The Index is designed to measure the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 1 month and less than 3 months. The Index includes all publicly issued U.S. Treasury Bills that have a remaining maturity of less than 3 months and at least 1 month, and are rated investment-grade. In addition, the securities must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must have a fixed rate. The Index is market capitalization weighted, with securities held in the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account (the portfolio of U.S. Treasuries, Federal Agency securities, and foreign currency investments held by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank) deducted from the total amount outstanding. Securities in the Index are updated on the last business day of each month. As of July 31, 2022, there were approximately 13 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Securities Lending Risk: The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower of the loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money due to a decline in the value of collateral provided for loaned securities or any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. To the extent the collateral provided or investments made with cash collateral differ from securities included in the Index, such collateral or investments may have a greater risk of loss than the securities included in the Index. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

Treasury Bills that have a remaining maturity of less than 12 months and at least 3 months, and are rated investment-grade. In addition, the securities must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must have a fixed rate. The Index is market capitalization weighted, with securities held in the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account deducted from the total amount outstanding. Securities in the Index are reconstituted and rebalanced on the last business day of each month. As of July 31, 2022, there were approximately 19 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Limited Track Record Risk: The Fund has a limited track record and there is no assurance that the Fund will grow quickly. When the Fund's size is small, the Fund may experience low trading volume, which could lead to wider bid/ask spreads. In addition, the Fund may face the risk of being delisted if the Fund does not meet certain conditions of the listing exchange. Any resulting liquidation of the Fund could cause elevated transaction costs for the Fund and negative tax consequences for its shareholders. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Securities Lending Risk: The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower of the loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money due to a decline in the value of collateral provided for loaned securities or any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. To the extent the collateral provided or investments made with cash collateral differ from securities included in the Index, such collateral or investments may have a greater risk of loss than the securities included in the Index. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

TIPS are securities issued by the U.S. Treasury that are designed to provide inflation protection to investors. The Index includes publicly issued TIPS that have at least 1 year and less than 10 years remaining to maturity on the index rebalancing date, with an issue size equal to or in excess of $500 million. The total amount outstanding for each issue is reflected, there are no adjustments made for sums held in the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account (SOMA) account. Bonds must be capital-indexed and linked to a domestic inflation index. The securities must be issued by the U.S. Government and must be denominated in U.S. dollars and pay coupon and principal in U.S. dollars. New bonds/reopening's entering the Index must settle on or before the index rebalancing date. The Index is rebalanced on the last calendar date of each month. As of July 31, 2022, the Index comprised 33 securities. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Securities Lending Risk: The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower of the loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money due to a decline in the value of collateral provided for loaned securities or any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund. To the extent the collateral provided or investments made with cash collateral differ from securities included in the Index, such collateral or investments may have a greater risk of loss than the securities included in the Index. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

The Index is designed to represent the market of U.S. convertible securities, such as convertible bonds and convertible preferred stock. Convertible bonds are bonds that can be exchanged, at the option of the holder or issuer, for a specific number of shares of the issuer's equity securities. Convertible preferred stock is preferred stock that includes an option for the holder to convert to common stock. The Index components are a subset of issues in the Bloomberg Convertible Composite Index. To be included in the Index, a security must meet the following requirements: (i) have an issue amount of at least $350 million and a par amount outstanding of at least $250 million; (ii) be a non-called, non-defaulted security; (iii) have at least 31 days until maturity; (iv) be U.S. dollar denominated; and (v) be a registered or a convertible tranche issued under Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Index may include investment grade, below investment grade and unrated securities. The Index is rebalanced on a monthly basis on the last business day of the month. As of August 31, 2022, a significant portion of the Fund comprised companies in the technology sector, although this may change from time to time. As of July 31, 2022, there were 299 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

Below Investment-Grade Securities Risk: Lower-quality debt securities (“high yield” or “junk” bonds) are considered predominantly speculative, and can involve a substantially greater risk of default than higher quality debt securities. Issuers of lower-quality debt securities may have substantially greater risk of insolvency or bankruptcy than issuers of higher-quality debt securities. They can be illiquid, and their values can have significant volatility and may decline significantly over short periods of time. Lower-quality debt securities tend to be more sensitive to adverse news about the issuer, or the market or economy in general. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Non-U.S. Securities Risk: Non-U.S. securities are subject to political, regulatory, and economic risks not present in domestic investments. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. entity than about a U.S. entity, and many non-U.S. entities are not subject to accounting, auditing, legal and financial report standards comparable to those in the United States. Further, such entities and/or their securities may be subject to risks associated with currency controls; expropriation; changes in tax policy; greater market volatility; differing securities market structures; higher transaction costs; and various administrative difficulties, such as delays in clearing and settling portfolio transactions or in receiving payment of dividends. To the extent underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that are closed when the exchange on which the Fund's shares trade is open, there may be deviations between the current price of an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security on the closed foreign market. These deviations could result in the Fund experiencing premiums or discounts greater than those of ETFs that invest in domestic securities. Securities traded on foreign markets may be less liquid (harder to sell) than securities traded domestically. Foreign governments may impose restrictions on the repatriation of capital to the U.S. In addition, to the extent investments are made in a limited number of countries, events in those countries will have a more significant impact on the Fund. Certain countries have recently experienced (or currently are expected to experience) negative interest rates on certain fixed-income 

securities, and similar interest rate conditions may be experienced in other regions.  Investments in fixed-income securities with very low or negative interest rates may magnify the Fund's susceptibility to interest rate risk and diminish yield and performance, and such investments may be subject to heightened volatility and reduced liquidity. 

Preferred Stock Risk: Generally, preferred stock holders have no or limited voting rights with respect to the issuing company. In addition, preferred stock is generally senior to common stock, but may be subordinated to bonds and other debt instruments in a company's capital structure and therefore may be subject to greater credit risk than those debt instruments. In the event an issuer of preferred stock experiences economic difficulties, the issuer's preferred stock may lose substantial value due to the increased likelihood of deferred dividend payments and the fact that the preferred stock may be subordinated to other securities of the same issuer. Further, because preferred stocks pay dividends at a fixed rate, their market price can be sensitive to changes in interest rates in a manner similar to bonds — that is, as interest rates rise, the value of preferred stock held by the Fund is likely to decline. In addition, to the extent preferred stocks allow holders to convert the preferred stock into common stock of the issuer, their market price can be sensitive to changes in the value of the issuer's common stock and, therefore, declining common stock values may also cause the value of the Fund's investments to decline. Preferred stock often have call features which allow the issuer to redeem the security at its discretion. The redemption of a preferred stock having a higher than average yield may cause a decrease in the Fund's yield. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Technology Sector Risk: Market or economic factors impacting technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technological advances could have a major effect on the value of the Fund's investments. The value of stocks of technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology is particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in technology product cycles, rapid product obsolescence, government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Stocks of technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology, especially those of smaller, less-seasoned companies, tend to be more volatile than the overall market. Technology companies are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights, the loss or impairment of which may adversely affect profitability. Additionally, companies in the technology sector may face dramatic and often unpredictable changes in growth rates and competition for the services of qualified personnel. 

