees 0.60%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.00%
Other Expenses 0.15%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(1) 0.21%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.96%

 

(1) Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Fund’s financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund.

 

Example:

This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $98 $305 $530 $1,176
         

Portfolio Turnover:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended May 31, 2022, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 66% of the average value of its portfolio.

 

Principal Investment Strategies:

The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing through other. ETFs in foreign and domestic fixed income securities. The fixed income securities in which the ETFs invest are U.S. Treasuries, investment grade U.S. bonds, high-yield U.S. bonds (also known as “junk” bonds), U.S. aggregate bond, municipal bonds and international government bonds of any maturity and duration. The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions.

 

The adviser uses its proprietary investment model to rank 5 major fixed income asset classes (U.S. Treasuries, investment grade U.S. bonds, high-yield U.S. bonds, U.S. aggregate bond, and international government bond) based on the strongest combination of yield spread and price momentum (higher price momentum and lower yield spreads). A yield spread is the difference between yields on fixed income securities of varying maturities, credit ratings and risk, which is calculated by deducting the yield of one instrument from another. Price momentum measures the rate of the rise or fall in stock prices. The three highest-ranked asset classes are allocated to the portfolio, while the two lowest ranked asset classes are left out of the portfolio. In addition, if an asset class is not displaying positive momentum, it is not included in the portfolio even it is one of the three highest ranked asset classes. To represent the aforementioned asset classes, the adviser utilizes low-cost, index-tracking ETFs. These ETFs must have a competitive expense ratio, illustrate the ability to closely track the desired asset class’s benchmark, and maintain an appropriate amount of daily trading volume to help avoid liquidity issues.

 

This process is repeated monthly. The weighting for any individual asset class depends on the prevailing market conditions, with a maximum weight of 56.67% for high-yield U.S. bonds and U.S. Treasuries and a maximum weight of 21.67% for U.S. aggregate bond, investment grade U.S. bonds, and international government bonds. When 2 or less asset classes meet the model’s price momentum criteria, the Fund may invest heavily in U.S. Treasuries and U.S. short-term bonds until more asset classes become favorable for investing.

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Principal Investment Risks:

As with all funds, there is a risk that you could lose money through your investment in the Fund. Many factors affect the Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) and performance.

 

The following describes the risks of investing in the Fund. As with any fund, there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its goal.

 

Credit Risk. Credit risk is the risk that the issuer of a security and other instrument will not be able to make principal and interest payments when due. Credit risk may be substantial for the Fund.

 

ETF Investment Risk. Other investment companies, such as ETFs (“Underlying Funds”), in which the Fund invests are subject to investment advisory and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by the Fund. As a result, the cost of investing in the Fund will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying Funds and may be higher than other funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each of the Underlying Funds is subject to its own specific risks, but the adviser expects the principal investments risks of such Underlying Funds will be similar to the risks of investing in the Fund.

 

ETF Structure Risk. The Fund and each Underlying Fund are structured as ETFs and as a result the Fund is subject to special risks, including:

 

Not Individually Redeemable. The Fund’s shares (“Shares”) are not individually redeemable to retail investors and may be redeemed by the Fund only to authorized participants at NAV in large blocks known as “Creation Units.” An authorized participant may incur brokerage costs purchasing enough Shares to constitute a Creation Unit.

 

Trading Issues. An active trading market for Shares may not be developed or maintained. Trading in shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange. If Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as authorized participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for the Shares.

 

Market Price Variance Risk. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares and will include a “bid-ask spread” charged by the exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. There may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. This means that Shares may trade at a discount to NAV.

 

In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role market making in Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

To the extent authorized participants exit the business or are unable to process creations or redemptions and no other authorized participant can step in to do so, there may be a significantly reduced trading market in Shares, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

The market price for Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price.

 

When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

In stressed market conditions, the market for Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

Fixed Income Risk. When the Underlying Funds invest in fixed income securities, the value of your investment in the Fund will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in interest rates causes a decline in the value of fixed income securities owned by the Underlying Fund. In general, the market price of fixed income securities with longer maturities will increase or decrease more in response to changes in interest rates than shorter-term securities. Other risk factors include credit risk (the debtor may default), extension risk (an issuer may exercise its right to repay principal on a fixed rate obligation held by the Underlying Fund later than expected), and prepayment risk (the debtor may pay its obligation early, reducing the amount of interest payments). These risks could affect the value of a particular investment by the Underlying Fund, possibly causing the Share price and total return to be reduced and fluctuate more than other types of investments.

 

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Fluctuation of NAV Risk. The NAV of Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of the Fund’s holdings trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. In addition, unlike conventional ETFs, the Fund is not an index fund. The Fund is actively managed and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. Index based ETFs have generally traded at prices which closely correspond to NAV per share. Actively managed ETFs have a limited trading history and, therefore, there can be no assurance as to whether and/or the extent to which Shares will trade at premiums or discounts to NAV.

 

Foreign Securities Risk. Since the Fund’s investments may include ETFs with foreign securities, the Fund is subject to risks beyond those associated with investing in domestic securities. Foreign companies are generally not subject to the same regulatory requirements of U.S. companies thereby resulting in less publicly available information about these companies. In addition, foreign accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards generally differ from those applicable to U.S. companies.

 

Income Risk. The Fund’s income may decline when yields fall. This decline can occur because the Fund or the Underlying Fund may subsequently invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, are near maturity or are called, bonds in the Underlying Fund’s index are substituted, or the Fund or the Underlying Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.

 

Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Fund or the Underlying Fund to decline, may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income markets and may adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments. The Fund takes positions in ETFs that invest in U.S. Treasuries and other futures and interest rate swaps. As a result, when interest rates decline, the Fund will underperform funds with long-only investments in the same investment grade bonds as the Fund. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will have positive performance even in environments of sharply rising interest rates. There is no guarantee that the Fund or Underlying Fund will be able to successfully mitigate interest rate risk.

 

Junk Bonds Risk. Lower-quality bonds, known as “high yield” or “junk” bonds, present greater risk than bonds of higher quality, including an increased risk of default. An economic downturn or period of rising interest rates could adversely affect the market for these bonds and reduce the Fund’s ability to sell its bonds. The lack of a liquid market for these bonds could decrease the Share price.

 

Management Risk. The adviser may be incorrect in its assessment of the intrinsic value of the securities the Fund holds which may result in a decline in the value of Shares and failure to achieve its investment objective. The Fund’s portfolio managers use qualitative analyses and/or models. Any imperfections or limitations in such analyses and models could affect the ability of the portfolio managers to implement strategies.

 

Market Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, international conflicts, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on the U.S. financial market. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on the U.S. financial market. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, may last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment.

 

Municipal Bond Risk. Municipal bonds are subject to the risk that litigation, legislation or other political events, local business or economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, or the bankruptcy of the issuer could have a significant effect on an issuer’s ability to make payments of principal and/or interest or otherwise affect the value of such securities.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may buy and sell investments frequently. Such a strategy often involves higher transaction costs, including brokerage commissions, and may increase the amount of capital gains (in particular, short term gains) realized by the Fund. Shareholders may pay tax on such capital gains.

 

Securities Market Risk. The value of securities owned by the Fund may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting particular companies or the securities markets generally. A general downturn in the securities market may cause multiple asset classes to decline in value simultaneously.

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Performance:

The bar chart and performance table below show the variability of the Fund’s returns, which is some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows performance of the Fund’s shares for each calendar year since the Fund’s inception. The performance table compares the performance of the Fund over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information will be available at no cost by visiting https://wwformulafoliofunds.com/tactical-income-etf/ or by calling toll-free 888-562-8880.

 

Performance Bar Chart For Calendar Year Ended December 31

 

(BAR CHAT)

 

Best Quarter: 1st Quarter 2019 4.59%
Worst Quarter: 1st Quarter 2020 (7.44%)
     

The Fund’s year-to-date return as of the most recent quarter, which ended June 30, 2022 was (10.52)%.

 

Performance Table
Average Annual Total Returns
(For periods ended December 31, 2021)

 

  One Year Since
Inception
(6/6/17)
Return before taxes 0.90% 1.99%
Return after taxes on distributions (0.27)% 0.79%
Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares 0.52% 1.02%
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond (1.55)% 5.59%

 

Investment Adviser: FormulaFolio Investments, LLC (the “Adviser”).

 

Portfolio Manager: Mark DiOrio, has been Chief Investment Officer and led the Investment Committee of the investment adviser, Brookstone Capital Management, LLC since 2015. Following the merger of Brookstone Capital Management, LLC and FormulaFolio Investments, LLC, Mr. DiOrio serves as Chief Investment Officer and has served as the Fund’s portfolio manager since September 2020.

 

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares:  Individual Shares may be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through a broker dealer or at market price. Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange and trade at market prices rather than NAV. Shares may trade at a price that is greater than, at, or less than NAV. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (ask) when buying or selling Shares in the second market (the “bid-ask spread”). Information on the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts and bid-asks spreads is available on the Adviser’s website at https://formulafoliofunds.com/tactical-income-etf/.

