PROSPECTUS
WisdomTree Currency Strategy, Fixed Income, Alternative and Capital Efficient |
WisdomTree Trust
WisdomTree Currency Strategy, Fixed Income, Alternative and Capital Efficient ETFs* |
WisdomTree Currency Strategy ETFs Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund ( )Chinese Yuan Strategy Fund ( )Emerging Currency Strategy Fund ( )WisdomTree Fixed Income ETFs Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund ( )Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund ( )Floating Rate Treasury Fund ( )Interest Rate Hedged High Yield Bond Fund ( )Interest Rate Hedged U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund ( )Mortgage Plus Bond Fund ( )Yield Enhanced U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund ( )Yield Enhanced U.S. Short-Term Aggregate Bond Fund ( )WisdomTree Alternative ETFs PutWrite Strategy Fund (formerly, CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund) ( )Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund ( )Managed Futures Strategy Fund ( )Alternative Income Fund ( )Target Range Fund ( )WisdomTree Capital Efficient ETFs Efficient Gold Plus Gold Miners Strategy Fund ( )Efficient Gold Plus Equity Strategy Fund ( ) |
* Principal U.S. Listing Exchange: NYSE Arca, Inc. (except AGZD, HYZD, GTR and EMCB are listed on NASDAQ and SHAG, GDMN, GDE and HYIN are listed on Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.) |
THE U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (“SEC”) AND THE COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION HAVE NOT APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THESE SECURITIES OR PASSED UPON THE ADEQUACY OF THIS PROSPECTUS. ANY REPRESENTATION TO THE CONTRARY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE.
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WisdomTree Trust
Table of Contents |
The WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to provide total returns, before fees and expenses, that exceed the performance of the Bloomberg Dollar Total Return Index (the “Index”).
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to provide total returns, before fees and expenses, that exceed the performance of the Index. The Index is structured to potentially benefit as the U.S. dollar appreciates relative to a basket of global currencies. The Index tracks a long position in the U.S. dollar measured against a basket of developed and emerging market currencies which (i) have the highest liquidity in the currency markets and (ii) represent countries that make the largest contribution to trade flows with the United States. The Index also incorporates levels and differences in short-term interest rates between the U.S. and the countries (or regions) represented by the foreign currencies.
The Fund will seek exposure to both the U.S. dollar and global currencies held by the Index through investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in money market securities and other liquid securities, such as short-term investment grade government and corporate debt securities, combined with currency forward contracts in the individual component currencies of the Index (a currency forward contract is an agreement to buy or sell a specific currency at a future date at a price set at the time of the contract). If a sufficiently liquid futures contract on the Index or related index is later developed, the Fund may invest in such futures contract as a substitute for or in combination with forward contracts on the individual currencies. The Fund also may enter into repurchase agreements, which are transactions in which the Fund purchases securities or other obligations from a bank or securities dealer and simultaneously commits to resell them to a counterparty at an agreed-upon date or
2 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
upon demand and at a price reflecting a market rate of interest unrelated to the coupon rate or maturity of the purchased obligations. If, subsequent to an investment, the 80% requirement is no longer met, the Fund’s future investments will be made in a manner that will bring the Fund into compliance with this policy.
The Fund’s positioning for a stronger U.S. dollar through a mixture of securities and financial instruments is intended to provide a return reflective of the change in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to the basket of global currencies while incorporating differences in money market rates between the U.S. and the countries (or regions) represented by the foreign currencies. The Fund can also generate return from investments into high quality, short-term U.S. fixed income investments held in support of its currency positions. The Fund expects its holdings to represent approximately ten (10) currencies at any given time, with the euro expected to represent the largest exposure in the global basket of currencies, but at no time is the Fund’s exposure expected to exceed twenty (20) currencies (Index maximum). The Fund, similar to the Index, is not designed to benefit if the value of the basket of global currencies appreciates relative to the U.S. dollar.
The Fund generally will maintain a weighted average portfolio maturity with respect to short-term investment grade government and corporate debt securities of two (2) years or less and money market securities of 180 days or less on average (not to exceed 18 months) and will not purchase any money market securities with a remaining maturity of more than 397 calendar days. The “average portfolio maturity” of the Fund will be the average of all current maturities of the individual securities in the Fund’s portfolio. The Fund’s actual portfolio duration may be longer or shorter depending on market conditions.
■ | Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of currencies, fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 3 |
■ | Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. |
■ | Capital Controls and Sanctions Risk. Economic conditions, such as volatile currency exchange rates and interest rates, political events, military action and other conditions may, without prior warning, lead to foreign government intervention (including intervention by the U.S. government with respect to foreign governments, economic sectors, foreign companies and related securities and interests) and the imposition of capital controls and/or sanctions, which may also include retaliatory actions of one government against another government, such as seizure of assets. Capital controls and/or sanctions include the prohibition of, or restrictions on, the ability to own or transfer currency, securities or other assets, which may potentially include derivative instruments related thereto. Capital controls and/or sanctions may also impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell, transfer, receive, deliver or otherwise obtain exposure to, foreign securities or currency, negatively impact the value and/or liquidity of such instruments, adversely affect the trading market and price for shares of the Fund, and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use forward currency contracts and futures contracts to implement its principal investment strategies. The successful use of forward currency contracts, in particular, depends in large part on the adviser’s and the sub-adviser’s ability to predict movements in the prices of relevant currencies, fluctuations in relevant markets, and movements in interest rates. Other risks specific to these types of derivatives instruments, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
■ | Emerging Markets Risk. Investments in securities and instruments traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to such securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and instruments or investments in more developed international markets. Such conditions may impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell or otherwise transfer securities, adversely affect the trading market and price for Fund shares and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
4 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries. |
■ | Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities exposed to the currency of a single country or region, or the debt securities of companies or agencies of a single country or region, the Fund is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region. Currently, the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities exposed to the currencies of Japan and Europe. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. The Fund’s investment in repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. Investments in repurchase agreements also may be subject to the risk that the market value of the underlying obligations may decline prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term. |
■ | Sovereign Debt Risk. Bonds issued by governments, sometimes referred to as “sovereign” debt, present risks not associated with investments in other types of bonds. The government or agency issuing the debt may be unable or unwilling to make interest payments and/or repay the principal owed. In such instance, the Fund may have limited recourse against the issuing government or agency. In the past, governments of emerging market countries have refused to honor their payment obligations on issued bonds. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 5 |
reflect
deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of
dividends and distributions.
Year | Rate |
2014 | |
2015 | |
2016 | |
2017 | - |
2018 | |
2019 | |
2020 | - |
2021 |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Bullish Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ( |
||
Bloomberg Dollar Total Return Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
||
Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
6 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 7 |
The WisdomTree Chinese Yuan Strategy Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to achieve total returns reflective of both money market rates in China available to foreign investors and changes in value of the Chinese yuan relative to the U.S. dollar.