Unconstrained Sector Risk: The Fund may invest a substantial portion of its assets within one or more economic sectors or industries, which may change from time to time. Greater investment focus on one or more sectors or industries increases the potential for volatility and the risk that events negatively affecting such sectors or industries could reduce returns, potentially causing the value of the Fund's Shares to decrease, perhaps significantly. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

(including money market funds advised by the Adviser).  In seeking to track the Index, the Fund's assets may be concentrated in an industry or group of industries, but only to the extent the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. Swaps and futures contracts may be used by the Fund in seeking performance that corresponds to its Index and in managing cash flows. 

The Index is designed to measure the performance of fixed-rate US dollar-denominated debt issued by sovereign and quasi-sovereign (government owned and government guaranteed) emerging market issuers. An emerging market is a country that the World Bank Income group classifies as low/middle income or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies as a non-advanced country. In addition, the Index Provider (defined below) may classify a country as an emerging market based on factors such as investability concerns, the presence of capital controls, and/or geographic considerations. The Index includes bonds with a minimum par amount outstanding of $500 million, a remaining maturity of at least two years and an original maturity of greater than five years. Bonds rated Caa3/CCC-/CCC- or lower or Aa3/AA-/AA- or higher by any of Moody's Investors Service, Inc., S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings Inc., respectively, are excluded from the Index. SEC-registered, Rule 144A and Regulation S bonds are each eligible for inclusion in the Index. As of July 31, 2022, there were approximately 916 securities in the Index. 

The Index is calculated by the Index Provider (as defined below) using a capped weighting methodology. At each rebalance, each constituent country within the Index is capped at 5% with respect to the total par amount outstanding of the Index. Any country weight exceeding the 5% limit will be redistributed on a pro rata basis to the bonds of all other countries in the Index that are below the 5% cap. The Index is rebalanced and reconstituted monthly on the last business day of the month. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund, the Adviser or the Sub-Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

settling portfolio transactions or in receiving payment of dividends. To the extent underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that are closed when the exchange on which the Fund's shares trade is open, there may be deviations between the current price of an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security on the closed foreign market. These deviations could result in the Fund experiencing premiums or discounts greater than those of ETFs that invest in domestic securities. Securities traded on foreign markets may be less liquid (harder to sell) than securities traded domestically. Foreign governments may impose restrictions on the repatriation of capital to the U.S. In addition, to the extent investments are made in a limited number of countries, events in those countries will have a more significant impact on the Fund. Certain countries have recently experienced (or currently are expected to experience) negative interest rates on certain fixed-income securities, and similar interest rate conditions may be experienced in other regions.  Investments in fixed-income securities with very low or negative interest rates may magnify the Fund's susceptibility to interest rate risk and diminish yield and performance, and such investments may be subject to heightened volatility and reduced liquidity. 

Emerging Markets Risk: Risks of investing in emerging markets include, among others, greater political and economic instability, greater volatility in currency exchange rates, less developed securities markets, possible trade barriers, currency transfer restrictions, a more limited number of potential buyers and issuers, an emerging market country's dependence on revenue from particular commodities or international aid, less governmental supervision and regulation, unavailability of currency hedging techniques, differences in auditing and financial reporting standards, and less developed legal systems. There is also the potential for unfavorable action such as expropriation, nationalization, embargo, and acts of war. The securities of emerging market companies may trade less frequently and in smaller volumes than more widely held securities. Market disruptions or substantial market corrections may limit very significantly the liquidity of securities of certain companies in a particular country or geographic region, or of all companies in the country or region. The Fund may be unable to liquidate its positions in such securities at any time, or at a favorable price, in order to meet the Fund's obligations. These risks are generally greater for investments in frontier market countries, which typically have smaller economies or less developed capital markets than traditional emerging market countries. 

Sovereign Debt Obligations Risk: Investments in debt securities issued by governments or by government agencies and instrumentalities involve the risk that the governmental entities responsible for repayment may be unable or unwilling to pay interest and repay principal when due. Many sovereign debt obligations may be rated below investment-grade (“junk” bonds). Any restructuring of a sovereign debt obligation held by the Fund will likely have a significant adverse effect on the value of the obligation. In the event of default of sovereign debt, the Fund may be unable to pursue legal action against the sovereign issuer or to realize on collateral securing the debt. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Below Investment-Grade Securities Risk: Lower-quality debt securities (“high yield” or “junk” bonds) are considered predominantly speculative, and can involve a substantially greater risk of default than higher quality debt securities. Issuers of lower-quality debt securities may have substantially greater risk of insolvency or bankruptcy than issuers of higher-quality debt securities. They can be illiquid, and their values can have significant volatility and may decline significantly over short periods of time. Lower-quality debt securities tend to be more sensitive to adverse news about the issuer, or the market or economy in general. 

Futures Contract Risk: A futures contract is a standardized agreement that calls for the purchase or sale of a specific asset at a specific price at a specific future time, or cash settlement of the terms of the contract. Transactions in futures contracts can create investment leverage and may have significant volatility. It is possible that a futures contract transaction will result in a much greater loss than the principal amount invested, and the Fund may not be able to close out the futures contract at a favorable time or price. There is no assurance that a liquid secondary market on an exchange will exist for any particular futures contract. In the event no such market exists, it might not be possible to effect closing transactions, and the Fund will be unable to terminate its exposure to the futures contract. There is also a risk of imperfect correlation between movements in the prices of the futures contract and movements in the price of the underlying assets. The counterparty to a futures contract may be unable or unwilling to make timely settlement payments, return the Fund's margin, or otherwise honor its obligations. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Limited Track Record Risk: The Fund has a limited track record and there is no assurance that the Fund will grow quickly. When the Fund's size is small, the Fund may experience low trading volume, which could lead to wider bid/ask spreads. In addition, the Fund may face the risk of being delisted if the Fund does not meet certain conditions of the listing exchange. Any resulting liquidation of the Fund could cause elevated transaction costs for the Fund and negative tax consequences for its shareholders. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Swaps Risk: A swap is a two-party contract that generally obligates the parties to exchange payments based on a specified reference security, basket of securities, security index or index component. Swaps can involve greater risks than direct investment in securities because swaps may be leveraged and are subject to counterparty risk (e.g., the risk of a counterparty's defaulting on the obligation or bankruptcy), credit risk and pricing risk (i.e., swaps may be difficult to value). It may not be possible for the Fund to liquidate a swap position at an advantageous time or price, which may result in significant losses. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

group of industries, but only to the extent that the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. The Fund may use derivatives, including credit default swaps and credit default index swaps, to obtain investment exposure that the Adviser expects to correlate closely with the Index, or a portion of the Index, and in managing cash flows. 