 

Tax Information: The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income or long-term capital gains. A sale of shares may result in capital gain or loss.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

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Additional Information about Principal Investment Strategies and Related Risks
 

Investment Objective

 

Fund Investment Objective
FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF (“Hedged Growth ETF”) Seeks to provide capital growth
FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF (“Smart Growth ETF”) Seeks to provide capital growth
FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF (“Tactical Growth ETF”) Seeks long-term total return
FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF (“Tactical Income ETF”) Seeks to provide income

 

Each Fund’s investment objective may be changed by the Board of Trustees upon 60 days’ written notice to shareholders. The Funds’ investment policies may be changed by the Board of Trustees without shareholder approval unless otherwise noted in this Prospectus or the Statement of Additional Information.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

Hedged Growth ETF:

 

The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in domestic equity securities of any market capitalization and U.S. Treasuries through other unaffiliated ETFs (including leveraged ETFs and inverse ETFs). The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions.

 

The adviser’s first investment model identifies trends in the equity markets. If the model indicates that the Fund should be in the market because the market is doing well, as measured by a blend of various technical momentum indicators, the model suggests investments in leveraged ETFs. Leveraged ETFs are ETFs that use financial derivatives and debt to amplify the returns of an underlying index. If the model indicates that the Fund should not be in the market because the market is doing poorly, as measured by a blend of various technical momentum indicators, the model suggests hedging risk by investing in U.S. Treasuries, U.S. short-term bonds and/or inverse equity index ETFs. Inverse ETFs are ETFs constructed by using various derivatives for the purpose of profiting from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark such as an equity index. The Fund will not invest more than 15% of its assets in leveraged and inverse ETFs. The technical momentum indicators used to determine if the market is doing well or poorly include moving average crossovers (bearish when the shorter-term averages cross below the longer-term averages), oscillators (bearish when the current prices are closer to more recent low prices rather than more recent high prices), and price acceleration measurements (bearish when trading volume increases as prices are moving down, indicating faster downward price pressure).

 

The adviser’s second investment model uses two sub-strategies. The adviser allocates the Fund’s assets that are allocated to this investment model equally between the two sub-strategies.

 

The first sub-strategy identifies trends in the equity markets. When the economy appears to be doing well, the first sub-strategy suggests investments in a diversified mix of U.S. Equity ETFs. If the economy appears to be doing poorly, the first sub-strategy suggests investments in U.S. Treasury ETFs to help hedge against market risk.

 

If the model indicates that the Fund should be in the market because the market is doing well, the second sub-strategy of the model focuses on the nine individual sectors of the S&P 500. This component measures the sectors based on price and volume patterns. Sectors with lower volatility and stronger price performance trends receive a higher ranking; the sector ranked the highest is selected for the investment by the Fund. If none of the sectors displays a desirable risk-adjusted return, this sub-strategy suggests hedging risk by investing in U.S. Treasuries and inverse equity ETFs.

 

Smart Growth ETF:

 

The Fund is an actively managed ETF that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing through other unaffiliated ETFs primarily in domestic and foreign (including emerging markets) growth-oriented equity securities of any market capitalization (which includes real estate investment trusts (“REITs”)) and U.S. Treasuries or U.S. short-term bonds. The advisor uses

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proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions. The Fund is generally 100% invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs when the adviser’s investment models indicate a bullish trend for the equity market, and is generally 50% invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs and 50% invested in U.S. treasuries and/or U.S. short-term bonds to hedge risk when the adviser’s models indicate a bearish trend for the equity markets.

 

Half of the Fund’s portfolio is allocated to a basket of growth-oriented equity ETFs. The growth-oriented equity ETFs in the basket are selected based on their potential to generate higher than average returns, mainly in the form of capital appreciation, over a long period of time (at least two years) while carrying a higher than average level of risk (higher than average potential for large decreases in portfolio value) based on historical fundamental market research of various growth asset classes (e.g. small-cap U.S. stocks, large-cap U.S. stocks, emerging market stocks, and developed international stocks). The ETFs in the basket must have competitive expense ratios and closely track the asset class to which the ETF’s strategy is seeking exposure.

 

With the other half of the portfolio, the adviser uses its investment model to identify trends in the equity markets. If the model indicates that the equity markets are in a long-term (at least a year) bullish trend (stock prices are increasing) as measured by a blend of various technical momentum (analysis of price trends and supply and demand in the market in attempt to determine where prices are headed), economic, and behavioral (uses behavioral psychological data to attempt to determine why investors make certain financial decisions) analysis indicators, the model suggests investments in the same basket of growth-oriented equity ETFs as the other half of the portfolio, so the Fund is fully invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs. If the model indicates that the equity markets are in a bearish trend (stock prices are decreasing) as measured by a blend of various technical momentum, economic, and behavioral analysis indicators, the model suggests investments in U.S. Treasuries and/or other cash equivalents with the other half of the portfolio, so the Fund is 50% invested in growth-oriented equity ETFs and 50% invested in U.S. Treasuries and/or other cash equivalents to hedge risk. The technical momentum, economic, and behavioral analysis indicators used to determine if the market is doing well or poorly include moving average crossovers (bearish when the shorter term averages cross below the longer term averages), oscillators (bearish when the current prices are closer to more recent low prices rather than more recent high prices), price acceleration measurements (bearish when trading volume increases as prices are moving down, indicating faster downward price pressure) labor market data (bearish when fewer new jobs are being created and unemployment is trending up), market breadth data (bearish when a higher number of stocks are below their moving averages), earnings data (bearish when earnings estimates are being revised downward and when earnings are falling), and analyst sentiment data (bearish when analysts are revising lower economic growth). This half of the Fund’s portfolio is rebalanced monthly.

 

By combining numerous market indicators and various indicator types into a single screen, the model attempts to react only to major market movements while avoiding the numerous “false positive” signals that may be experienced when using a single stand-alone indicator. This can help reduce overall portfolio turnover, resulting in potential greater tax efficiency relative to other actively managed Funds. The Fund typically holds 6-7 ETFs in its portfolio.

 

Tactical Growth ETF:

 

The Fund is an actively managed ETF that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. It seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in foreign and domestic growth-oriented equity securities of any market capitalization, domestic investment grade fixed income securities (bonds) of any maturity or duration, domestic REITs, and commodities (gold) securities through other unaffiliated ETFs. The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide and make investment decisions.

 

The adviser uses its proprietary investment model to rank 5 major asset classes (U.S. stocks, foreign stocks of developed countries, real estate, gold, and U.S. aggregate bonds) based on the strongest price momentum, which measures the rate of the rise or fall in stock prices. The three highest-ranked asset classes are allocated to the portfolio with equal weightings, while the two lowest ranked asset classes are left out of the portfolio. In addition, if an asset class is not displaying positive momentum, it is not included in the portfolio even it is one of the three highest ranked asset classes. To represent the aforementioned asset classes, the adviser generally invests in one low-cost, index-tracking ETF for each represented asset class. These ETFs must, in the adviser’s opinion, have a competitive expense ratio (lowest quartile of peers), illustrate the ability to closely track its index, and maintain an appropriate amount of daily trading volume (the 50-day Average Dollar Volume of the underlying ETFs is at least 20 times greater than the 50-day Average Dollar Volume traded within the Fund) to help avoid liquidity issues.

 

This process is repeated monthly. The weighting for any individual asset class depends on the prevailing market conditions, with a maximum weight of 33.33% for any one asset class. When 2 or less asset classes meet the model’s price momentum criteria, the Fund may invest heavily in U.S. Treasuries and U.S. short-term bonds until more asset classes become favorable for investing.

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By combining numerous price momentum indicators into a single screen, and by ranking the various asset classes based on expected strength, the model attempts to actively accentuate the asset classes with the greatest potential for long term returns with minimal risk. The model seeks to only invest in asset classes with positive price momentum and exclude asset classes with negative (or relatively low) price momentum. The adviser believes that this can help produce more consistent returns through maintaining a broadly diversified allocation during periods of economic growth while also maintaining the ability to hedge downside risk during periods of perceived economic stress.

 

Tactical Income ETF:

 

The Fund is an actively managed ETF that is a fund of funds. As an actively managed fund, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of an index. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing through ETFs in primarily in foreign and domestic fixed income securities. The fixed income securities in which the ETFs invest are U.S. Treasuries, investment grade U.S. bonds, high-yield U.S. bonds (also known as “junk” bonds), U.S. aggregate bonds, municipal bonds and international government bonds of any maturity and duration. The advisor uses proprietary quantitative models with discretionary implementation to allocate the Fund’s assets. The advisor uses both internal and external market research sources to inform, guide, and make investment decisions.

 

The adviser uses its proprietary investment model to rank 5 major fixed income asset classes (U.S. treasuries, investment grade U.S. bonds, high-yield U.S. bonds, U.S. aggregate bond, and international government bond) based on the strongest combination of yield spread and price momentum. A yield spread is the difference between yields on fixed income securities of varying maturities, credit ratings and risk, which is calculated by deducting the yield of one instrument from another. Price momentum measures the rate of the rise or fall in stock prices.

 

The model evaluates the five fixed income asset classes noted above, and, to pass the initial screening process, an asset class must be in an uptrend, which means it must have experienced positive total returns (greater than 0%) over various time horizons. This trend is measured by using a blend of various price momentum indicators over short, intermediate, and long-term time periods.