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in short-term securities and instruments designed to provide exposure to Chinese currency and money market rates. Because the market for money market securities in China generally is less liquid and accessible to foreign investors than corresponding markets in more developed economies, the Fund intends to achieve exposure to currency markets in China using a variety of investments and investment techniques. For example, the Fund will invest in short-term U.S. money market securities and forward currency contracts and currency swaps that settle in U.S. dollars. The combination of U.S. money market securities and forward currency contracts and swaps is designed to provide exposure equivalent to money market securities denominated in Chinese yuan.
The Fund generally will maintain a weighted average portfolio maturity of 90 days or less with respect to the money market securities in its portfolio. Forward currency contracts and swaps generally will be kept to an average term of six months or less.
The Fund will invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in investments whose combined performance is economically tied to China. If subsequent to an investment, the 80% requirement is no longer met, the Fund’s future investments will be made in a manner
8 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
that will bring the Fund into compliance with this policy. The Trust will provide shareholders with sixty (60) days’ prior notice of any change to this policy for the Fund.
■ | Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of Chinese yuan will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money. |
■ | Geographic Concentration in China. Because the Fund concentrates its investments in China, the Fund’s performance is expected to be closely tied to social, political, and economic conditions within China and to be more volatile than the performance of more geographically diversified funds. Although the Chinese economy has grown rapidly during recent years and the Chinese government has implemented significant economic reforms to liberalize trade policy, promote foreign investment, and reduce government control of the economy, there can be no guarantee that economic growth or these reforms will continue. The Chinese economy may also experience slower growth if global or domestic demand for Chinese goods decreases significantly and/or key trading partners apply trade tariffs or implement other protectionist measures. The Chinese economy is also susceptible to rising rates of inflation, economic recession, market inefficiency, volatility, and pricing anomalies that may be connected to governmental influence, a lack of publicly-available information and/or political and social instability. The government of China maintains strict currency controls in order to achieve economic, trade and political objectives and regularly intervenes in the currency market. The Chinese government also plays a major role in the country’s economic policies regarding foreign investments. Foreign investors are subject to the risk of loss from expropriation or nationalization of their investment assets and property, governmental restrictions on foreign investments and the repatriation of capital invested. The Chinese securities markets are subject to more frequent trading halts and low trading volume, resulting in substantially less liquidity and greater price volatility. In addition, the Chinese government may enact laws and regulations that interfere with the operations of Chinese companies listed abroad, including U.S.-listed Chinese companies. These and other factors could have a negative impact on the Fund’s performance and increase the volatility of an investment in the Fund. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of currencies, fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 9 |
premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.
■ | Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. |
■ | Capital Controls and Sanctions Risk. Economic conditions, such as volatile currency exchange rates and interest rates, political events, military action and other conditions may, without prior warning, lead to foreign government intervention (including intervention by the U.S. government with respect to foreign governments, economic sectors, foreign companies and related securities and interests) and the imposition of capital controls and/or sanctions, which may also include retaliatory actions of one government against another government, such as seizure of assets. Capital controls and/or sanctions include the prohibition of, or restrictions on, the ability to own or transfer currency, securities or other assets, which may potentially include derivative instruments related thereto. Capital controls and/or sanctions may also impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell, transfer, receive, deliver or otherwise obtain exposure to, foreign securities or currency, negatively impact the value and/or liquidity of such instruments, adversely affect the trading market and price for shares of the Fund, and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use forward currency contracts and currency swaps to implement its principal investment strategies. A currency swap generally is an agreement between two parties to exchange fixed or floating interest rate, and sometimes principal, amounts in one currency for another on predetermined dates. The successful use of forward currency contracts, in particular, depends in large part on the adviser’s and sub-adviser’s ability to predict movements in the prices of relevant currencies, fluctuations in relevant markets, and movements in interest rates. Swaps are particularly subject to counterparty credit, valuation and liquidity risks. Other risks specific to these types of derivatives instruments, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
10 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Emerging Markets Risk. Investments in securities and instruments traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to such securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and instruments or investments in more developed international markets. Such conditions may impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell or otherwise transfer securities, adversely affect the trading market and price for Fund shares and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Offshore Investor Risk. In addition to the general risks associated with investing in non-U.S. currencies and non-U.S. currency markets, there are special risks associated with investing in Chinese yuan or securities designed to provide exposure to Chinese yuan. The government of China maintains strict currency controls in support of economic, trade and political objectives and regularly intervenes in the currency market. The government’s actions may not be transparent or predictable. As a result, the value of the yuan, and the value of securities designed to provide exposure to the yuan, can change quickly and arbitrarily. Furthermore, it is difficult for offshore investors to directly access money market securities in China because of investment and trading restrictions. These limitations and restrictions may impact the availability, liquidity, and pricing of securities designed to provide offshore investors with exposure to Chinese markets. As a result, returns achieved by offshore investors, such as the Fund, could differ from those available to domestic investors in China. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. The Fund’s investment in repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. Investments in repurchase agreements also may be subject to the risk that the market value of the underlying obligations may decline prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term. |
■ | Sovereign Debt Risk. Bonds issued by governments, sometimes referred to as “sovereign” debt, present risks not associated with investments in other types of bonds. The government or agency issuing the debt may be unable |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 11 |
or unwilling to make interest payments and/or repay the principal owed. In such instance, the Fund may have limited recourse against the issuing government or agency. In the past, governments of emerging market countries have refused to honor their payment obligations on issued bonds.
Year | Total Return |
2012 | |
2013 | |
2014 | - |
2015 | - |
2016 | - |
2017 | |
2018 | - |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Chinese Yuan Strategy Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | |||
JP Morgan Emerging Local Markets Index Plus (ELMI+) China (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | |||
Chinese Yuan (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
12 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 13 |
The WisdomTree Emerging Currency Strategy Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to achieve total returns reflective of both money market rates in selected emerging market countries available to foreign investors and changes to the value of these currencies relative to the U.S. dollar.
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in short-term securities and instruments designed to provide exposure to the currencies and money market rates of selected emerging market countries.
The Fund seeks to provide exposure to currencies and money market rates from emerging and developing economies in three regions of the world: (i) Asia, (ii) Latin America and (iii) Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Within these regions, the Fund intends to invest in a subset of the following countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. This list may change based on market developments. The Fund attempts to achieve exposure to the most liquid currencies within each of the three broad regions, while at the same time maintaining geographic and economic diversity across these regions. The specific set of currencies is generally selected annually, typically in July or August. The selected currencies are equally weighted in terms of U.S. dollar value. The Fund is rebalanced quarterly in order to maintain this equal weighting. In order to maintain geographic diversity, the Fund’s exposure to each of the three broad geographic regions is limited to 60% of its total asset value on the annual assessment date and at each quarterly rebalancing. More frequent rebalancing may occur in response to significant market events. A significant event might include, for
14 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
example, market conditions that significantly disrupt liquidity or result in the reclassification of a currency (from emerging to developed, for example). Currencies that generally would be considered liquid may be ineligible for investment or dropped from the Fund as a result of government action or other market events if the Fund’s adviser believes doing so would be in the best interest of the Fund.