The Index is designed to measure the performance of publicly issued U.S. dollar denominated high yield corporate bonds with above-average liquidity. High yield securities are generally rated below investment-grade and are commonly referred to as “junk bonds.” The Index includes publicly issued U.S. dollar denominated, non-investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of at least one year, but not more than fifteen years, regardless of optionality; are rated high-yield (Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below) using the middle rating of Moody's Investors Service, Inc., Fitch Ratings Inc., or S&P Global Ratings, respectively; and have $500 million or more of outstanding face value. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a bond must have been issued within the past five years. Exposure to each eligible issuer will be capped at two percent of the Index. In addition, securities must be registered, exempt from registration at the time of issuance or issued under Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Original issue zero coupon bonds, step-up coupons that change according to a predetermined schedule, and payment-in-kind (“PIK”) securities and toggle notes paying interest in cash are also eligible. In addition, callable fixed-to-floating rate and fixed-to-variable bonds are eligible during their fixed-rate term only. The Index includes only corporate categories. The corporate categories are Industrial, Utility, and Financial Institutions. Securities excluded from the Index include non-corporate bonds, structured notes, private placements, bonds with equity-type features (e.g., warrants, convertibility), floating-rate issues, Eurobonds, defaulted bonds, partial PIK securities, PIK securities and toggle notes paying interest in-kind, and emerging market bonds. The Index is issuer capped and the securities in the Index are updated on the last business day of each month. As of August 31, 2022, a significant portion of the Fund comprised companies in the consumer cyclical and communication services sectors, although this may change from time to time. As of July 31, 2022, there were 1,175 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

bankruptcy than issuers of higher-quality debt securities. They can be illiquid, and their values can have significant volatility and may decline significantly over short periods of time. Lower-quality debt securities tend to be more sensitive to adverse news about the issuer, or the market or economy in general. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Communication Services Sector Risk: Communication services companies are particularly vulnerable to the potential obsolescence of products and services due to technological advancement and the innovation of competitors. Companies in the communication services sector may also be affected by other competitive pressures, such as pricing competition, as well as research and development costs, substantial capital requirements and government regulation. Additionally, fluctuating domestic and international demand, shifting demographics and often unpredictable changes in consumer tastes can drastically affect a communication services company's profitability. While all companies may be susceptible to network security breaches, certain companies in the communication services sector may be particular targets of hacking and potential theft of proprietary or consumer information or disruptions in service, which could have a material adverse effect on their businesses. 

Consumer Cyclical Sector Risk: Companies in the consumer cyclical sector are largely impacted by the performance of the overall global economy, changes in interest rates, fluctuations in supply and demand, and changes in consumer preferences. Success depends heavily on disposable household income and consumer spending. As a result, consumer cyclical companies may be adversely affected and lose value quickly in periods of economic downturns. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the 

net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Swaps Risk: A swap is a two-party contract that generally obligates the parties to exchange payments based on a specified reference security, basket of securities, security index or index component. Swaps can involve greater risks than direct investment in securities because swaps may be leveraged and are subject to counterparty risk (e.g., the risk of a counterparty's defaulting on the obligation or bankruptcy), credit risk and pricing risk (i.e., swaps may be difficult to value). It may not be possible for the Fund to liquidate a swap position at an advantageous time or price, which may result in significant losses. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

The Index is designed to measure the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment grade floating rate notes. Securities in the Index must have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one month and less than five years, and have $300 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, securities in the Index must be rated investment grade (Baa3, BBB- or BBB- by Moody's Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings or Fitch Ratings Inc., respectively). The Index consists of debt instruments that pay a variable coupon rate with a fixed spread. The Index may include U.S. registered, dollar denominated bonds of non-U.S. corporations, governments and supranational entities, as well as securities that are subject to restrictions on resale under the U.S. federal securities laws (“restricted securities”). Excluded from the Index are fixed rate bullet bonds, fixed-rate puttable and fixed-rate callable bonds, fixed rate and fixed to floating capital securities, bonds with equity-linked features (e.g. warrants and convertibles), inflation linked bonds and securitized bonds. The Index is market capitalization weighted and the securities in the Index are updated on the last calendar day of each month. As of August 31, 2022, a significant portion of the Fund comprised companies in the financial sector, although this may change from time to time. As of July 31, 2022, there were 409 securities in the Index and the average credit quality of the securities in the Index was A1/A2. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

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. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

LIBOR Risk: The Fund may invest in instruments tied to the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”). On July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced that after 2021, it will cease its active encouragement of banks to provide quotations needed to sustain the LIBOR rate. On March 5, 2021, the administrator of LIBOR announced a delay in the phase out of the majority of the USD LIBOR publications until June 30, 2023, while the remainder of USD LIBOR publications ceased on December 31, 2021. There remains uncertainty regarding the future of LIBOR and the nature of any replacement rate. Certain alternatives to LIBOR have been established or are in development in most major currencies, including the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), which the U.S. Federal Reserve has selected as the preferred replacement rate in the United States. The replacement and/or discontinuation of LIBOR could lead to significant short-term and long-term uncertainty and market instability. The unavailability and/or discontinuation of LIBOR 

could have adverse impacts on financial instruments that reference LIBOR. In addition, the unavailability or replacement of LIBOR may affect the value, liquidity or return on certain Fund investments and may result in costs incurred in connection with closing out positions and entering into new trades. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Non-U.S. Securities Risk: Non-U.S. securities are subject to political, regulatory, and economic risks not present in domestic investments. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. entity than about a U.S. entity, and many non-U.S. entities are not subject to accounting, auditing, legal and financial report standards comparable to those in the United States. Further, such entities and/or their securities may be subject to risks associated with currency controls; expropriation; changes in tax policy; greater market volatility; differing securities market structures; higher transaction costs; and various administrative difficulties, such as delays in clearing and settling portfolio transactions or in receiving payment of dividends. To the extent underlying securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges that are closed when the exchange on which the Fund's shares trade is open, there may be deviations between the current price of an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security on the closed foreign market. These deviations could result in the Fund experiencing premiums or discounts greater than those of ETFs that invest in domestic securities. Securities traded on foreign markets may be less liquid (harder to sell) than securities traded domestically. Foreign governments may impose restrictions on the repatriation of capital to the U.S. In addition, to the extent investments are made in a limited number of countries, events in those countries will have a more significant impact on the Fund. Certain countries have recently experienced (or currently are expected to experience) negative interest rates on certain fixed-income securities, and similar interest rate conditions may be experienced in other regions.  Investments in fixed-income securities with very low or negative interest rates may magnify the Fund's susceptibility to interest rate risk and diminish yield and performance, and such investments may be subject to heightened volatility and reduced liquidity. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Unconstrained Sector Risk: The Fund may invest a substantial portion of its assets within one or more economic sectors or industries, which may change from time to time. Greater investment focus on one or more sectors or industries increases the potential for volatility and the risk that events negatively affecting such sectors or industries could reduce returns, potentially causing the value of the Fund's Shares to decrease, perhaps significantly. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

group of industries, but only to the extent that the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. The Fund may use derivatives, including credit default swaps and credit default index swaps, to obtain investment exposure that the Adviser expects to correlate closely with the Index, or a portion of the Index, and in managing cash flows. 