 

Asset classes that pass this positive price momentum screen are then ranked based on relative strength as measured by yield spread. The highest-ranking asset classes receive a higher weight in the model, while the lower ranking asset classes receive a lower weight. Only the top three asset classes are allocated to the model, so even if all five asset classes pass the screen, the bottom two receive a weight of 0%. In addition, if an asset class is not displaying positive momentum, it is not included in the portfolio even it is one of the three highest ranked asset classes. Asset classes included in the portfolio are generally equal weighted, though high-yield or treasury bonds can be overweighed depending on various technical and macroeconomic factors (such as price momentum and yield spreads). This screening and ranking process is repeated monthly.

 

The weighting for any individual asset class depends on the prevailing market conditions, with a maximum weight of 56.67% for high-yield U.S. bonds and U.S. Treasuries and a maximum weight of 21.67% for U.S. aggregate bond, investment grade U.S. bonds, and international government bonds. When 2 or less asset classes meet the model’s criteria for price momentum of positive total returns over the short, intermediate, and long-term in the initial screening process, the Fund may invest heavily in U.S. Treasuries and U.S. short-term bonds until more asset classes become favorable for investing.

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Principal Investment Risk

 

The following describes the risks of investing in the Funds as noted below. “As with any fund, there is no guarantee that a Fund will achieve its goal.

 

Risk Hedged Growth
ETF
Smart Growth
ETF
Tactical Growth
ETF
Tactical Income
ETF
Commodity Risk     X  
Credit Risk X X X X
Emerging Markets Risk   X    
Equity Securities Risk X X X  
ETF Investment Risk X X X X
ETF Structure Risk X X X X
Fixed Income Risk     X X
Fluctuation of NAV Risk X X X X
Foreign Securities Risk X X X X
Growth Stock Risk X X X  
Income Risk X X X X
Interest Rate Risk X X X X
Inverse ETF Risk X      
Junk Bonds Risk       X
Leveraged ETF Risk X      
Management Risk X X X X
Market Risk X X X X
Municipal Bond Risk       X
Portfolio Turnover Risk X     X
REITs Risk   X X  
Sector Exposure Risk X   X  
Securities Market Risk X X   X
Small and Medium Capitalization Stock Risk X X X  
U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk X X X  

 

Commodity Risk. Exposure to the commodities futures markets may subject the Fund to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities. The value of commodity-linked derivative instruments and commodity-based notes may be affected by changes in overall market movements, commodity index volatility, changes in interest rates, or sectors affecting a particular industry or commodity, such as drought, floods, weather, livestock disease, embargoes, tariffs, and international economic, political and regulatory developments.

 

Credit Risk. Credit risk is the risk that an issuer of a security will fail to pay principal and interest in a timely manner, reducing a Fund’s total return. The Funds may invest in high-yield, high-risk securities commonly called “junk bonds”, that are not investment grade and are generally considered speculative because they present a greater risk of loss, including default, than higher quality debt securities. Credit risk may be substantial for the Funds.

 

Emerging Markets Risk. The Fund may invest in Underlying Funds that invest in securities issued by companies in countries with newly organized or less developed securities markets. There are typically greater risks involved in investing in emerging markets securities. Generally, economic structures in these countries are less diverse and mature than those in developed countries and their political systems tend to be less stable. There may also be less reliable or publicly-available information about emerging markets due to non-uniform regulatory, auditing or financial recordkeeping standards, which could cause errors in the implementation of the Fund’s investment strategy. Emerging market economies may be based on only a few industries, therefore security issuers, including governments, may be more susceptible to economic weakness and more likely to default. Emerging market countries also may have relatively unstable governments, weaker economies, and less-developed legal systems with fewer security holder rights. Investments in emerging markets countries may be affected by government policies that restrict foreign investment in certain issuers or industries. The potentially smaller size of their securities markets and lower trading volumes can

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make investments relatively illiquid and potentially more volatile than investments in developed countries, and such securities may be subject to abrupt and severe price declines. Due to this relative lack of liquidity, the Fund may have to accept a lower price or may not be able to sell a portfolio security at all. An inability to sell a portfolio position can adversely affect the Fund’s value or prevent the Fund from being able to meet cash obligations or take advantage of other investment opportunities.

 

Equity Securities Risk. Equity securities are susceptible to general stock market fluctuations and to volatile increases and decreases in value. The equity securities held by a Fund may experience sudden, unpredictable drops in value or long periods of decline in value. This may occur because of factors affecting securities markets generally, the equity securities of a particular sector, or a particular company.

 

ETF Investment Risk. The Underlying Funds are subject to investment advisory and other expenses, which will be indirectly paid by each Fund. As a result, the cost of investing in each Fund will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying Funds and may be higher than other mutual funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Each of the Underlying Funds is subject to its own specific risks, but the adviser expects the principal investments risks of such Underlying Funds will be similar to the risks of investing in each Fund, respectively. Additional risks of investing in ETFs are described below:

 

ETF Tracking Risk. Investment in each Fund should be made with the understanding that passive ETFs in which a Fund invests will not be able to replicate exactly the performance of the indices they track because the total return generated by the securities will be reduced by transaction costs incurred in adjusting the actual balance of the securities. In addition, the passive ETFs in which a Fund invests will incur expenses not incurred by their applicable indices. Certain securities comprising the indices tracked by the passive ETFs may, from time to time, temporarily be unavailable, which may further impede the passive ETFs’ ability to track their applicable indices.

 

Inverse Correlation Risk. ETFs that are inverse funds should lose value as the index or security tracked by such fund’s benchmark increases in value; a result that is the opposite from traditional mutual funds. Successful use of inverse funds requires that the adviser correctly predict short term market movements. If a Fund invests in an inverse fund and markets rise, the Fund could lose money. Inverse funds may also employ leverage such that their returns are more than one times that of their benchmark.

 

Management Risk. When a Fund invests in ETFs there is a risk that the investment advisers of those ETFs may make investment decisions that are detrimental to the performance of the Fund.

 

Net Asset Value and Market Price Risk. The market value of ETF shares may differ from their NAV. This difference in price may be due to the fact that the supply and demand in the market for fund shares at any point in time is not always identical to the supply and demand in the market for the underlying basket of securities. Accordingly, there may be times when shares trade at a premium or discount to NAV.

 

Strategies Risk. Each ETF is subject to specific risks, depending on the nature of the fund.

 

ETF Structure Risk. Each Fund and each Underlying Fund are structured as ETFs and as a result each Fund is subject to the special risks, including:

 

Not Individually Redeemable. The Fund’s shares (“Shares”) are not individually redeemable to retail investors and may be redeemed by the Fund only to authorized participants at NAV in large blocks known as “Creation Units.” An authorized participant may incur brokerage costs purchasing enough Shares to constitute a Creation Unit.

 

Trading Issues. An active trading market for Shares may not be developed or maintained. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange. If Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as authorized participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for Shares.

 

Market Price Variance Risk. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares. The market price of Shares, like the price of any exchange traded security, includes a “bid-ask spread” charged by the exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. There may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. This means that Shares may trade at a discount to NAV. The Fund’s investment results are measured based upon the daily NAV of the Fund over a period of time. Investor purchasing and selling Shares in the secondary market may not experience investment results consistent with

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those experienced by those creating and redeeming directly with the Fund.

 

In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role market making in Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

To the extent authorized participants exit the business or are unable to process creations or redemptions and no other authorized participant can step in to do so, there may be a significantly reduced trading market in the Shares, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

The market price for Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price.

 

When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

In stressed market conditions, the market for Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of the Shares and the Fund’s NAV.

 

Fixed Income Risk. Fixed income risk factors include credit risk (the debtor may default) and prepayment risk (the debtor may pay its obligation early or later than expected, potentially reducing the amount of interest payments or extending time to principal repayment). These risks could affect the value of a particular investment possibly causing the a Fund’s share price and total return to be reduced and fluctuate more than other types of investments. When a Fund invests in fixed income securities the value of your investment in the Fund will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Typically, a rise in interest rates causes a decline in the value of fixed income securities. In general, the market price of debt securities with longer maturities will increase or decrease more in response to changes in interest rates than shorter-term securities. If the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee raises the federal funds interest rate target, interest rates across the U.S. financial system may rise. However, the magnitude of rate changes across maturities and borrower sectors is uncertain. Rising rates may decrease liquidity and increase volatility, which may make portfolio management more difficult and costly to a Fund and its shareholders. Additionally, default risk increases if issuers must borrow at higher rates. Generally, these changing market conditions may cause a Fund’s share price to fluctuate or decline more than other types of equity investments.

 

Fluctuation of NAV Risk. The NAV of each Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of and demand for Shares on the Exchange. The adviser cannot predict whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of each Fund’s holdings trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. In addition, unlike conventional ETFs, the Funds are not index funds. The Funds are actively managed and do not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. Index based ETFs have generally traded at prices which closely correspond to NAV per share. Actively managed ETFs have a limited trading history and, therefore, there can be no assurance as to whether and/or the extent to which Shares will trade at premiums or discounts to NAV.