Because the market for money market securities in the selected emerging markets generally is less liquid and accessible to foreign investors than corresponding markets in more developed countries, the Fund intends to achieve exposure to these markets by investing primarily in short-term U.S. money market securities and forward currency contracts and swaps of the constituent currencies. The combination of U.S. money market securities with forward currency contracts and currency swaps is designed to provide exposure equivalent to money market securities denominated in currencies of the selected markets in which the Fund invests. In aggregate, the Fund’s investments should create exposure that is economically similar to a basket of money market securities denominated in each of the selected currencies. The Fund also may enter into repurchase agreements.
The Fund generally will maintain a weighted average portfolio maturity of 90 days or less with respect to the money market securities in its portfolio. The Fund will not purchase any security with a remaining maturity of more than 397 calendar days. All U.S. money market securities acquired by the Fund will be rated in the upper two short-term ratings by at least two nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (“NRSROs”) or, if unrated, deemed to be of equivalent quality. The Fund does not seek to preserve capital in U.S. dollars.
The Fund will invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in investments whose combined performance is tied economically to selected emerging market countries. If, subsequent to an investment, the 80% requirement is no longer met, the Fund’s future investments will be made in a manner that will bring the Fund into compliance with this policy. The Trust will provide shareholders with sixty (60) days’ prior notice of any change to this policy for the Fund.
■ | Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money. |
■ | Emerging Markets Risk. Investments in securities and instruments traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to such securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and instruments or investments in more developed international markets. Such conditions may impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell or otherwise transfer securities, adversely affect the trading market and price for Fund shares and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of currencies, fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 15 |
economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future.
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings. |
■ | Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. |
■ | Capital Controls and Sanctions Risk. Economic conditions, such as volatile currency exchange rates and interest rates, political events, military action and other conditions may, without prior warning, lead to foreign government intervention (including intervention by the U.S. government with respect to foreign governments, economic sectors, foreign companies and related securities and interests) and the imposition of capital controls and/or sanctions, which may also include retaliatory actions of one government against another government, such as seizure of assets. Capital controls and/or sanctions include the prohibition of, or restrictions on, the ability to own or transfer currency, securities or other assets, which may potentially include derivative instruments related thereto. Capital controls and/or sanctions may also impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell, transfer, receive, deliver or otherwise obtain exposure to, foreign securities or currency, negatively impact the value and/or liquidity of such instruments, adversely affect the trading market and price for shares of the Fund, and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use forward currency contracts and currency swaps to implement its principal investment strategies. A currency swap generally is an agreement between two parties to exchange fixed or floating interest rate, and sometimes principal, amounts in one currency for another on predetermined dates. The successful use of forward currency contracts, in particular, depends in large part on the adviser’s and sub-adviser’s ability to predict movements in the prices of relevant currencies, fluctuations in relevant markets, and movements in interest rates. Swaps are particularly subject to counterparty credit, valuation and liquidity risks. Other risks specific to these types of derivatives instruments, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
16 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries. |
■ | Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. The Fund’s investment in repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. Investments in repurchase agreements also may be subject to the risk that the market value of the underlying obligations may decline prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term. |
■ | Sovereign Debt Risk. Bonds issued by governments, sometimes referred to as “sovereign” debt, present risks not associated with investments in other types of bonds. The government or agency issuing the debt may be unable or unwilling to make interest payments and/or repay the principal owed. In such instance, the Fund may have limited recourse against the issuing government or agency. In the past, governments of emerging market countries have refused to honor their payment obligations on issued bonds. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 17 |
Year | Total Return |
2012 | |
2013 | - |
2014 | - |
2015 | - |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | - |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 | - |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Emerging Currency Strategy Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | ( |
( | |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
( | |
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ( |
( | |
Equal-Weighted Emerging Currency Composite (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
( | |
JP Morgan Emerging Local Markets Index Plus (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
|
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
18 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 19 |
The WisdomTree Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund (the “Fund”) seeks a high level of total return consisting of both income and capital appreciation.
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve its investment objective through investment in debt securities issued by corporate entities (“Corporate Debt”) that are domiciled in, or economically tied to, emerging market countries. The issuers of such Corporate Debt will include public, private, and state-owned or sponsored corporations. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in Corporate Debt. For these purposes, Corporate Debt includes fixed income securities, such as bonds, notes, money market securities and other debt obligations (such as loan participation notes) of emerging market issuers. Corporate Debt does not include derivatives.
The Fund intends to focus its investment on Corporate Debt issued in U.S. dollars. The Fund also may invest in Corporate Debt denominated in the local currency of emerging market countries. Non-U.S. dollar denominated debt is sometimes referred to as “local debt.” Local debt provides exposure to changes in the value of such non-U.S. currencies against the U.S. dollar. Corporate Debt includes debt securities issued by supranational organizations, such as the European Investment Bank, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or International Finance Corporation, or other regional development banks. The Fund may invest to a limited extent in debt securities of emerging market governments (also known as “sovereign debt”) and debt securities linked to inflation rates in emerging market countries.
20 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The Fund intends to seek exposure to Corporate Debt from the following regions: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Within these regions, the Fund may invest in countries such as: Argentina, Bahrain, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates. This list may change based on market developments. The Fund employs a structured investment approach that utilizes “top down” analysis of macroeconomic factors and “bottom up” analysis of emerging market countries and issuers. The Fund’s credit exposures are monitored and may be modified, reduced or eliminated. The Fund’s exposure to any single issuer generally will be limited to 10% of the Fund’s net assets. The Fund’s exposure to any single country generally will be limited to 30% of the Fund’s net assets. The percentage of Fund assets invested in a specific region, country or issuer will change from time to time.
The universe of emerging market Corporate Debt currently includes securities that are rated “investment grade” as well as “non-investment grade” (commonly referred to as “junk bonds”). The Fund intends to provide a broad exposure to emerging market Corporate Debt and therefore will invest in both investment grade and non-investment grade securities. Securities rated investment grade generally are considered to be of higher credit quality and subject to lower default risk. Although securities rated below investment grade may offer the potential for higher yields, they generally are subject to a higher potential risk of loss.
The Fund attempts to maintain an aggregate portfolio duration of between two and ten years under normal market conditions. Aggregate portfolio duration is important to investors as an indication of the Fund’s sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The Fund’s actual portfolio duration may be longer or shorter depending upon market conditions. The Fund may also invest in short-term money market securities denominated in U.S. dollars or the currencies of countries in which the Fund invests.
The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in derivatives, such as swaps, U.S. Treasury futures, and forward currency contracts. The Fund’s use of derivatives will be underpinned by investments in cash or other liquid assets (typically short-term, high-quality money market securities). The Fund also may enter into repurchase agreements, which are transactions in which the Fund purchases securities or other obligations from a bank or securities dealer and simultaneously agrees to resell them to a counterparty at an agreed-upon date or upon demand and at a price reflecting a market rate of interest unrelated to the coupon rate or maturity of the purchased obligations.