The Index is designed to measure the performance of short-term publicly issued U.S. dollar-denominated high yield corporate bonds. High yield securities are generally rated below investment-grade and are commonly referred to as “junk” bonds. The Index includes publicly issued U.S. dollar denominated, non-investment-grade, fixed rate, taxable corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of less than 5 years regardless of optionality, are rated between Caa3/CCC-/CCC- and Ba1/BB+/BB+ using the middle rating of Moody's Investors Service, Inc., Fitch Ratings Inc., or S&P Global Ratings, respectively, and have at least a $350 million outstanding par value. The Index includes only corporate categories. The corporate categories are Industrial, Utility and Financial Institutions. Securities included in the Index may include securities that are subject to restrictions on resale under the U.S. federal securities laws (“restricted securities”). Excluded from the Index are non-corporate bonds, structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, bonds with equity-type features (e.g., warrants, convertibility), floating-rate securities and securities that move from fixed to floating-rate, Emerging Market Bonds, defaulted bonds, original issue zero coupon bonds, private placements and payment in kind securities. The Index is issuer-capped and the securities in the Index are updated on the index rebalancing date. The securities in the Index are updated on the last business day of each month. As of August 31, 2022, a significant portion of the Fund comprised companies in the consumer cyclical and communication services sectors, although this may change from time to time. As of July 31, 2022, there were 714 securities in the Index and the dollar-weighted average maturity of the securities in the Index was 3.37 years. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Communication Services Sector Risk: Communication services companies are particularly vulnerable to the potential obsolescence of products and services due to technological advancement and the innovation of competitors. Companies in the communication services sector may also be affected by other competitive pressures, such as pricing competition, as well as research and development costs, substantial capital requirements and government regulation. Additionally, fluctuating domestic and international demand, shifting demographics and often unpredictable changes in consumer tastes can drastically affect a communication services company's profitability. While all companies may be susceptible to network security breaches, certain companies in the communication services sector may be particular targets of hacking and potential theft of proprietary or consumer information or disruptions in service, which could have a material adverse effect on their businesses. 

Consumer Cyclical Sector Risk: Companies in the consumer cyclical sector are largely impacted by the performance of the overall global economy, changes in interest rates, fluctuations in supply and demand, and changes in consumer preferences. Success depends heavily on disposable household income and consumer spending. As a result, consumer cyclical companies may be adversely affected and lose value quickly in periods of economic downturns. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Swaps Risk: A swap is a two-party contract that generally obligates the parties to exchange payments based on a specified reference security, basket of securities, security index or index component. Swaps can involve greater risks than direct investment in securities because swaps may be leveraged and are subject to counterparty risk (e.g., the risk of a counterparty's defaulting on the obligation or bankruptcy), credit risk and pricing risk (i.e., swaps may be difficult to value). It may not be possible for the Fund to liquidate a swap position at an advantageous time or price, which may result in significant losses. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

may invest the Fund's assets in a subset of securities in the Index or may invest the Fund's assets in substantially all of the securities represented in the Index in approximately the same proportions as the Index, as determined by the Adviser to be in the best interest of the Fund in pursuing its objective. 

Under normal market conditions, the Fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the Index and in securities that the Adviser determines have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of the securities that comprise the Index. In addition, in seeking to track the Index, the Fund may invest in debt securities that are not included in the Index, cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds (including money market funds advised by the Adviser).  In seeking to track the Index, the Fund's assets may be concentrated in an industry or group of industries, but only to the extent the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. The Fund may use derivatives, including credit default swaps and credit default index swaps, to obtain investment exposure that the Adviser expects to correlate closely with the Index, or a portion of the Index, and in managing cash flows. 

The Index is designed to measure the performance of 400 U.S. dollar denominated investment grade corporate bonds with higher-than-average liquidity relative to the broader U.S. corporate bond market. In order to be included in the Index, a bond must have a corporate bond classification from Refinitiv. Bonds included in the Index must also, as of the Index Determination Date (defined below), (i) be rated investment grade, (ii) be issued in the U.S. by an issuer that is U.S. or non-U.S. domiciled, (iii) be U.S. dollar denominated, (iv) have $300 million or more of par amount outstanding, (v) have a remaining maturity of at least 2 years, (vi) have an issue date prior to the month of the Index Determination Date (as defined below), and (vii) have a fixed rate (which includes fixed-to-floating rate bonds, provided that such bonds are in their fixed rate term as of the Index Determination Date (as defined below)) or zero percent coupon. The Index considers investment grade securities to be rated Baa3/BBB-/BBB- or higher, using the middle rating of Moody's Investors Service, Inc., Fitch Ratings, Inc., or S&P Global Ratings. If only two of the three agencies rate the security, then the more conservative (lower) rating will be used to determine Index eligibility. If only one of the agencies rates the security, then that rating will be used. In addition, in order to be included in the Index, bonds must have both bid and offer price Composite+^TM (“CP+”) valuations. CP+ is the Index Provider's (defined below) proprietary algorithmic pricing engine. CP+ analyzes industry and proprietary trading and liquidity data to provide an indication of the bid price and offer price valuations of a bond. If the CP+ pricing algorithm does not have access to enough liquidity inputs for a bond, it will not generate bid and offer price valuations and the bond will not be eligible for inclusion in the Index. Bonds are also screened based on liquidity as measured by their Relative Liquidity Score (“RLS”). RLS is the Index Provider's proprietary methodology that analyzes industry and proprietary trading data to score a bond's liquidity relative to bonds identified by the Index Provider as having similar risk and return characteristics. A bond's RLS ranges from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most liquid, and only bonds with an RLS of 7 or higher are eligible for inclusion in the Index. 

Bonds that remain eligible for inclusion in the Index after applying the screens referred to above are then ranked by par value face amount from highest to lowest. For bonds with the same par value face amount, ranking is based on the following in order of priority: bonds with higher RLS, earlier issue date, and tighter CP+ bid/offer spread. After applying such ranking, the 400 highest-ranked bonds that comply with the following limitations are selected for inclusion in the Index and weighted by market value: (1) any single issuer is limited to 4% of the weight of the Index and (2) to the extent a sector's weight in the MarketAxess U.S. Investment Grade Broad Corporate Bond Index (the “Broad Market Index”) is 5% or greater, a sector's weight in the Index is limited to 2.5% above such sector's weight in the Broad Market Index. The Index is rebalanced and reconstituted monthly after the close of business on the last business day of the month (the “Index Rebalance Date”) based on determinations made on the fourth to last business day preceding the Index Rebalance Date (the “Index Determination Date”). Securities eligible for inclusion in the Index include senior and subordinated debt, callable and puttable bonds, Rule 144A securities and Regulation S securities. As of August 31, 2022, a significant portion of the Fund comprised companies in the financial sector, although this may change from time to time. As of July 31, 2022, there were 400 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by MarketAxess Technologies Inc. (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

Market Risk: The Fund's investments are subject to changes in general economic conditions, general market fluctuations and the risks inherent in investment in securities markets. Investment markets can be volatile and prices of investments can change substantially due to various factors including, but not limited to, economic growth or recession, changes in interest rates, inflation, changes in the actual or perceived creditworthiness of issuers, and general market liquidity. The Fund is subject to the risk that geopolitical events will disrupt securities markets and adversely affect global economies and markets. Local, regional or global events such as war, military conflicts, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, or other events could have a significant impact on the Fund and its investments. 