 

Foreign Securities Risk. To the extent a Fund invests in Underlying Funds that own foreign securities, the Fund could be subject to greater risks because the Fund’s performance may depend on issues other than the performance of a particular company or U.S. market sector. Changes in foreign economies and political climates are more likely to affect the Fund than a mutual fund that invests exclusively in U.S. companies. The value of foreign securities is also affected by the value of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar. There may also be less government supervision of foreign markets, resulting in non-uniform accounting practices and less publicly available information. The values of foreign investments may be affected by changes in exchange control regulations, application of foreign tax laws (including withholding tax), changes in governmental administration or economic or monetary policy (in this country or abroad) or changed circumstances in dealings between nations. In addition, foreign brokerage commissions, custody fees and other costs of investing in foreign securities are generally higher than in the United States. Investments in foreign issues could be affected by other factors not present in the United States, including expropriation, armed conflict, confiscatory taxation, and potential difficulties in enforcing contractual obligations. As a result, the Fund may be exposed to greater risk and will be more dependent on the adviser’s ability to assess such risk than if the Fund invested solely in more developed countries.

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Growth Stock Risk. Growth stocks can react differently to issuer, political, market, and economic developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Growth stocks also tend to be more expensive relative to their earnings or assets compared to other types of stocks. As a result, growth stocks tend to be sensitive to changes in their earnings and more volatile in price than the stock market as a whole. In addition, companies that the adviser believes have significant growth potential are often companies with new, limited or cyclical product lines, markets or financial resources and the management of such companies may be dependent upon one or a few key people. The stocks of such companies can therefore be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies or the stock market in general.

 

Income Risk. Each Fund’s income may decline when yields fall. This decline can occur because a Fund or its Underlying Funds may subsequently invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, are near maturity or are called, bonds in the Underlying Funds’ index are substituted, or a Fund or its Underlying Funds otherwise need to purchase additional bonds.

 

Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Funds or the Underlying Funds to decline, may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income markets and may adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments. The Funds take positions in ETFs that invest in U.S. Treasury and other futures and interest rate swaps. As a result, when interest rates decline, the Funds underperform funds with long-only investments in the same investment grade bonds as the Funds. There is no guarantee that the Funds or Underlying Funds will have positive performance even in environments of sharply rising interest rates. There is no guarantee that the Funds or Underlying Funds will be able to successfully mitigate interest rate risk.

 

Inverse ETF Risk. Investing in inverse ETFs may result in increased volatility due to an inverse ETF’s possible use of short sales of securities and derivatives such as options and futures. The use of leverage by an ETF increases risk to the Fund. The more a fund invests in leveraged instruments, the more the leverage will magnify any gains or losses on those investments. Many inverse ETFs utilize daily futures contracts to produce their returns, and this frequent trading often increases fund expenses. Investments in inverse ETFs are speculative and are not meant to be long-term investments. During periods of increased volatility, inverse ETFs may not perform in the manner they are designed.

 

Junk Bonds Risk. Lower-quality bonds, known as “high yield” or “junk” bonds, present a significant risk for loss of principal and interest. These bonds offer the potential for higher return, but also involve greater risk than bonds of higher quality, including an increased possibility that the bond’s issuer, obligor or guarantor may not be able to make its payments of interest and principal (credit quality risk). If that happens, the value of the bond may decrease, and the Fund’s share price may decrease and its income distribution may be reduced. An economic downturn or period of rising interest rates (interest rate risk) could adversely affect the market for these bonds and reduce the Fund’s ability to sell its bonds (liquidity risk). Such securities may also include “Rule 144A” securities, which are subject to resale restrictions. The lack of a liquid market for these bonds could decrease the Fund’s share price.

 

Leveraged ETF Risk. Investing in leveraged ETFs amplifies the Fund’s gains and losses. Most leveraged ETFs “reset” daily. Due to the effect of compounding, their performance over longer periods of time can differ significantly from the performance of their underlying index or benchmark during the same period of time.

 

Management Risk. Each Fund’s ability to identify and invest in attractive opportunities is dependent upon the adviser. If one or more key individuals leave, the adviser may not be able to hire qualified replacements or may require extended time to do so. This situation could prevent each Fund from achieving its investment objectives. Each Fund’s portfolio managers use quantitative analyses and/or models. Any imperfections or limitations in such analyses and models could affect the ability of the portfolio managers to implement strategies. By necessity, these analyses and models make simplifying assumptions that limit their efficacy. Models that appear to explain prior market data can fail to predict future market events. Further, the data used in models may be inaccurate and/or it may not include the most recent information about a company or a security.

 

Market Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in a Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, international conflicts, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years, such as terrorist attacks around the world, natural disasters, social and political discord or debt crises and downgrades, among others, may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on the U.S. financial market. It is difficult to predict when similar events affecting the U.S. financial market may occur, the effects that such events may have and the duration of those effects. Any such event(s) could have a significant

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adverse impact on the value and risk profile of a Fund’s portfolio. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on the U.S. financial market. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, will or would last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment. Therefore, a Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during more prolonged market downturns. During a general market downturn, multiple asset classes may be negatively affected. Changes in market conditions and interest rates can have the same impact on all types of securities and instruments. In times of severe market disruptions you could lose your entire investment.

 

Municipal Bonds Risk. Municipal bonds are subject to the risk that litigation, legislation or other political events, local business or economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, or the bankruptcy of the issuer could have a significant effect on an issuer’s ability to make payments of principal and/or interest or otherwise affect the value of such securities. Certain municipalities may have difficulty meeting their obligations due to changes in underlying demographics. Municipal bonds can be significantly affected by political changes and uncertainties in the municipal market related to government regulation, taxation, legislative changes or the rights of municipal security holders. There may be less information available on the financial condition of issuers of municipal securities than for public corporations.

 

Portfolio Turnover Risk. A Fund may buy and sell investments frequently. Such a strategy often involves higher transaction costs, including brokerage commissions, and may increase the amount of capital gains (in particular, short term gains) realized by the Fund. Shareholders may pay tax on such capital gains.

 

REITs Risk. A Fund’s investments in Underlying Funds that hold REITs may subject the Fund to the following additional risks: declines in the value of real estate, changes in interest rates, lack of available mortgage funds or other limits on obtaining capital, overbuilding, extended vacancies of properties, increases in property taxes and operating expenses, changes in zoning laws and regulations, casualty or condemnation losses and tax consequences of the failure of a REIT to comply with tax law requirements. The Fund bears a proportionate share of the REIT’s ongoing operating fees and expenses, which may include management, operating and administrative expenses in addition to the expenses of the Fund.

 

Sector Exposure Risk. Sector exposure risk is the possibility that securities within the same sector will decline in price due to sector-specific market or economic developments. If a Fund invests more heavily in a particular sector, the value of its shares may be especially sensitive to factors and economic risks that specifically affect that sector. As a result, the Fund’s share price may fluctuate more widely than the value of shares of a mutual fund that invests in a broader range of sectors. Additionally, some sectors could be subject to greater government regulation than other sectors. Therefore, changes in regulatory policies for those sectors may have a material effect on the value of securities issued by companies in those sectors.

 

Securities Market Risk. Stock market risk is the risk that the value of securities owned by the Funds may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting particular companies or the securities markets generally. A general downturn in the securities market may cause multiple asset classes to decline in value simultaneously, although equity securities generally have greater price volatility than fixed income securities. In addition, the Funds could experience a loss when selling securities in order to meet unusually large or frequent redemption requests in times of overall market turmoil or declining prices for the securities sold. Stock prices change daily, sometimes rapidly, in response to company activity and general economic and market conditions. Certain stocks may decline in value even during periods when the prices of equity securities in general are rising, or may not perform as well as the market in general. Stock prices may also experience greater volatility during periods of challenging market conditions such as the one that the market recently experienced.

 

Small and Medium Capitalization Risk. The stocks of small and medium capitalization companies involve substantial risk. These companies may have limited product lines, markets or financial resources, and they may be dependent on a limited management group. Stocks of these companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than those of larger, more established companies or the market averages in general.

 

U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. U.S. Treasury obligations are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government and generally have negligible credit risk. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.

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Temporary Investments

 

To respond to adverse market, economic, political or other conditions, each Fund may invest 100% of its total assets, without limitation, in high-quality short-term debt securities and money market instruments. These short-term debt securities and money market instruments include: shares of money market mutual funds, commercial paper, certificates of deposit, bankers’ acceptances, U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements. While each Fund is in a defensive position, the opportunity to achieve its investment objective will be limited. Furthermore, to the extent that a Fund invests in money market mutual funds for cash positions, there will be some duplication of expenses because the Fund pays its pro-rata portion of such money market funds’ advisory fees and operational fees. Each Fund may also invest a substantial portion of its assets in such instruments at any time to maintain liquidity or pending selection of investments in accordance with its policies.

 

Portfolio Holdings Disclosure

 

A description of the Funds’ policies and procedures regarding the release of portfolio holdings information is available in the Funds’ Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”).

 

Operational and Cybersecurity Risk

 

Fund operations, including business, financial, accounting, data processing systems or other operating systems and facilities may be disrupted, disabled or damaged as a result of a number of factors, including events that are wholly or partially beyond our control. For example, there could be electrical or telecommunications outages; degradation or loss of internet or web services; natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes; climate-change and climate-related events; disease pandemics; or events arising from local or larger scale political or social events, as well as terrorist acts.

 

The Funds are also subject to the risk of potential cyber incidents, which may include, but are not limited to, the harming of or unauthorized access to digital systems (for example, through “hacking” or infection by computer viruses or other malicious software code), denial-of-service attacks on websites, and the inadvertent or intentional release of confidential or proprietary information. Cyber incidents may, among other things, harm Fund operations, result in financial losses to the Funds and their shareholders, cause the release of confidential or highly restricted information, and result in regulatory penalties, reputational damage, and/or increased compliance, reimbursement or other compensation costs. Fund operations that may be disrupted or halted due to a cyber incident include trading, the processing of shareholder transactions, and the calculation of a Fund’s net asset value.