The Fund must invest at least 80% of its net assets directly in Corporate Debt. The decision to secure exposure through direct investment in Corporate Debt or indirectly through derivative transactions will be a function of, among other things, market accessibility, credit exposure, tax ramifications and regulatory requirements applicable to U.S. investment companies. If, subsequent to an investment, the Fund’s 80% requirement is no longer met, the Fund’s future investments will be made in a manner that will bring the Fund into compliance with this policy. The Trust will provide shareholders with sixty (60) days’ prior notice of any change to this policy for the Fund.
■ | Emerging Markets Risk. Investments in securities and instruments traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to such securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and instruments or investments in more developed international markets. Such conditions may impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell or otherwise transfer securities, adversely affect the trading market and price for Fund shares and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 21 |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of currencies, fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings. |
■ | Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. |
■ | Capital Controls and Sanctions Risk. Economic conditions, such as volatile currency exchange rates and interest rates, political events, military action and other conditions may, without prior warning, lead to foreign government intervention (including intervention by the U.S. government with respect to foreign governments, economic sectors, foreign companies and related securities and interests) and the imposition of capital controls and/or sanctions, which may also include retaliatory actions of one government against another government, such as seizure of assets. Capital controls and/or sanctions include the prohibition of, or restrictions on, the ability to own or transfer currency, securities or other assets, which may potentially include derivative instruments related thereto. Capital controls and/or sanctions may also impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell, transfer, receive, deliver or otherwise obtain exposure to, foreign securities or currency, negatively impact the value and/or liquidity of such instruments, adversely affect the trading market and price for shares of the Fund, and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money. |
22 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund may invest in swaps, futures contracts, and forward currency contracts to a limited extent (i.e., up to 20% of its net assets) to implement its principal investment strategies. Swaps are particularly subject to counterparty credit, valuation and liquidity risks. The successful use of forward currency contracts depends in large part on the adviser’s and sub-adviser’s ability to predict movements in the prices of relevant currencies, fluctuations in relevant markets, and movements in interest rates. Other risks specific to these types of derivatives instruments, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
■ | Energy Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the energy sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The energy sector includes, for example, oil, gas, and consumable fuel companies. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, worldwide economic growth, worldwide demand, political instability in the Middle East, eastern Europe or other oil or gas producing regions, and volatile oil prices. |
■ | Financials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the financials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The financials sector includes, for example, banks and financial institutions providing mortgage and mortgage related services. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of defaults on corporate, consumer and government debt, the availability and cost of capital, and fallout from the housing and sub-prime mortgage crisis. |
■ | Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries. |
■ | Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 23 |
regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.
■ | High Yield Securities Risk. Higher yielding, high risk debt securities, sometimes referred to as junk bonds, may present additional risk because these securities may be less liquid and present more credit risk than investment grade bonds. The price of high yield securities tends to be more susceptible to issuer-specific operating results and outlook and to real or perceived adverse economic and competitive industry conditions. High yield securities may be regarded as predominantly speculative with respect to the issuer’s continuing ability to meet principal and interest payments. |
■ | Industrials Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in the industrials sector, and therefore, the Fund’s performance could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. The industrials sector includes, for example, aerospace and defense, non-residential construction, engineering, machinery, transportation, and commercial and professional services companies. This sector can be significantly affected by, among other things, business cycle fluctuations, worldwide economy growth, international political and economic developments, exchange rates, commodity prices, environmental issues, government and corporate spending, supply and demand for specific products and manufacturing, and government regulation. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. The Fund’s investment in repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. Investments in repurchase agreements also may be subject to the risk that the market value of the underlying obligations may decline prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term. |
■ | Sovereign Debt Risk. Bonds issued by governments, sometimes referred to as “sovereign” debt, present risks not associated with investments in other types of bonds. The government or agency issuing the debt may be unable or unwilling to make interest payments and/or repay the principal owed. In such instance, the Fund may have limited recourse against the issuing government or agency. In the past, governments of emerging market countries have refused to honor their payment obligations on issued bonds. |
Year | Total Return |
2013 | - |
2014 | |
2015 | - |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | - |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 | - |
24 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Corporate Bond Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ( |
||
JP Morgan CEMBI Diversified Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Voya Investment Management Co., LLC (“Voya IM”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by Voya IM’s Emerging Markets Debt Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
Anil Katarya, CFA, Global Head of the Investment Grade Credit Team and Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since May 2022.
Anthony A. Routh, Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since August 2017.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NASDAQ, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 25 |
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
26 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The WisdomTree Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund (the “Fund”) seeks a high level of total return consisting of both income and capital appreciation.
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to achieve its investment objective through investment in bonds and other debt instruments (“Local Debt”) denominated in the local currencies of emerging market countries. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in Local Debt. For these purposes, Local Debt includes fixed income securities, such as bonds, notes or other debt obligations denominated in local currencies of emerging market countries, as well as certain derivatives and other instruments described herein.
The Fund is designed to provide exposure to Local Debt of issuers from a broad range of emerging market regions and countries. The Fund intends to focus its investment on fixed income securities issued by emerging market governments, government agencies, and corporations. The Fund also may invest in fixed income securities denominated in an emerging market currency and issued by supranational organizations, such as the European Investment Bank, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation, or other regional development banks. The Fund also may invest in debt securities linked to inflation rates outside the U.S., including securities or instruments linked to rates in emerging market countries.
The Fund intends to provide exposure across several geographic regions and countries. The Fund intends to invest in Local Debt from the following regions: Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Within these
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 27 |
regions, the Fund may invest in countries such as: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Uruguay. This list may change based on market developments. The Fund uses a structured investment approach that analyzes multiple factors. Countries are grouped into differentiated tiers based on an analysis of these factors. Subject to the Fund’s general investment requirement to provide broad regional and country exposure, the Fund generally invests a higher percentage of its assets in countries that have larger and more liquid debt markets and that WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc., the Fund’s investment adviser, believes are pursuing sustainable fiscal and monetary policies in light of economic and market conditions. The country exposures are monitored and may be modified, reduced or eliminated. The Fund’s exposure to any single country generally will be limited to 20% of the Fund’s assets. The percentage of Fund assets invested in a specific region, country or issuer will change from time to time.
The universe of Local Debt currently includes securities that are rated “investment grade” as well as “non-investment grade” (commonly referred to as “junk bonds”). The Fund intends to provide a broad-based exposure to emerging market debt and therefore will invest in both investment grade and non-investment grade securities. Securities rated investment grade generally are considered to be of higher credit quality and subject to lower default risk. Although securities rated below investment grade may offer the potential for higher yields, they generally are subject to a higher potential risk of loss.
The Fund attempts to maintain an aggregate portfolio duration of between two and ten years under normal market conditions. Aggregate portfolio duration is important to investors as an indication of the Fund’s sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The Fund’s actual portfolio duration may be longer or shorter depending upon market conditions. The Fund may also invest in short-term money market securities denominated in the currencies of countries in which the Fund invests.