Debt Securities Risk: The values of debt securities may increase or decrease as a result of the following: market fluctuations, changes in interest rates, actual or perceived inability or unwillingness of issuers, guarantors or liquidity providers to make scheduled principal or interest payments, or illiquidity in debt securities markets. To the extent that interest rates rise, certain underlying obligations may be paid off substantially slower than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply. A rising interest rate environment may cause the value of the Fund's fixed income securities to decrease, an adverse impact on the liquidity of the Fund's fixed income securities, and increased volatility of the fixed income markets. During periods when interest rates are at low levels, the Fund's yield can be low, and the Fund may have a negative yield (i.e., it may lose money on an operating basis). To the extent that interest rates fall, certain underlying obligations may be paid off substantially faster than originally anticipated. If the principal on a debt obligation is prepaid before expected, the prepayments of principal may have to be reinvested in obligations paying interest at lower rates. During periods of falling interest rates, the income received by the Fund may decline. Changes in interest rates will likely have a greater effect on the values of debt securities of longer durations. Returns on investments in debt securities could trail the returns on other investment options, including investments in equity securities. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

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. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or 

at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Less Experienced Index Provider Risk: The Index was created by and is owned and maintained by the Index Provider. The Index Provider has a limited history of experience as an index provider, which may create additional risks for investing in the Fund. There is no assurance that Index data, Index computations or Index construction will be free from error, or that any such errors will be identified and corrected in a timely manner or at all. 

Limited Track Record Risk: The Fund has a limited track record and there is no assurance that the Fund will grow quickly. When the Fund's size is small, the Fund may experience low trading volume, which could lead to wider bid/ask spreads. In addition, the Fund may face the risk of being delisted if the Fund does not meet certain conditions of the listing exchange. Any resulting liquidation of the Fund could cause elevated transaction costs for the Fund and negative tax consequences for its shareholders. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Non-U.S. Securities Risk: Non-U.S. securities are subject to political, regulatory, and economic risks not present in domestic investments. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. entity than about a U.S. entity, and many non-U.S. entities are not subject to accounting, auditing, legal and financial report standards comparable to those in the United States. Further, such entities and/or their securities may be subject to risks associated with currency controls; expropriation; changes in tax policy; greater market volatility; differing securities market structures; higher transaction costs; and various administrative difficulties, such as delays in clearing and settling portfolio transactions or in receiving payment of dividends. Foreign governments may impose restrictions on the repatriation of capital to the U.S. In addition, to the extent investments are made in a limited number of countries, events in those countries will have a more significant impact on the Fund. Certain countries have recently experienced (or currently are expected to experience) negative interest rates on certain fixed-income securities, and similar interest rate conditions may be experienced in other regions.  Investments in fixed-income securities with very low or negative interest rates may magnify the Fund's susceptibility to interest rate risk and diminish yield and performance, and such investments may be subject to heightened volatility and reduced liquidity. 

Portfolio Turnover Risk: Frequent purchases and sales of portfolio securities may result in higher Fund expenses and may result in more significant distributions of short-term capital gains to investors, which are taxed to individuals as ordinary income. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the 

registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Subordinated Debt Risk: The Fund may invest in debt securities that are subordinated to more senior securities of the issuer. Holders of debt securities that are subordinated or “junior” to more senior securities are entitled to payment after holders of more senior securities. Subordinated debt securities are more likely to suffer a credit loss than non-subordinated securities of the same issuer, may be disproportionately affected by a default, downgrade or perceived decline in creditworthiness, and may take longer to recover interest or principal. 

Swaps Risk: A swap is a two-party contract that generally obligates the parties to exchange payments based on a specified reference security, basket of securities, security index or index component. Swaps can involve greater risks than direct investment in securities because swaps may be leveraged and are subject to counterparty risk (e.g., the risk of a counterparty's defaulting on the obligation or bankruptcy), credit risk and pricing risk (i.e., swaps may be difficult to value). It may not be possible for the Fund to liquidate a swap position at an advantageous time or price, which may result in significant losses. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

Zero-Coupon Bond Risk: Zero-coupon bonds usually trade at a deep discount from their face or par values and are subject to greater market value fluctuations from changing interest rates than debt obligations of comparable maturities that make current distributions of interest. 

advised by SSGA Funds Management, Inc. (“SSGA FM” or the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund). In seeking to track the Index, the Fund's assets may be concentrated in an industry or group of industries, but only to the extent that the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. 

The Index is market value-weighted and designed to measure the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated high-yield municipal bonds issued by U.S. states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and local governments or agencies. The Index includes fully tax-exempt investment grade, non-investment grade (“junk”) and non-rated bonds, but does not include defaulted securities. Bonds included in the Index may include private activity bonds, which are typically issued by or on behalf of local or state governments for the purpose of financing the project of a private user. The Index consists of bonds that are constituents of the Bloomberg Municipal High Yield Bond Index and Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Bond Index as follows: (i) 70% of the Index is represented by the constituents of the Bloomberg Municipal High Yield Bond Index, the constituents of which are non-rated or rated no higher than Ba1 by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody's”) or BB+ by Standard & Poor's (“S&P”) or Fitch Ratings Inc. (“Fitch”); (ii) 20% of the Index is represented by the constituents of the Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Bond Index that are rated Baa3, Baa2, or Baa1 by Moody's or BBB-, BBB, or BBB+ by S&P or Fitch; and (iii) 10% of the Index is represented by the constituents of the Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Bond Index that are rated A3, A2, or A1 by Moody's or A-, A, or A+ by S&P or Fitch. Constituents of the Bloomberg Municipal High Yield Bond Index must have a total amount outstanding of $3 million or more and be issued as part of a transaction of at least $20 million. Constituents of the Bloomberg U.S. Municipal Bond Index must have a total amount outstanding of $7 million or more and be issued as part of a transaction of at least $75 million. Only fixed-rate coupon bonds (including zero coupon bonds) with a remaining maturity of at least one year and a dated date of January 1, 1991 or later are eligible for inclusion in the Index. Securities included in the Index may include when-issued securities, as well as securities that are subject to restrictions on resale under the U.S. federal securities laws (“restricted securities”). The securities in the Index rebalance on the last business day of each month. As of July 31, 2022, there were 19,326 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund, the Adviser or the Sub-Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

bankruptcy than issuers of higher-quality debt securities. They can be illiquid, and their values can have significant volatility and may decline significantly over short periods of time. Lower-quality debt securities tend to be more sensitive to adverse news about the issuer, or the market or economy in general. 