 

Issues affecting operating systems and facilities through cyber incidents, any of the scenarios described above, or other factors, may harm the Funds by affecting the Adviser, or other service providers, or issuers of securities in which the Funds invest. Although the Funds have business continuity plans and other safeguards in place, including what the Funds believe to be robust information security procedures and controls, there is no guarantee that these measures will prevent cyber incidents or prevent or ameliorate the effects of significant and widespread disruption to our physical infrastructure or operating systems. Furthermore, the Funds cannot directly control the security or other measures taken by unaffiliated service providers or the issuers of securities in which the Funds invest. Such risks at issuers of securities in which the Funds invest could result in material adverse consequences for such issuers and may cause a Fund’s investment in such securities to lose value.

 

Securities Lending

 

To generate additional income, each Fund may lend its portfolio securities to qualified banks, broker-dealers and other financial institutions (referred to as “borrowers”), provided that: (i) the loan is continuously secured by collateral in cash, cash equivalents, bank letters of credit or U.S. Government securities equal to at least 100% of the value of the loaned securities, and such collateral is valued, or “marked to market,” daily (borrowers are required to furnish additional collateral to a Fund as necessary to fully cover its obligations); (ii) the loan may be recalled at any time by the Fund and the loaned securities returned; (iii) a Fund will receive any interest, dividends or other distributions paid on the loaned securities; and (iv) the aggregate value of the loaned securities will not exceed 33 1/3% of a Fund’s total assets. A Fund generally retains part or all of the interest received on investment of the cash collateral or receives a fee from the borrower. While this practice will not impact a Fund’s principal investment strategy, it does subject a Fund to the securities lending risk described in this Prospectus.

 

Loans of securities involve a risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities or may fail to maintain the proper amount of collateral, which may result in a loss of money by a Fund or a delay in recovering the loaned securities. In addition, in the

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event of bankruptcy of the borrower, a Fund could experience delays in recovering the loaned securities or only recover cash or a security of equivalent value. Therefore, a Fund will only enter into portfolio loans after a review of all pertinent factors by the Adviser under the oversight of the Board of Trustees, including the creditworthiness of the borrower and then only if the consideration to be received from such loans would justify the risk. Creditworthiness will be monitored on an ongoing basis by the adviser. An attempt may be made to recall a loan in time to vote proxies if fund management has knowledge of a material vote respect to the loaned securities and the matter involved would have a material effect on a Fund’s investment in the security. The costs of securities lending are not reflected in each Fund’s “Annual Fund Operating Expenses” table or “Example” above.

 

Securities Lending Risk. Each of the Funds may lend its portfolio securities to financial institutions under guidelines adopted by the Board of Trustees, including a requirement that the Fund receive cash collateral from the borrower equal to no less than 100% of the market value of the securities loaned. Each Fund may invest this cash collateral in high quality short-term debt obligations, government obligations, bank guarantees or money market mutual funds. Securities lending involves two primary risks: “investment risk” and “borrower default risk.” Investment risk is the risk that a Fund will lose money from the investment of the cash collateral. Borrower default risk is the risk that a Fund will lose money due to the failure of a borrower to return a borrowed security in a timely manner.

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Management
 

Investment Adviser

 

FormulaFolio Investments, LLC, located at 1745 S. Naperville Rd. Suite 200, Wheaton, IL 60189, serves as each Fund’s investment adviser (the “Adviser”). The Adviser is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. As of May 31, 2022, the Adviser manages separate accounts and mutual funds and has approximately $7.682 billion in assets under management.

 

Subject to the oversight of the Board of Trustees, the Adviser is responsible for managing the Fund’s investments, placing trade orders and providing related administrative services and facilities under an advisory agreement between each Fund and the Adviser (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”).

 

The management fee set forth in the Investment Advisory Agreement is 0.80% of the average daily net assets for Hedged Growth ETF, 0.35% of the average daily net assets for Smart Growth ETF, 0.60% of the average daily net assets for Tactical Growth ETF and 0.60% of the average daily net assets for Tactical Income ETF annually, to be paid on a monthly basis. In addition to investment advisory fees, each Fund pays other expenses including costs incurred in connection with the maintenance of securities law registration, printing and mailing prospectuses and statements of additional information to shareholders, certain financial accounting services, taxes or governmental fees, custodial, transfer and shareholder servicing agent costs, expenses of outside counsel and independent accountants, preparation of shareholder reports and expenses of trustee and shareholders meetings. A discussion regarding the basis for the Board of Trustees’ approval of the advisory agreement is available in the Funds’ semi-annual report to shareholders dated November 30, 2021.

 

The Adviser has contractually agreed to reduce its fees and/or absorb expenses of each Fund, until at least September 30, 2023, to ensure that total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or reimbursement excluding (i) any front-end or contingent deferred loads; (ii) brokerage fees and commissions, (iii) acquired fund fees and expenses; (iv) fees and expenses associated with investments in other collective investment vehicles or derivative instruments (including for example option and swap fees and expenses); (v) borrowing costs (such as interest and dividend expense on securities sold short); (vi) taxes; and (vii) extraordinary expenses, such as litigation expenses (which may include indemnification of Fund officers and Trustees, contractual indemnification of Fund service providers (other than the Adviser)) will not exceed 0.95% of the average daily net assets of Hedged Growth ETF, 0.60% of the average daily net assets of Smart Growth ETF, 0.80% of the average daily net assets of Tactical Growth ETF and 0.80% of the average daily net assets of Tactical Income ETF; subject to possible recoupment from the Fund in future years within the three years from the date the fees have been waived or reimbursed if such recoupment can be achieved within the lesser of the expense limitations in place at the time of waiver and the expense limitation in place at the time of recapture. The expense limit arrangement may not be terminated during this time period without prior approval of the Board of Trustees on 60 days’ written notice to the Adviser. Fee waiver and reimbursement arrangements can decrease each Fund’s expenses and boost its performance.

 

Portfolio Manager

 

Mark DiOrio

 

Mark DiOrio has been Chief Investment Officer and led the Investment Committee of the investment adviser, Brookstone Capital Management, LLC since 2015. Following the merger of Brookstone Capital Management, LLC and FormulaFolio Investments, LLC, Mark DiOrio serves as Chief Investment Officer and has served as each Fund’s portfolio manager since September 2020. Mark has nearly 20 years of investment industry experience, including 10 years of multi-asset class portfolio management.

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How Shares Are Priced
 

Shares of a Fund are bought and sold at a price in two different ways depending upon the type of investor.

 

All investors including retail investors and authorized participants may buy and sell Shares in secondary market transactions through brokers at market prices and the Shares will trade at market prices.

 

Only authorized participants may buy and redeem Shares from a Fund directly and those transactions are effected at the Fund’s NAV.

 

The NAV of a Fund is determined at close of regular trading (normally 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on each day the Exchange is open for business. NAV is computed by determining, the aggregate market value of all assets of the applicable Fund, less its liabilities, divided by the total number of shares outstanding ((assets-liabilities)/number of shares = NAV). The Exchange is closed on weekends and New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day (“Exchange Close”). The NAV takes into account, the expenses and fees of a Fund, including management, administration, and distribution fees, which are accrued daily. The determination of NAV for a Fund for a particular day is applicable to all applications for the purchase of shares, as well as all requests for the redemption of shares, received by the Fund (or an authorized broker or agent, or its authorized designee) before the close of trading on the Exchange on that day.

 

Generally, a Fund’s portfolio securities, including securities issued by ETFs, are valued each day at the last quoted sales price on each security’s primary exchange. Securities traded or dealt in upon one or more securities exchanges (whether domestic or foreign) for which market quotations are readily available and not subject to restrictions against resale shall be valued at the last quoted sales price on the primary exchange or, in the absence of a sale on the primary exchange, at the mean between the current bid and ask prices on such exchange. Securities primarily traded in the National Association of Securities Dealers’ Automated Quotation System (“NASDAQ”) National Market System for which market quotations are readily available shall be valued using the NASDAQ Official Closing Price. Securities that are not traded on any securities exchange (whether domestic or foreign) and for which over-the-counter market quotations are readily available generally shall be valued at the last sale price or, in the absence of a sale, at the mean between the current bid and ask price on such over-the-counter market. Debt securities not traded on an exchange may be valued at prices supplied by a pricing agent(s) based on broker or dealer supplied valuations or matrix pricing, a method of valuing securities by reference to the value of other securities with similar characteristics, such as rating, interest rate and maturity.

 

If market quotations are not readily available, securities will be valued at their fair market value as determined using the “fair value” procedures approved by the Board of Trustees. Fair value pricing involves subjective judgements and it is possible that the fair value determined for a security may be materially different than the value that could be realized upon the sale of that security. The fair value prices can differ from market prices when they become available or when a price becomes available. The Board of Trustees has delegated execution of these procedures to the Adviser. The Adviser may also enlist third party consultants such as an audit firm or financial officer of a security issuer on an as-needed basis to assist in determining a security-specific fair value. The Board of Trustees reviews and approves the execution of this process and the resultant fair value prices at least quarterly to assure the process produces reliable results.