The Fund may invest up to 30% of its net assets in derivatives such as forward currency contracts and swaps. The Fund’s use of forward contracts and swaps will be underpinned by investments in cash or other liquid assets (typically short-term, high- quality U.S. money market securities) and is designed to provide exposure similar to investments in local currency debt. The Fund also may enter into repurchase agreements. Local Debt also includes fixed income securities denominated in an emerging market currency and issued by a supranational organization or regional development bank. Assets not invested in Local Debt generally will be invested in U.S. government securities and investment grade money market instruments. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in debt instruments denominated in U.S. dollars issued by emerging market governments, government agencies, corporations, regional development banks and supranational issuers, as well as derivatives based on such instruments.
The decision to secure exposure through direct investment in bonds or indirectly through derivative transactions will be a function of, among other things, market accessibility, credit exposure, tax ramifications and regulatory requirements applicable to U.S. investment companies. If, subsequent to an investment, the 80% requirement is no longer met, the Fund’s future investments will be made in a manner that will bring the Fund into compliance with this policy. The Trust will provide shareholders with sixty (60) days’ prior notice of any change to this policy for the Fund.
■ | Emerging Markets Risk. Investments in securities and instruments traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to such securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and instruments or investments in more developed international markets. Such conditions may impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell or otherwise transfer securities, adversely affect the trading market and price for Fund shares and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
28 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of currencies, fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Because securities held by the Fund trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, the Fund is likely to experience premiums and discounts greater than those of domestic ETFs. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings. |
■ | Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. |
■ | Capital Controls and Sanctions Risk. Economic conditions, such as volatile currency exchange rates and interest rates, political events, military action and other conditions may, without prior warning, lead to foreign government intervention (including intervention by the U.S. government with respect to foreign governments, economic sectors, foreign companies and related securities and interests) and the imposition of capital controls and/or sanctions, which may also include retaliatory actions of one government against another government, such as seizure of assets. Capital controls and/or sanctions include the prohibition of, or restrictions on, the ability to own or transfer currency, securities or other assets, which may potentially include derivative instruments related thereto. Capital controls and/or sanctions may also impact the ability of the Fund to buy, sell, transfer, receive, deliver or otherwise obtain exposure to, foreign securities or currency, negatively impact the value and/or liquidity of such instruments, adversely affect the trading market and price for shares of the Fund, and cause the Fund to decline in value. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 29 |
■ | Currency Exchange Rate Risk. Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-U.S. currencies will affect the value of the Fund’s investment and the value of your Fund shares. Currency exchange rates can be very volatile and can change quickly and unpredictably. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may also change quickly, unpredictably, and without warning, and you may lose money. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to invest in derivatives, including in particular, swaps and forward currency contracts, to a limited extent (i.e., up to 30% of its net assets) to implement its principal investment strategies. Swaps are particularly subject to counterparty credit, valuation and liquidity risks. The successful use of forward currency contracts depends in large part on the adviser’s and sub-adviser’s ability to predict movements in the prices of relevant currencies, fluctuations in relevant markets, and movements in interest rates. Other risks specific to these types of derivatives instruments, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
■ | Foreign Securities Risk. Investments in non-U.S. securities involve political, regulatory, and economic risks that may not be present in U.S. securities. For example, investments in non-U.S. securities may be subject to risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations, political or economic instability, or geographic events that adversely impact issuers of foreign securities. Investments in non-U.S. securities also may be subject to withholding or other taxes and may be subject to additional trading, settlement, custodial, and operational risks. These and other factors can make investments in the Fund more volatile and potentially less liquid than other types of investments and may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging markets countries. |
■ | Geographic Investment Risk. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in securities of companies of a single country or region, it is more likely to be impacted by events or conditions affecting that country or region. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. |
■ | High Yield Securities Risk. Higher yielding, high risk debt securities, sometimes referred to as junk bonds, may present additional risk because these securities may be less liquid and present more credit risk than investment grade bonds. The price of high yield securities tends to be more susceptible to issuer-specific operating results |
30 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
and outlook and to real or perceived adverse economic and competitive industry conditions. High yield securities may be regarded as predominantly speculative with respect to the issuer’s continuing ability to meet principal and interest payments.
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. The Fund’s investment in repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. Investments in repurchase agreements also may be subject to the risk that the market value of the underlying obligations may decline prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term. |
■ | Sovereign Debt Risk. Bonds issued by governments, sometimes referred to as “sovereign” debt, present risks not associated with investments in other types of bonds. The government or agency issuing the debt may be unable or unwilling to make interest payments and/or repay the principal owed. In such instance, the Fund may have limited recourse against the issuing government or agency. In the past, governments of emerging market countries have refused to honor their payment obligations on issued bonds. |
Year | Total Return |
2012 | |
2013 | - |
2014 | - |
2015 | - |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | - |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 | - |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 31 |
WisdomTree Emerging Markets Local Debt Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | ( |
( | |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
( | |
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ( |
( | |
JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified Index Unhedged USD (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
32 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of an index that measures the performance of the market for floating rate public obligations of the U.S. Treasury.
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Floating Rate Bond Index (the “Index”). The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in the component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is designed to measure the performance of floating rate public obligations of the U.S. Treasury (“Floating Rate Notes” or “FRNs”). Unlike fixed-rate U.S. Treasury bonds, FRNs have interest rates that adjust periodically. FRNs’ floating interest rates may be higher or lower than the interest rates of fixed-rate bonds of comparable quality with similar maturities. The floating coupon rates of the FRNs included in the Index are initially expected to reset weekly according to the result of the most recent 13-week T-bill auction, plus a spread, subject to a minimum net yield of zero percent. Because FRN floating coupon rates adjust weekly, the value of FRNs fluctuate
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 33 |
much less than fixed-rate bonds in response to market interest rate movements. FRN values, however, will decline if their floating coupon rates do not rise as much, or as quickly, as interest rates in general.
The Index is rules-based and market capitalization weighted and comprised of FRNs that have a minimum amount outstanding of one billion as of the monthly rebalancing date, which falls on the last business day of each month. FRNs eligible for inclusion in the Index must have an issue date on or before the Index rebalancing date. The Index excludes fixed-rate securities, Treasury inflation-protected securities, convertible bonds and bonds with survivor put options. Both the FRNs and the FRNs’ coupon and principal payments must be denominated in U.S. dollars. FRNs pay interest rates quarterly until maturity.
■ | Floating Rate Notes Risk. Securities with floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Fund’s NAV, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the Floating Rate Notes, which only occur periodically. This risk is also heightened because floating rate Treasury obligations are new issuances for which a deep and liquid market has not yet developed. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized |
34 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
■ | Issuer Credit Risk. The financial condition of an issuer of a debt security or other instrument may cause such issuer to default, become unable to pay interest or principal due or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or cause such issuer to be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair value prices may be adversely impacted and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the Index tracking risk. The Fund’s use of sampling techniques may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
■ | Risk of Limited Issuance. The issuance of FRNs by the U.S. Treasury is relatively new and the amount of supply is limited. There is no guarantee or assurance that: (i) the Fund will be able to invest in a desired amount of FRNs, (ii) the Fund will be able to buy FRNs at a desirable price, (iii) FRNs will continue to be issued by the U.S. Treasury, or (iv) FRNs will be actively traded. Any or all of the foregoing, should they occur, would negatively impact the Fund. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 35 |
Year | Total Return |
2015 | - |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | |||
Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Floating Rate Bond Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
36 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 37 |
The WisdomTree Interest Rate Hedged High Yield Bond Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond, Zero Duration Index (the “Index”).