Municipal Obligations Risk: Issuers, including governmental issuers, may be unable to pay their obligations as they come due. The values of municipal obligations may be adversely affected by local political and economic conditions and developments. In addition, the values of municipal obligations that depend on a specific revenue source to fund their payment obligations may fluctuate as a result of actual or anticipated changes in the cash flows generated by the revenue source or changes in the priority of the municipal obligation to receive the cash flows generated by the revenue source. Municipal obligations may be more susceptible to downgrades or defaults during recessions or similar periods of economic stress. In addition, changes in federal tax laws or the activity of an issuer may adversely affect the tax-exempt status of municipal obligations. Loss of tax-exempt status may cause interest received and distributed by the Fund to shareholders to be taxable and may result in a significant decline in the values of such municipal obligations. 

Political Risk: A significant restructuring of federal income tax rates or even serious discussion on the topic in Congress could cause municipal bond prices to fall. The demand for municipal securities is strongly influenced by the value of tax-exempt income to investors. Lower income tax rates could reduce the advantage of owning municipals. 

Private Activity Bonds Risk: Private activity bonds are issued by or on behalf of public authorities to obtain funds to provide privately operated housing facilities, airport, mass transit or port facilities, sewage disposal, solid waste disposal or hazardous waste treatment or disposal facilities and certain local facilities for water supply, gas or electricity. Other types of private activity bonds, the proceeds of which are used for the construction, equipment, repair or improvement of privately operated industrial or commercial facilities, may constitute municipal securities, although the current federal tax laws place limitations on the size of such issues. The credit and quality of private activity bonds are usually related to the credit of the corporate user of the facilities. Payment of interest on and repayment of principal of such bonds are the responsibility of the corporate user (and/or any guarantor), which means that the holder of the private activity bond is exposed to the risk that the corporate user (and/or any guarantor) may default on the private activity bond. Conditions such as regulatory and environmental restrictions and economic downturns may lower the need for and the ability of corporate users to pay for the projects financed by private activity bonds. The Fund's distributions of its interest income from private activity bonds may subject certain investors to the federal alternative minimum tax applicable to noncorporate taxpayers. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains 

to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Sub-Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Sub-Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Restricted Securities Risk: The Fund may hold securities that have not been registered for sale to the public under the U.S. federal securities laws. There can be no assurance that a trading market will exist at any time for any particular restricted security. Limitations on the resale of these securities may have an adverse effect on their marketability, and may prevent the Fund from disposing of them promptly at reasonable prices. The Fund may have to bear the expense of registering the securities for resale and the risk of substantial delays in effecting the registration. Also, restricted securities may be difficult to value because market quotations may not be readily available, and the securities may have significant volatility. 

Tax Exemption Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund's income will be exempt from federal or state income taxes. Events occurring after the date of issuance of a municipal bond or after the Fund's acquisition of a municipal bond may result in a determination that interest on that bond is includible in gross income for federal income tax purposes retroactively to its date of issuance. Such a determination may cause a portion of prior distributions by the Fund to its shareholders to be taxable to those shareholders in the year of receipt. Federal or state changes in income or alternative minimum tax rates or in the tax treatment of municipal bonds may make municipal bonds less attractive as investments and cause them to decline in value. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

When-Issued Securities Risk: The Fund may purchase securities on a when-issued or forward commitment basis. The purchase price of such securities is typically fixed at the time of the commitment, with delivery and payment taking place in the future. At the time of delivery of the securities, the value may be more or less than the purchase or sale price. Purchase of securities on a when-issued or forward commitment basis may give rise to investment leverage, and may result in increased volatility of the Fund's net asset value. Default by, or bankruptcy of, a counterparty to a when-issued transaction would expose the Fund to possible losses because of an adverse market action, expenses or delays in connection with the purchase or sale of the pools specified in such transaction. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. rules impose mandatory margin requirements for certain types of when-issued or forward commitment transactions, with limited exceptions. Such transactions require mandatory collateralization which may increase the cost of such transactions and impose added operational complexity. 

advised by SSGA Funds Management, Inc. (“SSGA FM” or the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund). In seeking to track the Index, the Fund's assets may be concentrated in an industry or group of industries, but only to the extent that the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. 

The Index is designed to track the U.S. fully tax-exempt bond market. The Index includes state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, pre-refunded bonds, and insured bonds. The Index is comprised of tax-exempt municipal securities issued by states, cities, counties, districts and their respective agencies. A general obligation bond is secured by the full faith and credit of its issuer. A revenue bond is payable from a specific source of revenue. A pre-refunded bond is a revenue bond that the issuer has allocated funds to fully retire. An insured bond is protected from issuer default or rating downgrade by an insurance company. The Index also includes municipal lease obligations, which are securities issued by state and local governments and authorities to finance the acquisition of equipment and facilities. They may take the form of a lease, an installment purchase contract, a conditional sales contract, or a participation interest in a lease or contract. 

The Index is a rules-based, market-value weighted index engineered for the tax-exempt bond market. All bonds in the Index must be U.S. dollar denominated and rated Aa3/AA- or higher by at least two of the following statistical ratings agencies: Moody's Investors Service, Inc., S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch Ratings Inc. If only two of the three agencies rate the security, the lower rating is used to determine index eligibility. If only one of the agencies rates the security, the rating must be at least Aa3/AA-. In addition, to be included in the Index, a security must meet the following requirements: (i) must be fixed rate; (ii) have been issued within the last five years; (iii) have an outstanding par value of at least $7 million and have been issued as part of a transaction of at least $75 million; and (iv) have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 1 year and less than 25 years. Securities included in the Index may include when-issued securities. Bonds subject to alternative minimum tax, hospital bonds, housing bonds, tobacco bonds, and airline bonds are excluded from the Index. The Index is rebalanced monthly on the last business day of the month. As of July 31, 2022, there were 19,373 securities in the Index. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund, the Adviser or the Sub-Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

Municipal Obligations Risk: Issuers, including governmental issuers, may be unable to pay their obligations as they come due. The values of municipal obligations may be adversely affected by local political and economic conditions and developments. In addition, the values of municipal obligations that depend on a specific revenue source to fund their payment obligations may fluctuate as a result of actual or anticipated changes in the cash flows generated by the revenue source or changes in the priority of the municipal obligation to receive the cash flows generated by the revenue source. Municipal obligations may be more susceptible to downgrades or defaults during recessions or similar periods of economic stress. In addition, changes in federal tax laws or the activity of an issuer may adversely affect the tax-exempt status of municipal obligations. Loss of tax-exempt status may cause interest received and distributed by the Fund to shareholders to be taxable and may result in a significant decline in the values of such municipal obligations. 