 

A Fund may use independent pricing services to assist in calculating the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities. In addition, market prices for foreign securities are not determined at the same time of day as the NAV for a Fund. Because a Fund may invest in underlying ETFs which hold portfolio securities primarily listed on foreign exchanges, and these exchanges may trade on weekends or other days when the underlying ETFs do not price their shares, the value of some of the Fund’s portfolio securities may change on days when you may not be able to buy or sell Fund shares.

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How to Buy and Sell Shares
 

Buying and Selling Shares on the Secondary Market

 

Shares of the Funds are listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbols FFHG for the Hedged Growth ETF, FFSG for Smart Growth ETF, FFTG for the Tactical Growth ETF and FFTI for Tactical Income ETF. Share prices are reported in dollars and cents per Share. Shares can be bought and sold on the secondary market throughout the trading day like shares of other publicly-traded shares. Shares typically trade in blocks of less than a Creation Unit There is no minimum investment required. Shares may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market when the Exchange is open for trading. The Exchange is open for trading Monday through Friday and is closed on weekends and the following holidays, as observed: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

 

When buying or selling shares through a broker, you will incur customary brokerage commissions and charges, and you may pay some or all of the spread between the bid and the offered price in the secondary market on each leg of a round trip (purchase and sale) transaction.

 

Authorized participants may acquire Shares directly from the Funds, and authorized participants may tender their shares for redemption directly to the Funds, at NAV per Share only in large blocks, or Creation Units, of 50,000 shares for each of Hedged Growth ETF and Tactical Income ETF, and 25,000 shares for each of Smart Growth ETF and Tactical Growth ETF.

 

Each Fund issues and redeems Shares at NAV only in Creation Units to authorized participants that have entered into agreements with the Fund’s distributor. Creation Units are issued and redeemed for cash and/or in-kind for securities. Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Shares are not redeemable securities of the Funds.

 

Each Fund may liquidate and terminate at any time without shareholder approval.

 

Premium/Discount Information

 

Investors other than authorized participants will buy and sell Shares in secondary market transactions through brokers at market prices and the Shares will trade at market prices. The market price of Shares may be greater than, equal to, or less than NAV. Market forces of supply and demand, economic conditions and other factors may affect the trading prices of Shares.

 

Book Entry

 

Shares are held in book entry form, which means that no stock certificates are issued. The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) or its nominee is the record owner of all outstanding Shares and is recognized as the owner of all shares for all purposes.

 

Investors owning shares are beneficial owners as shown on the records of DTC or its participants. DTC serves as the securities depository for all Shares. Participants in DTC include securities brokers and dealers, banks, trust companies, clearing corporations and other institutions that directly or indirectly maintain a custodial relationship with DTC. As a beneficial owner of shares, you are not entitled to receive physical delivery of stock certificates or to have shares registered in your name, and you are not considered a registered owner of shares. Therefore, to exercise any right as an owner of shares, you must rely upon the procedures of DTC and its participants. These procedures are the same as those that apply to any other securities that you hold in book entry or “street name” form.

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Frequent Purchases and Redemptions of Fund Shares
 

The Board of Trustees has not adopted a policy of monitoring for other frequent trading activity because shares of the Funds are listed for trading on a national securities exchange.

 

Distribution and Service Plan
 

The Funds have adopted a distribution and service plan (“Plan”) pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act. Under the Plan, the Funds are authorized to pay distribution fees to the distributor and other firms that provide distribution and shareholder services (“Service Providers”). If a Service Provider provides these services, the Funds may pay fees at an annual rate not to exceed 0.25% of average daily net assets, pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the1940 Act.

 

No distribution or service fees are currently paid by the Funds, and will not be paid by the Funds unless authorized by the Board of Trustees. There are no current plans to impose these fees. In the event Rule 12b-1 fees were charged, over time they would increase the cost of an investment in the Funds.

 

Dividends, Other Distributions and Taxes
 

Shares are traded throughout the day in the secondary market on a national securities exchange on an intra-day basis and are created and redeemed in-kind and/or for cash in Creation Units at each day’s next calculated NAV. In-kind arrangements are designed to protect ongoing shareholders from the adverse effects on a Fund’s portfolio that could arise from frequent cash redemption transactions. In a conventional mutual fund, redemptions can have an adverse tax impact on taxable shareholders if the mutual fund needs to sell portfolio securities to obtain cash to meet net fund redemptions. These sales may generate taxable gains for the ongoing shareholders of the mutual fund, whereas the shares’ in-kind redemption mechanism generally will not lead to a tax event for the Funds or its ongoing shareholders.

 

Ordinarily, dividends from net investment income, if any, are declared and paid monthly by the Tactical Income ETF and declared and paid quarterly by the Hedged Growth ETF, Smart Growth ETF and Tactical Growth ETF. The Funds distribute their net realized capital gains, if any, to shareholders annually. The Fund may also pay a special distribution at the end of a calendar year to comply with federal tax requirements.

 

No dividend reinvestment service is provided by the Funds. Broker-dealers may make available the DTC book-entry Dividend Reinvestment Service for use by beneficial owners of the Funds for reinvestment of their dividend distributions. Beneficial owners should contact their broker to determine the availability and costs of the service and the details of participation therein. Brokers may require beneficial owners to adhere to specific procedures and timetables. If this service is available and used, dividend distributions of both income and realized gains will be automatically reinvested in additional whole shares of the Funds purchased in the secondary market

 

Distributions in cash may be reinvested automatically in additional whole shares only if the broker through whom you purchased shares makes such option available.

 

Taxes

 

As with any investment, you should consider how your investment in Shares will be taxed. The tax information in this Prospectus is provided as general information. You should consult your own tax professional about the tax consequences of an investment in shares.

 

Unless your investment in shares is made through a tax-exempt entity or tax-deferred retirement account, such as an individual retirement account, you need to be aware of the possible tax consequences when:

 

A Fund makes distributions,

 

You sell your Shares listed on the Exchange, and

 

You purchase or redeem Creation Units

33

 

Taxes on Distributions

 

Distributions from a Fund’s net investment income, including net short-term capital gains, if any, are taxable to you as ordinary income, except that each Fund’s dividends attributable to its “qualified dividend income” (i.e., dividends received on stock of most domestic and certain foreign corporations with respect to which the Fund satisfies certain holding period and other restrictions), if any, generally are subject to federal income tax for non-corporate shareholders who satisfy those restrictions with respect to their Shares at the rate for net capital gain. A part of a Fund’s dividends also may be eligible for the dividends-received deduction allowed to corporations -- the eligible portion may not exceed the aggregate dividends each Fund receives from domestic corporations subject to federal income tax (excluding REITs) and excludes dividends from foreign corporations -- subject to similar restrictions. However, dividends a corporate shareholder deducts pursuant to that deduction are subject indirectly to the federal alternative minimum tax.

 

In general, your distributions are subject to federal income tax when they are paid, whether you take them in cash or reinvest them in the Funds (if that option is available). Distributions reinvested in additional Shares through the means of a dividend reinvestment service, if available, will be taxable to shareholders acquiring the additional shares to the same extent as if such distributions had been received in cash. Distributions of net long-term capital gains, if any, in excess of net short-term capital losses are taxable as long-term capital gains, regardless of how long you have held the Shares.

 

Distributions in excess of a Fund’s current and accumulated earnings and profits are treated as a tax-free return of capital to the extent of your basis in the shares and as capital gain thereafter. A distribution will reduce a Fund’s NAV per share and may be taxable to you as ordinary income or capital gain (as described above) even though, from an investment standpoint, the distribution may constitute a return of capital.

 

Taxes on Exchange-Listed Share Sales

 

Any capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of Shares is generally treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for more than one year and as short-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for one year or less. The ability to deduct capital losses from sales of Shares may be limited.

 

Taxes on Purchase and Redemption of Creation Units

 

An authorized participant that exchanges securities for Creation Units generally will recognize a gain or a loss equal to the difference between the market value of the Creation Units at the time of the exchange and the sum of the exchanger’s aggregate basis in the securities surrendered plus any Cash Component it pays. An authorized participant that exchanges Creation Units for securities will generally recognize a gain or loss equal to the difference between the exchanger’s basis in the Creation Units and the sum of the aggregate market value of the securities received plus any cash equal to the difference between the NAV of the Shares being redeemed and the value of the securities. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), however, may assert that a loss realized upon an exchange of securities for Creation Units cannot be deducted currently under the rules governing “wash sales” or for other reasons. Persons exchanging securities should consult their own tax advisor with respect to whether wash sale rules apply and when a loss might be deductible.

 

Any capital gain or loss realized upon redemption of Creation Units is generally treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the Shares have been held for more than one year and as short-term capital gain or loss if the Shares have been held for one year or less.

 

If an authorized participant purchases or redeems Creation Units, the authorized participant will be sent a confirmation statement showing how many Shares the authorized participant purchased or sold and at what price. See “Tax Status” in the SAI for a description of the newly effective requirement regarding basis determination methods applicable to share redemptions and each Fund’s obligation to report basis information to the IRS.

 

The foregoing discussion summarizes some of the possible consequences under current federal tax law of an investment in the Funds. It is not a substitute for personal tax advice. Consult your personal tax advisor about the potential tax consequences of an investment in the Shares under all applicable tax laws. See “Tax Status” in the SAI for more information.