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in the component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is designed to provide long exposure to the performance of selected issuers in the U.S. non-investment-grade corporate bond (“junk bonds”) market that are deemed to have favorable fundamental and income characteristics while seeking to manage interest rate risk through the use of short positions in U.S. Treasury securities (“U.S. Treasuries”).
The Index is comprised of long and short positions. The long positions of the Index (the “Long Basket”) intends to replicate the WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond Index. The Index employs a multi-step process, which screens based on fundamentals to identify bonds with favorable characteristics and then tilts to those individual
38 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
securities which offer favorable income characteristics. The goal is to improve the risk-adjusted performance of traditional market capitalization-weighted approaches of high-yield corporate bond indices.
The Long Basket of the Index is comprised of corporate bonds of public issuers domiciled in the United States. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, bonds must meet the following criteria: (i) pay fixed-rate coupons; (ii) have at least $500 million in par amount outstanding; (iii) have a remaining maturity of at least one year; and (iv) rated non-investment grade by Moody’s or S&P Global Ratings. In addition, the issuer cannot have defaulted or be in distress. For the purposes of the Index, bonds issued under Regulation S are excluded from eligibility. All bonds are denominated in U.S. dollars.
The Long Basket of the Index utilizes a “screen and tilt” rules-based approach to isolate bonds that have favorable fundamentals and tilts to those bonds with favorable income and valuation characteristics. Once the Index universe is defined from the eligibility criteria, individual bonds are assigned a factor score against their broad sector peers (e.g., industrials, financials, utilities, consumer and energy) based on rules-based fundamental metrics distinguishing cash flow characteristics and discards the securities with poor cash flow performance. Remaining bonds are ranked within each sector based on liquidity scores and then screened so that the bonds receiving the lowest 5% of liquidity scores in each sector are removed from the Index. Each remaining bond is then assigned an income tilt score based on its probability of default relative to the other remaining bonds in its sector. Income tilt scores are then used to determine a bond’s weight in the Index, with bonds receiving higher income tilt scores being more heavily weighted. Issuer exposure is capped at 2%, with excess exposure distributed to the remaining bonds on a pro-rata basis.
The short positions of the Index (the “Short Basket”) holds short positions in U.S. Treasuries (or futures providing exposure to U.S. Treasuries in the case of the Fund) that seek to correspond to a duration exposure matching the duration of the Long Basket, with a targeted total duration exposure of approximately zero years (e.g., if the average duration of bonds in the Long Basket is approximately two years, the Short Basket will seek an average duration of approximately two years among its short holdings of U.S. Treasuries, with an aggregate targeted Index duration of approximately zero years). Duration is a measure used to determine the sensitivity of a portfolio to changes in interest rates with a longer duration portfolio being more sensitive to changes in interest rates. The Fund may also short U.S. Treasuries.
The Index weights the short exposure to U.S. Treasuries of differing maturities in an attempt to offset the sensitivity of the long exposure to overall moves in interest rates across the yield curve. The Long Basket and Short Basket of the Index are rebalanced on a monthly basis.
The Index is designed to have greater returns than an equivalent non-interest rate hedged investment when U.S. Treasury rates are rising significantly. Conversely, the Index is designed to have lower returns than an equivalent non-interest rate hedged investment when U.S. Treasury rates are falling significantly.
■ | Hedging Risk. The Index seeks to mitigate the potential negative impact of using U.S. Treasury rates on the performance of bonds in the long portfolio of the Index. The Index’s short positions in U.S. Treasuries, as well as the Fund’s holdings to obtain such exposure, are not intended to mitigate credit risk or mitigate changes in bond values associated with investor perceptions regarding, or premiums placed on, credit risk (i.e., credit risk premiums) or otherwise mitigate risks associated with other factors influencing the price of such bonds, which may have a greater impact than rising or falling interest rates. There is no guarantee that the short positions will completely eliminate the interest rate risk of the long bond positions. The Index’s short positions also may fail to provide the targeted duration in light of changes in the shape of the U.S. Treasury curve. The interest rate profile between the long and short exposures of the Index and Fund could also evolve significantly between |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 39 |
monthly rebalancing. This could lead to temporary dislocations between the Fund’s intended and actual sensitivity to interest rates, which could impact performance. There may also be significant differences between the bond markets and U.S. Treasury markets (including futures markets for U.S. Treasuries) that could result in the Fund’s short positions performing ineffectively, exacerbating losses or causing greater tracking error. In addition, when interest rates fall, an unhedged investment in the same long portfolio of bonds will outperform the Fund.
■ | High Yield Securities Risk. Higher yielding, high risk debt securities, sometimes referred to as junk bonds, may present additional risk because these securities may be less liquid and present more credit risk than investment grade bonds. The price of high yield securities tends to be more susceptible to issuer-specific operating results and outlook and to real or perceived adverse economic and competitive industry conditions. High yield securities may be regarded as predominantly speculative with respect to the issuer’s continuing ability to meet principal and interest payments. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world, including the United States. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. The financial condition of an issuer of a debt security or other instrument or a counterparty to a derivative or other contract may cause such issuer or counterparty to default, become unable to pay interest or principal due or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or cause such issuer or counterparty to be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. Because the issuers of junk bonds may be in uncertain financial health, the prices of their debt securities could be more vulnerable to bad economic news, or even the expectation of bad news than investment grade debt securities. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
40 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use futures contracts to implement its principal investment strategies. Other risks specific to futures contracts, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. The United States has experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of the United States) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. |
■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk with respect to the Fund is the risk that short exposure to fixed income securities will decline in value because of decreases in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. |
■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair value prices may be adversely impacted and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the Index tracking risk. The Fund’s use of sampling techniques may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Short Sales Risk. The Fund will engage in “short sale” transactions. The Fund will lose value if the security or instrument that is the subject of a short sale increases in value. The Fund also may enter into short positions in U.S. Treasuries as well as a short derivative position through futures contracts on U.S. Treasuries. If the price of |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 41 |
the security or derivative that is the subject of a short sale increases, then the Fund will incur a loss equal to the increase in price from the time that the short sale was entered into plus any premiums and interest paid to a third party in connection with the short sale. The risk of loss on a shorted position arises from the increase in value of the security sold short and is potentially unlimited unlike the risk of loss on a long position, which is limited to the amount paid for the investment plus transaction costs. Therefore, short sales involve the risk that losses may be exaggerated, potentially losing more money than the actual cost of the investment. Also, there is the risk that the third party to the short sale may fail to honor its contract terms, causing a loss to the Fund. Further, in times of unusual or adverse economic, market or political conditions, the Fund may not be able to fully or partially implement its short selling strategy.