Political Risk: A significant restructuring of federal income tax rates or even serious discussion on the topic in Congress could cause municipal bond prices to fall. The demand for municipal securities is strongly influenced by the value of tax-exempt income to investors. Lower income tax rates could reduce the advantage of owning municipals. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Sub-Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Sub-Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Tax Exemption Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund's income will be exempt from federal or state income taxes. Events occurring after the date of issuance of a municipal bond or after the Fund's acquisition of a municipal bond may result in a determination that interest on that bond is includible in gross income for federal income tax purposes retroactively to its date of issuance. Such a determination may cause a portion of prior distributions by the Fund to its shareholders to be taxable to those shareholders in the year of receipt. Federal or state changes in income or alternative minimum tax rates or in the tax treatment of municipal bonds may make municipal bonds less attractive as investments and cause them to decline in value. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

When-Issued Securities Risk: The Fund may purchase securities on a when-issued or forward commitment basis. The purchase price of such securities is typically fixed at the time of the commitment, with delivery and payment taking place in the future. At the time of delivery of the securities, the value may be more or less than the purchase or sale price. Purchase of securities on a when-issued or forward commitment basis may give rise to investment leverage, and may result in increased volatility of the Fund's net asset value. Default by, or bankruptcy of, a counterparty to a when-issued transaction would expose the Fund to possible losses because of an adverse market action, expenses or delays in connection with the purchase or sale of the pools specified in such transaction. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. rules impose mandatory margin requirements for certain types of when-issued or forward commitment transactions, with limited exceptions. Such transactions require mandatory collateralization which may increase the cost of such transactions and impose added operational complexity. 

advised by SSGA Funds Management, Inc. (“SSGA FM” or the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund). In seeking to track the Index, the Fund's assets may be concentrated in an industry or group of industries, but only to the extent that the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. 

The Index is designed to track the publicly traded municipal bonds that cover the U.S. dollar denominated short term tax exempt bond market, including state and local general obligation bonds, revenue bonds, pre-refunded bonds, and insured bonds. A general obligation bond is secured by the full faith and credit of its issuer. A revenue bond is payable from a specific source of revenue. A pre-refunded bond is a revenue bond that the issuer has allocated funds to fully retire. An insured bond is protected from issuer default or rating downgrade by an insurance company. The Index is a rules-based, market-value weighted index. All bonds in the Index must be rated Aa3/AA- or higher by at least two of the following statistical ratings agencies: Moody's Investors Service, Inc., S&P Global Ratings or Fitch Ratings Inc. If only two of the three agencies rate the security, the lower rating is used to determine index eligibility. If only one of the agencies rates the security, the rating must be at least Aa3/AA-. Each Index security must have an outstanding par value of at least $7 million and be issued as part of a transaction of at least $75 million. The bonds must be fixed rate and have a nominal maturity of one to five years. No issuer may constitute more than 10% of the Index. Securities included in the Index may include when-issued securities. Bonds subject to alternative minimum tax, hospital bonds, housing bonds, tobacco bonds, and airline bonds, along with remarketed issues, taxable municipal bonds, floaters, and derivatives are all excluded from the Index. As of July 31, 2022, there were 3,858 securities in the Index and the dollar-weighted average maturity of the securities in the Index was 3.02 years. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund, the Adviser or the Sub-Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

an issuer may adversely affect the tax-exempt status of municipal obligations. Loss of tax-exempt status may cause interest received and distributed by the Fund to shareholders to be taxable and may result in a significant decline in the values of such municipal obligations. 

Political Risk: A significant restructuring of federal income tax rates or even serious discussion on the topic in Congress could cause municipal bond prices to fall. The demand for municipal securities is strongly influenced by the value of tax-exempt income to investors. Lower income tax rates could reduce the advantage of owning municipals. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Sub-Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Sub-Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Low Short-Term Interest Rates Risk: During market conditions in which short-term interest rates are at low levels, the Fund's yield can be very low, and the Fund may have a negative yield (i.e., it may lose money on an operating basis). During these conditions, it is possible that the Fund will generate an insufficient amount of income to pay its expenses, and will not be able to pay its scheduled dividend. In addition, it is possible that during these conditions the Fund may experience difficulties purchasing and/or selling securities with respect to 

scheduled rebalances, and may, as a result, maintain a portion of its assets in cash, on which it may earn little, if any, income. Such market conditions may adversely affect the Fund's ability to achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index. 

Tax Exemption Risk: There is no guarantee that the Fund's income will be exempt from federal or state income taxes. Events occurring after the date of issuance of a municipal bond or after the Fund's acquisition of a municipal bond may result in a determination that interest on that bond is includible in gross income for federal income tax purposes retroactively to its date of issuance. Such a determination may cause a portion of prior distributions by the Fund to its shareholders to be taxable to those shareholders in the year of receipt. Federal or state changes in income or alternative minimum tax rates or in the tax treatment of municipal bonds may make municipal bonds less attractive as investments and cause them to decline in value. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

When-Issued Securities Risk: The Fund may purchase securities on a when-issued or forward commitment basis. The purchase price of such securities is typically fixed at the time of the commitment, with delivery and payment taking place in the future. At the time of delivery of the securities, the value may be more or less than the purchase or sale price. Purchase of securities on a when-issued or forward commitment basis may give rise to investment leverage, and may result in increased volatility of the Fund's net asset value. Default by, or bankruptcy of, a counterparty to a when-issued transaction would expose the Fund to possible losses because of an adverse market action, expenses or delays in connection with the purchase or sale of the pools specified in such transaction. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. rules impose mandatory margin requirements for certain types of when-issued or forward commitment transactions, with limited exceptions. Such transactions require mandatory collateralization which may increase the cost of such transactions and impose added operational complexity. 

but only to the extent that the Index concentrates in a particular industry or group of industries. The Fund may use derivatives, including credit default swaps and credit default index swaps, to obtain investment exposure that the Adviser expects to correlate closely with the Index, or a portion of the Index, and in managing cash flows. 

The Index is designed to measure the performance of the U.S. dollar denominated investment grade bond market, which includes investment grade (must be Baa3/BBB- or higher using the middle rating of Moody's Investors Service, Inc., S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch Ratings Inc.) government bonds, investment grade corporate bonds, mortgage pass-through securities, commercial mortgage backed securities and other asset backed securities that are publicly for sale in the United States. The securities in the Index must have at least 1 year remaining to maturity and must have $300 million or more of outstanding face value. Asset backed securities must have a minimum deal size of $500 million and a minimum tranche size of $25 million. For commercial mortgage backed securities, the original aggregate transaction must have a minimum deal size of $500 million, and a minimum tranche size of $25 million; the aggregate outstanding transaction sizes must be at least $300 million to remain in the Index. In addition, the securities must be U.S. dollar denominated, fixed rate, non-convertible, and taxable. Certain types of securities, such as flower bonds, targeted investor notes, and state and local government series bonds are excluded from the Index. Also excluded from the Index are structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating rate securities and Eurobonds. The Index is market capitalization weighted and the securities in the Index are updated on the last business day of each month. As of July 31, 2022, there were 12,597 securities in the Index. 

As of July 31, 2022, approximately 28% of the bonds represented in the Index were U.S. agency mortgage pass-through securities. U.S. agency mortgage pass-through securities are securities issued by entities such as Government National Mortgage Association (“GNMA”) and Federal National Mortgage Association (“FNMA”) that are backed by pools of mortgages. Transactions in mortgage pass-through securities may occur through standardized contracts for future delivery in which the exact mortgage pools to be delivered are not specified until a few days prior to settlement, referred to as a “to-be-announced transaction” or “TBA Transaction.” In a TBA Transaction, the buyer and seller agree upon general trade parameters such as agency, settlement date, par amount and price. The actual pools delivered generally are determined two days prior to the settlement date; however, it is not anticipated that the Fund will receive pools, but instead will participate in rolling TBA Transactions. The Fund expects to enter into such contracts on a regular basis. The Fund, pending settlement of such contracts, will invest its assets in high-quality, liquid short term instruments, including shares of affiliated money market funds. 