34

 

Fund Service Providers
 

Ultimus Fund Solutions, LLC is the Funds’ administrator and fund accountant. It has its principal office at 225 Pictoria Drive, Suite 450, Cincinnati, OH 45246, and is primarily in the business of providing administrative, fund accounting and transfer agent services to retail and institutional mutual funds. It is an affiliate of Northern Lights Distributors, LLC.

 

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., 50 Post Office Square, Boston, MA 02110, is the Funds’ transfer agent and custodian.

 

Northern Lights Distributors, LLC (the “Distributor”), 4221 North 203rd Street, Suite 100, Elkhorn, NE 68022-3474, is the distributor for Shares. The Distributor is a registered broker-dealer and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”).

 

Thompson Hine LLP, 41 South High Street, 17th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215, serves as legal counsel to the Trust.

 

Cohen & Company, Ltd., 342 North Water Street, Suite 830, Milwaukee, WI 53202, serves as the Funds’ independent registered public accounting firm. The independent registered public accounting firm is responsible for auditing the annual financial statements of the Funds.

 

Other Information
 

Continuous Offering

 

The method by which Creation Units of Shares are created and traded may raise certain issues under applicable securities laws. Because new Creation Units of Shares are issued and sold by the Funds on an ongoing basis, a “distribution”, as such term is used in the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), may occur at any point. Broker-dealers and other persons are cautioned that some activities on their part may, depending on the circumstances, result in their being deemed participants in a distribution in a manner which could render them statutory underwriters and subject them to the prospectus delivery requirement and liability provisions of the Securities Act.

 

For example, a broker-dealer firm or its client may be deemed a statutory underwriter if it takes Creation Units after placing an order with the Distributor, breaks them down into constituent shares and sells the shares directly to customers or if it chooses to couple the creation of a supply of new shares with an active selling effort involving solicitation of secondary market demand for shares. A determination of whether one is an underwriter for purposes of the Securities Act must take into account all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the activities of the broker-dealer or its client in the particular case, and the examples mentioned above should not be considered a complete description of all the activities that could lead to a characterization as an underwriter.

 

Broker-dealer firms should also note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are effecting transactions in shares, whether or not participating in the distribution of shares, are generally required to deliver a prospectus. This is because the prospectus delivery exemption in Section 4(3) of the Securities Act is not available in respect of such transactions as a result of Section 24(d) of the 1940 Act. As a result, broker-dealer firms should note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are participating in a distribution
(as contrasted with engaging in ordinary secondary market transactions) and thus dealing with the shares that are part of an overallotment within the meaning of Section 4(3)(C) of the Securities Act, will be unable to take advantage of the prospectus delivery exemption provided by Section 4(3) of the Securities Act. For delivery of prospectuses to exchange members, the prospectus delivery mechanism of Rule 153 under the Securities Act is only available with respect to transactions on a national exchange.

 

Dealers effecting transactions in the shares, whether or not participating in this distribution, are generally required to deliver a Prospectus. This is in addition to any obligation of dealers to deliver a Prospectus when acting as underwriters.

35

 

Financial Highlights
 

The following table is intended to help you better understand each Fund’s financial performance since its inception. Certain information reflects financial results for a single Fund share. Total return represents the rate you would have earned (or lost) on an investment in the Funds, assuming reinvestment of all dividends and distributions. This information has been audited by Cohen & Company, Ltd., an independent registered public accounting firm, whose report, along with the Funds’ financial statements, is included in the annual report, which is available upon request.

 

Per Share Data and Ratios for a Share of Beneficial Interest Outstanding Throughout the Years/Periods Presented

 

    FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF  
                               
    For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Period Ended  
    May 31, 2022     May 31, 2021     May 31, 2020     May 31, 2019     May 31, 2018  (1)
                               
Net asset value, beginning of year/period   $ 35.54     $ 22.59     $ 25.60     $ 28.03     $ 25.00  
                                         
Activity from investment operations:                                        
Net investment income (2)     0.11       0.10       0.23       0.12       0.12  
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments     (2.16 )     12.93       (2.88 )     (1.98 )     3.06  
Total from investment operations     (2.05 )     13.03       (2.65 )     (1.86 )     3.18  
                                         
Less distributions from:                                        
Net investment income     (0.08 )     (0.08 )     (0.20 )     (0.13 )     (0.15 )
Net realized gains                 (0.16 )     (0.44 )      
Total distributions     (0.08 )     (0.08 )     (0.36 )     (0.57 )     (0.15 )
                                         
Net asset value, end of year/period   $ 33.41     $ 35.54     $ 22.59     $ 25.60     $ 28.03  
                                         
Market price, end of year/period   $ 33.37     $ 35.55     $ 22.56     $ 25.62     $ 28.04  
                                         
Total return (3)     (5.78 )%     57.77 %     (10.57 )%     (6.66 )%     13.03 % (7)
                                         
Net assets, at end of year/period (000s)   $ 33,415     $ 49,754     $ 25,978     $ 65,271     $ 63,063  
                                         
Ratio of gross expenses to average net assets (5)     1.18 %     1.18 %     1.05 %     1.03 %     1.06 % (8)
Ratio of net expenses to average net assets (5)     0.95 %     0.95 %     0.96 % (9)     0.98 % (9)     0.95 % (8)
Ratio of net investment income to average net assets(4)     0.32 %     0.35 %     0.88 %     0.43 %     0.44 % (8)
                                         
Portfolio Turnover Rate (6)     72 %     135 %     398 %     666 %     138 % (7)
                                         
(1) The FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF commenced operations on June 6, 2017.

 

(2) Per share amounts calculated using the average shares method.

 

(3) Total returns are historical in nature and assume changes in share price, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions, if any.

 

(4) Recognition of net investment income by the Fund is affected by the timing of the declaration of dividends by the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(5) Does not include the Fund’s share of the expenses of the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(6) Portfolio turnover rate excludes portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of processing capital share transactions in Creation Units. (See Note 5)

 

(7) Not Annualized

 

(8) Annualized

 

(9) Ratio includes 0.01% and 0.03% for the years ended May 31, 2020 and May 31, 2019 attributed to interest expense and fees.

36

 

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

 

Per Share Data and Ratios for a Share of Beneficial Interest Outstanding Throughout the Years/Periods Presented

 

    FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF  
                               
    For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Period Ended  
    May 31, 2022     May 31, 2021     May 31, 2020     May 31, 2019     May 31, 2018  (1)
                               
Net asset value, beginning of year/period   $ 35.91     $ 24.70     $ 24.98     $ 26.10     $ 25.00  
                                         
Activity from investment operations:                                        
Net investment income (2)     0.54       0.28       0.49       0.35       0.12  
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments     (2.44 )     11.29       (0.34 )     (1.10 )     1.17  
Total from investment operations     (1.90 )     11.57       0.15       (0.75 )     1.29  
                                         
Less distributions from:                                        
Net investment income     (0.41 )     (0.36 )     (0.43 )     (0.37 )     (0.19 )
Net realized gains     (0.19 )                        
Total distributions     (0.60 )     (0.36 )     (0.43 )     (0.37 )     (0.19 )
                                         
Net asset value, end of year/period   $ 33.41     $ 35.91     $ 24.70     $ 24.98     $ 26.10  
                                         
Market price, end of year/period   $ 33.40     $ 35.92     $ 24.71     $ 24.96     $ 26.09  
                                         
Total return (3)     (5.42 )%     47.14 %     0.48 %     (2.83 )%     5.21 % (7)
                                         
Net assets, at end of year/period (000s)   $ 32,570     $ 46,677     $ 26,551     $ 50,593     $ 22,834  
                                         
Ratio of gross expenses to average net assets (5)     0.72 %     0.74 %     0.65 %     0.61 %     1.67 % (8)
Ratio of net expenses to average net assets (5)     0.60 %     0.60 %     0.60 %     0.60 %     0.60 % (8)
Ratio of net investment income to average net assets(4)     1.50 %     0.94 %     1.87 %     1.35 %     0.81 % (8)
                                         
Portfolio Turnover Rate (6)     39 %     10 %     0 %     0 %     0 % (7)
                                         
(1) The FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF commenced operations on November 1, 2017.

 

(2) Per share amounts calculated using the average shares method.

 

(3) Total returns are historical in nature and assume changes in share price, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions, if any.