■ | U.S. Treasury Exposure Risk. The methodology used to select U.S. Treasuries for the Index (or U.S. Treasuries or U.S. Treasury futures, in the case of the Fund) for different maturities within the short exposure could produce performance that is dissimilar from other U.S. Treasuries of similar maturities. For example, unique supply and demand conditions could create a market whereby selected U.S. Treasuries or positions trade either more or less expensively than other U.S. Treasuries or positions of the same maturity, which could negatively impact the performance of the Fund. |
■ | Yield Curve Risk. The Index and Fund will have short exposure to U.S. Treasuries with different maturity dates and weightings. Interest rates do not change uniformly for U.S. Treasuries of differing lengths of maturity in response to market and economic conditions. For example, interest rates for shorter maturity U.S. Treasuries may rise or fall more or less than interest rates for longer maturity U.S. Treasuries and rates may rise for U.S. Treasuries of certain maturities but fall for U.S. Treasuries of different maturities. Changes in interest rates among U.S. Treasuries with different maturities could impact returns produced both by the long exposures and short exposures of the Index and Fund in different ways, which could lead to unexpected performance, including Fund losses. The methodology of the Index and the investment approach of the Fund seek to address this risk, but are subject to the constraints of providing the desired overall interest rate profile and evolving market conditions, and there is no guarantee that any such risk will be reduced or the desired outcome will occur. |
The Fund’s objective, strategies and index changed effective June 1, 2020. Prior to June 1, 2020, Fund performance reflects the Fund’s former investment objective and strategies, which tracked the performance, before fees and expenses, of the ICE BofA Merrill Lynch 0-5 Year U.S. High Yield Constrained, Zero Duration Index.
Year | Total Return |
2014 | - |
2015 | - |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | - |
2019 | |
2020 | - |
2021 |
The Fund’s
as of was .
42 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Interest Rate Hedged High Yield Bond Fund* | 1 Year | 5 Years | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | |||
ICE BofA Merrill Lynch 0-5 Year U.S. High Yield Constrained, Zero Duration Index/ WisdomTree U.S. High Yield Corporate Bond, Zero Duration Spliced Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
* |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Voya Investment Management Co., LLC (“Voya IM”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by Voya IM’s High Yield Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
Randall Parrish, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Public Credit, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2020.
Rick Cumberledge, CFA, Head of High Yield and Senior High Yield Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since June 2020.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NASDAQ, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 43 |
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
44 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The WisdomTree Interest Rate Hedged U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Bloomberg Rate Hedged U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, Zero Duration (the “Index”).
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in the component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is designed to provide long exposure to the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index while seeking to manage interest rate risk through the use of short positions in U.S. Treasury securities (“U.S. Treasuries”). The Index is comprised of a long portfolio and short portfolio. The “long portfolio” of the Index intends to replicate the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which broadly captures the U.S. investment grade, fixed income securities market and is comprised of U.S. Treasuries and U.S. Government-related bonds (e.g., obligations of the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities), corporate bonds, mortgage-backed pass-through securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities that are publicly offered for sale in the United States. The “short portfolio” of the Index holds short positions in U.S. Treasuries (or futures providing exposure to
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 45 |
U.S. Treasuries in the case of the Fund) that seek to correspond to a duration exposure matching the duration of the long portfolio, with a targeted total duration exposure of approximately zero years (e.g., if the average duration of bonds in the long portfolio is approximately five years, the short portfolio will seek an average duration of approximately five years among its short holdings of U.S. Treasuries, with an aggregate targeted duration of Index holdings of approximately zero years). Duration is a measure used to determine the sensitivity of a portfolio to changes in interest rates with a longer duration portfolio being more sensitive to changes in interest rates.
The Index methodology weights the short exposure to U.S. Treasuries of differing maturities in an attempt to offset the sensitivity of the long exposure to overall moves in interest rate. Additionally, the Index seeks to mitigate, to the extent possible, relative moves in interest rates across the yield curve. The long portfolio and short portfolio of the Index are rebalanced on a monthly basis.
The Index is designed to have greater returns than an equivalent non-interest rate hedged investment when U.S. Treasury rates are rising significantly. Conversely, the Index is designed to have lower returns than an equivalent non-interest rate hedged investment when U.S. Treasury rates are falling significantly.
A significant portion of the bonds represented in the long portion of the Index are U.S. agency mortgage-backed pass-through securities. U.S. agency mortgage-backed 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. Most transactions in mortgage-backed pass-through securities 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.
In seeking to track the short portfolio of the Index, the Fund will invest in short positions in futures contracts on U.S. Treasuries. The Fund may also short U.S. Treasuries.
■ | Hedging Risk. The Index seeks to mitigate the potential negative impact of using U.S. Treasury rates on the performance of bonds in the long portfolio of the Index. The Index’s short positions in U.S. Treasuries, as well as the Fund’s holdings to obtain such exposure, are not intended to mitigate credit risk or mitigate changes in bond values associated with investor perceptions regarding, or premiums placed on, credit risk (i.e., credit risk premiums) or otherwise mitigate risks associated with other factors influencing the price of such bonds, which may have a greater impact than rising or falling interest rates. There is no guarantee that the short positions will completely eliminate the interest rate risk of the long bond positions. The Index’s short positions also may fail to provide the targeted duration in light of changes in the shape of the U.S. Treasury curve. The interest rate profile between the long and short exposures of the Index and Fund could also evolve significantly between monthly rebalancing. This could lead to temporary dislocations between the Fund’s intended and actual sensitivity to interest rates, which could impact performance. There may also be significant differences between the bond markets and U.S. Treasury markets (including futures markets for U.S. Treasuries) that could result in the Fund’s short positions performing ineffectively, exacerbating losses or causing greater tracking error. In addition, when interest rates fall, an unhedged investment in the same long portfolio of bonds will outperform the Fund. |
46 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use futures contracts to implement its principal investment strategies. Other risks specific to futures contracts, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 47 |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of such countries or regions) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. |
■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk with respect to the Fund is the risk that short exposure to fixed income securities will decline in value because of decreases in interest rates. |
■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities Risk. Movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain types of mortgage- and asset-backed securities. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities can also be subject to the risk of default on the underlying mortgages or other assets. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities are subject to fluctuations in yield due to prepayment rates that may be faster or slower than expected. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a mortgage-related transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss. |
■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair value prices may be adversely impacted and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the Index tracking risk. The Fund’s use of sampling techniques may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
48 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Short Sales Risk. The Fund will engage in “short sale” transactions. The Fund will lose value if the security or instrument that is the subject of a short sale increases in value. The Fund also may enter into short positions in U.S. Treasuries as well as a short derivative position through futures contracts on U.S. Treasuries. If the price of the security or derivative that is the subject of a short sale increases, then the Fund will incur a loss equal to the increase in price from the time that the short sale was entered into plus any premiums and interest paid to a third party in connection with the short sale. The risk of loss on a shorted position arises from the increase in value of the security sold short and is potentially unlimited unlike the risk of loss on a long position, which is limited to the amount paid for the investment plus transaction costs. Therefore, short sales involve the risk that losses may be exaggerated, potentially losing more money than the actual cost of the investment. Also, there is the risk that the third party to the short sale may fail to honor its contract terms, causing a loss to the Fund. Further, in times of unusual or adverse economic, market or political conditions, the Fund may not be able to fully or partially implement its short selling strategy. |