The Index is sponsored by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider”), which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index. 

the values of debt securities of longer durations. Returns on investments in debt securities could trail the returns on other investment options, including investments in equity securities. 

Fluctuation of Net Asset Value, Share Premiums and Discounts Risk: As with all exchange-traded funds, Fund Shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of Fund Shares in the secondary market may differ from the Fund's daily net asset value per share and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the net asset value per share (premium) or less than the net asset value per share (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. 

Income Risk: The Fund's income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. Issuers of securities held by the Fund may call or redeem the securities during periods of falling interest rates, and the Fund would likely be required to reinvest in securities paying lower interest rates. If an obligation held by the Fund is prepaid, the Fund may have to reinvest the prepayment in other obligations paying income at lower rates. 

Indexing Strategy/Index Tracking Risk: The Fund is managed with an indexing investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities, regardless of the current or projected performance of the Index or of the actual securities comprising the Index. This differs from an actively-managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund's performance may be less favorable than that of a portfolio managed using an active investment strategy. The structure and composition of the Index will affect the performance, volatility, and risk of the Index and, consequently, the performance, volatility, and risk of the Fund. Errors in index data, index computations or the construction of the Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the Index Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent circumstances evolve in between reconstitutions, the Index may include, and the Fund may therefore hold for a period of time, securities of companies that do not align with the Index's objective and/or criteria. When there are changes made to the component securities of the Index and the Fund in turn makes similar changes to its portfolio, any transaction costs and market exposure arising from such portfolio changes will be borne directly by the Fund and its shareholders. The Fund may recognize gains as a result of rebalancing or reconstituting its securities holdings to reflect changes in the securities included in the Index. The Fund also may be required to distribute any such gains to its shareholders to avoid adverse federal income tax consequences. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund's return may not match the return of the Index. The Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities. In addition, the Fund may not be fully invested at times, generally as a result of cash flows into or out of the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions. The Adviser may attempt to track the Index return by investing in fewer than all of the securities in the Index, or in some securities not included in the Index, potentially increasing the risk of divergence between the Fund's return and that of the Index. 

Liquidity Risk: Lack of a ready market, stressed market conditions, or restrictions on resale may limit the ability of the Fund to sell a security at an advantageous time or price or at all. Illiquid investments may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value. If the liquidity of the Fund's holdings deteriorates, it may lead to differences between the market price of Fund Shares and the net asset value of Fund Shares, and could result in the Fund Shares being less liquid. Illiquidity of the Fund's holdings may also limit the ability of the Fund to obtain cash to meet redemptions on a timely basis.  In addition, the Fund, due to limitations on investments in any illiquid investments and/or the difficulty in purchasing and selling such investments, may be unable to achieve its desired level of exposure to a certain market or sector. 

Money Market Risk: An investment in a money market fund is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC or any other government agency. Certain money market funds seek to preserve the value of their shares at $1.00 per share, although there can be no assurance that they will do so, and it is possible to lose money by investing in such a money market fund. A major or unexpected change in interest rates or a decline in the credit quality of an issuer or entity providing credit support, an inactive trading market for money market instruments, or adverse market, economic, industry, political, regulatory, geopolitical, and other conditions could cause the share price of such a money market fund to fall below $1.00. Other money market funds price and transact at a “floating” NAV that will fluctuate along with changes in the market-based value of fund assets. Shares sold utilizing a floating NAV may be worth more or less than their original purchase price. Recent changes in the regulation of money market funds may affect the operations and structures of money market funds. 

Mortgage-Related and Other Asset-Backed Securities Risk: Investments in mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities are subject to the risk of significant credit downgrades, illiquidity, and defaults to a greater extent than many other types of fixed-income investments. The liquidity of mortgage-related and asset-backed securities may change over time. During periods of falling interest rates, mortgage- and asset-backed securities may be called or prepaid, which may result in the Fund having to reinvest proceeds in other investments at a lower interest rate. During periods of rising interest rates, the average life of mortgage- and asset-backed securities may extend, which may lock in a below-market interest rate, increase the security's duration and interest rate sensitivity, and reduce the value of the security. Enforcing rights against the underlying assets or collateral may be difficult, and the underlying assets or collateral may be insufficient if the issuer defaults. 

Swaps Risk: A swap is a two-party contract that generally obligates the parties to exchange payments based on a specified reference security, basket of securities, security index or index component. Swaps can involve greater risks than direct investment in securities because swaps may be leveraged and are subject to counterparty risk (e.g., the risk of a counterparty's defaulting on the obligation or bankruptcy), credit risk and pricing risk (i.e., swaps may be difficult to value). It may not be possible for the Fund to liquidate a swap position at an advantageous time or price, which may result in significant losses. 

U.S. Government Securities Risk: Certain U.S. government securities are supported by the full faith and credit of the United States; others are supported by the right of the issuer to borrow from the U.S. Treasury; others are supported by the discretionary authority of the U.S. government to purchase the agency's obligations; and still others are supported only by the credit of the issuing agency, instrumentality, or enterprise. Although U.S. government-sponsored enterprises such as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) may be chartered or sponsored by Congress, they are not funded by Congressional appropriations, and their securities are not issued by the U.S. Treasury, are not supported by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, and involve increased credit risks. 

Valuation Risk: Some portfolio holdings, potentially a large portion of the Fund's investment portfolio, may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur more often in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. There are multiple methods that can be used to value a portfolio holding when market quotations are not readily available. The value established for any portfolio holding at a point in time might differ from what would be produced using a different methodology or if it had been priced using market quotations. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including “fair valued” securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. In addition, there is no assurance that the Fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time, and it is possible that the Fund would incur a loss because a portfolio position is sold or closed out at a discount to the valuation established by the Fund at that time. 

When-Issued, TBA and Delayed Delivery Securities Risk: The Fund may purchase securities on a when-issued, to-be-announced (“TBA”) or delayed delivery basis and may purchase securities on a forward commitment basis. The purchase price of the securities is typically fixed at the time of the commitment, but delivery and payment can take place a month or more after the date of the commitment. At the time of delivery of the securities, the value may be more or less than the purchase or sale price. Purchase of securities on a when-issued, TBA, delayed delivery, or forward commitment basis may give rise to investment leverage, and may result in increased volatility of the Fund's net asset value. Default by, or bankruptcy of, a counterparty to a when-issued, TBA or delayed delivery transaction would expose the Fund to possible losses because of an adverse market action, expenses or delays in connection with the purchase or sale of the pools specified in such transaction. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. rules impose mandatory margin requirements for certain types of when-issued, TBA delayed delivery or forward commitment transactions, with limited exceptions. Such transactions require mandatory collateralization which may increase the cost of such transactions and impose added operational complexity.