 

(4) Recognition of net investment income by the Fund is affected by the timing of the declaration of dividends by the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(5) Does not include the Fund’s share of the expenses of the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(6) Portfolio turnover rate excludes portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of processing capital share transactions in Creation Units. (See Note 5)

 

(7) Not Annualized

 

(8) Annualized

37

 

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

 

Per Share Data and Ratios for a Share of Beneficial Interest Outstanding Throughout the Years/Periods Presented

 

    FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF  
                               
    For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Period Ended  
    May 31, 2022     May 31, 2021     May 31, 2020     May 31, 2019     May 31, 2018  (1)
                               
Net asset value, beginning of year/period   $ 31.22     $ 25.52     $ 23.78     $ 25.16     $ 25.00  
                                         
Activity from investment operations:                                        
Net investment income (2)     0.37       0.13       0.35       0.37       0.12  
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments     (4.33 )     5.82       1.72       (1.34 )     0.25  
Total from investment operations     (3.96 )     5.95       2.07       (0.97 )     0.37  
                                         
Less distributions from:                                        
Net investment income     (0.26 )     (0.25 )     (0.25 )     (0.41 )     (0.21 )
Net return of capital                 (0.08 )            
Total distributions     (0.26 )     (0.25 )     (0.33 )     (0.41 )     (0.21 )
                                         
Net asset value, end of year/period   $ 27.00     $ 31.22     $ 25.52     $ 23.78     $ 25.16  
                                         
Market price, end of year/period   $ 26.95     $ 31.21     $ 25.52     $ 23.79     $ 25.16  
                                         
Total return (3)     (12.79 )%     23.44 %     8.69 %     (3.81 )%     1.35 % (7)
                                         
Net assets, at end of year/period (000s)   $ 35,097     $ 53,846     $ 33,809     $ 49,932     $ 30,821  
                                         
Ratio of gross expenses to average net assets (5)     0.94 %     0.93 %     0.88 %     0.87 %     1.13 % (8)
Ratio of net expenses to average net assets (5)     0.80 %     0.80 %     0.80 %     0.80 %     0.80 % (8)
Ratio of net investment income to average net assets(4)     1.26 %     0.46 %     1.35 %     1.56 %     0.82 % (8)
                                         
Portfolio Turnover Rate (6)     55 %     42 %     14 %     92 %     56 % (7)
                                         
(1) The FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF commenced operations on November 1, 2017.

 

(2) Per share amounts calculated using the average shares method.

 

(3) Total returns are historical in nature and assume changes in share price, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions, if any.

 

(4) Recognition of net investment income by the Fund is affected by the timing of the declaration of dividends by the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(5) Does not include the Fund’s share of the expenses of the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(6) Portfolio turnover rate excludes portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of processing capital share transactions in Creation Units. (See Note 5)

 

(7) Not Annualized

 

(8) Annualized

38

 

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

 

Per Share Data and Ratios for a Share of Beneficial Interest Outstanding Throughout the Years/Periods Presented

 

    FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF  
                               
    For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Year Ended     For the Period Ended  
    May 31, 2022     May 31, 2021     May 31, 2020     May 31, 2019     May 31, 2018  (1)
                               
Net asset value, beginning of year/period   $ 23.99     $ 23.77     $ 24.13     $ 24.02     $ 25.00  
                                         
Activity from investment operations:                                        
Net investment income (2)     0.64       0.54       0.68       0.77       0.77  
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments     (2.35 )     0.24       (0.32 )     0.11       (1.00 )
Total from investment operations     (1.71 )     0.78       0.36       0.88       (0.23 )
                                         
Less distributions from:                                        
Net investment income     (0.62 )     (0.56 )     (0.71 )     (0.77 )     (0.75 )
Net return of capital                 (0.01 )            
Total distributions     (0.62 )     (0.56 )     (0.72 )     (0.77 )     (0.75 )
                                         
Net asset value, end of year/period   $ 21.66     $ 23.99     $ 23.77     $ 24.13     $ 24.02  
                                         
Market price, end of year/period   $ 21.64     $ 24.00     $ 23.73     $ 24.15     $ 24.06  
                                         
Total return (3)     (7.31 )% (10)     3.29 % (9)     1.43 %     3.77 %     (1.02 )% (7)
                                         
Net assets, at end of year/period (000s)   $ 125,638     $ 207,532     $ 314,889     $ 231,634     $ 171,739  
                                         
Ratio of gross expenses to average net assets (5)     0.75 %     0.74 %     0.71 %     0.74 %     0.75 % (8)
Ratio of net expenses to average net assets (5)     0.75 %     0.74 %     0.71 %     0.74 %     0.75 % (8)
Ratio of net investment income to average net assets(4)     2.71 %     2.24 %     2.79 %     3.24 %     3.19 % (8)
                                         
Portfolio Turnover Rate (6)     66 %     143 %     78 %     135 %     48 % (7)
                                         
(1) The FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF commenced operations on June 6, 2017.

 

(2) Per share amounts calculated using the average shares method.

 

(3) Total returns are historical in nature and assume changes in share price, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions, if any.

 

(4) Recognition of net investment income by the Fund is affected by the timing of the declaration of dividends by the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(5) Does not include the Fund’s share of the expenses of the underlying investment companies in which the Fund invests.

 

(6) Portfolio turnover rate excludes portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of processing capital share transactions in Creation Units. (See Note 5)

 

(7) Not Annualized

 

(8) Annualized

 

(9) In 2021, 0.22% of the Fund’s total return consists of a reimbursement by the Adviser for a realized investment loss due to a trade error. Excluding this item, total return would have been 3.07%.

 

(10) Includes adjustments in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States and, consequently, the net asset values for financial reporting purposes and the returns based upon those net asset values may differ from the net asset values and returns for shareholder transactions.

39

 

PRIVACY NOTICE

 

Northern Lights Fund Trust IV

 

Rev. August 2015

 

FACTS WHAT DOES NORTHERN LIGHTS FUND TRUST IV DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
   
Why? Financial companies choose how they share your personal information.  Federal law gives consumers the right to limit some, but not all sharing.  Federal law also requires us to tell you how we collect, share, and protect your personal information.  Please read this notice carefully to understand what we do.
   
What?

The types of personal information we collect and share depends on the product or service that you have with us. This information can include:

 

●     Social Security number and wire transfer instructions

 

●     account transactions and transaction history

 

●     investment experience and purchase history

 

When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.

   
How? All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business.  In the section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their customers’ personal information; the reasons Northern Lights Fund Trust IV chooses to share; and whether you can limit this sharing.
   
Reasons we can share your personal
information:
Does Northern Lights Fund Trust
IV share information?
Can you limit this sharing?
For our everyday business purposes - such as to process your transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus. YES NO
For our marketing purposes - to offer our products and services to you. NO We don’t share
For joint marketing with other financial companies. NO We don’t share
For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes - information about your transactions and records. NO We don’t share
For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes - information about your credit worthiness. NO We don’t share
For nonaffiliates to market to you NO We don’t share
     
QUESTIONS?   Call 1-631-490-4300

40

 

PRIVACY NOTICE

 

Northern Lights Fund Trust IV

 

Page 2    
What we do:
How does Northern Lights Fund Trust IV protect my personal information?

To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files and buildings.

 

Our service providers are held accountable for adhering to strict policies and procedures to prevent any misuse of your nonpublic personal information.

How does Northern Lights Fund Trust IV collect my personal information?

We collect your personal information, for example, when you

 

●    open an account or deposit money

 

●    direct us to buy securities or direct us to sell your securities

 

●    seek advice about your investments

 

We also collect your personal information from others, such as credit bureaus, affiliates, or other companies.

Why can’t I limit all sharing?

Federal law gives you the right to limit only:

 

●    sharing for affiliates’ everyday business purposes – information about your creditworthiness.

 

●    affiliates from using your information to market to you.

 

●    sharing for nonaffiliates to market to you.

 

State laws and individual companies may give you additional rights to limit sharing.

Definitions
Affiliates

Companies related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.

 

●    Northern Lights Fund Trust IV has no affiliates.

Nonaffiliates

Companies not related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.

 

●    Northern Lights Fund Trust IV does not share with nonaffiliates so they can market to you.

Joint marketing

A formal agreement between nonaffiliated financial companies that together market financial products or services to you.

 

●    Northern Lights Fund Trust IV does not jointly market.

41

 

FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF
FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF
FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF
FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF

 

Adviser FormulaFolio Investments, LLC
1745 S. Naperville Road, Suite 200
Wheaton, IL 60189
Distributor Northern Lights Distributors, LLC
4221 North 203rd Street, Suite 100
Elkhorn, NE 68022-3474
Custodian
& Transfer Agent
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
50 Post Office Square
Boston, MA 02110
Legal
Counsel
Thompson Hine LLP
41 South High Street, Suite 1700
Columbus, OH 43215
Administrator Ultimus Fund Solutons, LLC
225 Pictoria Drive, Suite 450
Cincinnati, OH 45246
Independent
Registered Public
Accounting Firm

Cohen & Company, Ltd.
342 North Water Street, Suite 830
Milwaukee, WI 53202

 

Additional information about the Funds is included in the Funds’ SAI dated September 28, 2022. The SAI is incorporated into this Prospectus by reference (i.e., legally made a part of this Prospectus). The SAI provides more details about the Funds’ policies and management. Additional information about the Funds’ investments is available in the Funds’ Annual and Semi-Annual Reports to Shareholders. In the Funds’ Annual Report, you will find a discussion of the market conditions and investment strategies that significantly affected the Funds’ performance during the last fiscal year.

 

To obtain a free copy of the SAI and the Annual and Semi-Annual Reports to Shareholders, or other information about the Funds, or to make shareholder inquiries about the Funds, please call toll-free 888-562-8880. Information relating to the Funds can be found on the Adviser’s website at www.formulafoliofunds.com. You may also write to:

 

FormulaFolios Hedged Growth ETF
FormulaFolios Smart Growth ETF
FormulaFolios Tactical Growth ETF
FormulaFolios Tactical Income ETF
c/o Ultimus Fund Solutions, LLC
225 Pictoria Drive, Suite 450
Cincinnati, OH 45246

 

Reports and other information about the Funds are available on the EDGAR Database on the SEC’s Internet site at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the information may be obtained, after paying a duplicating fee, by electronic request at the following E-mail address: [email protected].

 

Investment Company Act File # 811-23066