■ | TBA Transactions Risk. The Fund may enter into “TBA Transactions” for mortgage-backed securities. There can be no assurance that a security purchased on a forward commitment basis will ultimately be issued or delivered by the counterparty. During the settlement period, the Fund will still bear the risk of any decline in the value of the security to be delivered. Because TBA Transactions do not require the purchase and sale of identical securities, the characteristics of the security delivered to the Fund may be less favorable than the security delivered to the dealer. If the counterparty to a transaction fails to deliver the securities, the Fund could suffer a loss. At the time of its acquisition, a TBA security may be valued at less than the purchase price. |
■ | U.S. Treasury Exposure Risk. The methodology used to select U.S. Treasuries for the Index (or U.S. Treasuries or U.S. Treasury futures, in the case of the Fund) for different maturities within the short exposure could produce performance that is dissimilar from other U.S. Treasuries of similar maturities. For example, unique supply and demand conditions could create a market whereby selected U.S. Treasuries or positions trade either more or less expensively than other U.S. Treasuries or positions of the same maturity, which could negatively impact the performance of the Fund. |
■ | Yield Curve Risk. The Index and Fund will have short exposure to U.S. Treasuries with different maturity dates and weightings. Interest rates do not change uniformly for U.S. Treasuries of differing lengths of maturity in response to market and economic conditions. For example, interest rates for shorter maturity U.S. Treasuries may rise or fall more or less than interest rates for longer maturity U.S. Treasuries and rates may rise for U.S. Treasuries of certain maturities but fall for U.S. Treasuries of different maturities. Changes in interest rates among U.S. Treasuries with different maturities could impact returns produced both by the long exposures and short exposures of the Index and Fund in different ways, which could lead to unexpected performance, including Fund losses. The methodology of the Index and the investment approach of the Fund seek to address this risk, but are subject to the constraints of providing the desired overall interest rate profile and evolving market conditions, and there is no guarantee that any such risk will be reduced or the desired outcome will occur. |
Year | Total Return |
2014 | |
2015 | - |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 49 |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Interest Rate Hedged U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | |||
Bloomberg Rate Hedged U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, Zero Duration (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NASDAQ, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
50 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 51 |
The WisdomTree Mortgage Plus Bond Fund (the “Fund”) seeks income and capital appreciation.
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that utilizes an investment process combining both macro and fundamental research by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings, in mortgage-related debt and other securitized debt.
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by primarily investing in mortgage-related fixed income securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities (collectively, “Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities”), such as the Government National Mortgage Association (“GNMA”), the Federal National Mortgage Association (“FNMA”) or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“FHLMC”). Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities include residential mortgage-backed securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and structured products such as collateralized mortgage obligations and real estate mortgage investment conduits (“REMICs”).
The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings, in other securitized credit securities such as non-agency or privately issued residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, collateralized loan obligations and credit risk transfer securities (collectively, “Securitized Credit Securities”).
52 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The Fund may purchase mortgage-backed securities 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 and the Fund has the option to either accept delivery or roll into another TBA Transaction. The Fund, pending settlement of such TBA Transaction, will invest its assets in high quality, liquid short-term instruments such as U.S. Treasury securities, securities issued by government agencies, repurchase agreements and commercial paper.
The universe of mortgage-related debt and other securitized debt currently includes securities that are rated “investment grade” as well as “non-investment grade” (commonly referred to as “junk bonds” or “high yield bonds,” which are considered to be speculative). The Fund intends to provide a broad-based exposure and therefore intends to invest in both investment grade and non-investment grade securities, but will not invest more than 20% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings, in non-investment grade securities. Securities rated investment grade generally are considered to be of higher credit quality and subject to lower default risk. Although securities rated below investment grade may offer the potential for higher yields, they generally are subject to a higher potential risk of loss.
The Fund may invest in securities of varying maturity or duration and with either fixed or adjustable rates. The Fund attempts to maintain an aggregate portfolio duration of up to seven years under normal market conditions. Aggregate portfolio duration is important to investors as an indication of the Fund’s sensitivity to changes in interest rates. The Fund’s actual portfolio duration may be longer or shorter depending on market conditions.
The Fund’s investments in mortgage-related debt and other securitized debt may be represented by derivatives such as futures contracts. The Fund may invest in derivatives for various investment purposes, including to hedge interest rate risk, as a substitute for, or to gain exposure to, a position in an underlying asset, to reduce transaction costs, to maintain full market exposure (i.e., adjust investment characteristics to more closely approximate the characteristics of the market in which the Fund invests), to manage cash flows, or to preserve capital. The Fund’s use of derivatives will be collateralized by investments in liquid assets.
■ | Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. The Fund primarily invests in mortgage-related fixed income securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or its agencies or instrumentalities such as GNMA, FNMA and FHLMC. FNMA and FHLMC are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the U.S. government agency, government-sponsored entity, or government corporation issuing the security and are not guaranteed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury or backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the current status of many obligations of FNMA or FHLMC and other agencies that are placed under conservatorship of the U.S. government. GNMA securities are generally backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Agency mortgage-backed securities may be more sensitive to changes in interest rates than other types of debt securities. Movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of agency mortgage-backed securities. Agency mortgage-backed securities are subject to fluctuations in yield due to prepayment rates that may be faster or slower than expected. Agency mortgage-backed securities can also be subject to the risk of default on the underlying mortgages. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a mortgage-related transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss. These risks may reduce the Fund’s returns. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 53 |
illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world, including the United States. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. | |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
■ | Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use futures contracts to implement its principal investment strategies. Other risks specific to futures contracts, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus. |
■ | Geopolitical Risk. The United States has experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental |
54 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of the United States) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments. | |
■ | High Yield Securities Risk. Higher yielding, high risk debt securities, sometimes referred to as junk bonds, may present additional risk because these securities may be less liquid and present more credit risk than investment grade bonds. The price of high yield securities tends to be more susceptible to issuer-specific operating results and outlook and to real or perceived adverse economic and competitive industry conditions. High yield securities may be regarded as predominantly speculative with respect to the issuer’s continuing ability to meet principal and interest payments. |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Liquidity Risk. The Fund may be unable to sell illiquid or less liquid securities at an advantageous time or price or achieve its desired level of exposure. Liquidity risk may result from the lack of an active market, reduced number and capacity of traditional market participants to make a market in fixed income securities, and may be magnified in a rising interest rate environment and/or with respect to particular types of securities, such as Securitized Credit Securities. |
■ | Non-Agency Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. Non-agency mortgage-backed securities are subject to heightened risks as compared to agency mortgage-backed securities, including that non-agency mortgage-backed securities are not subject to the same underwriting requirements for the underlying mortgages that are applicable to those mortgage-backed securities that have a government or government-sponsored entity guarantee. As a result, the mortgage loans underlying non-agency mortgage-backed securities may, and frequently do, have less favorable collateral, credit risk, or other underwriting characteristics than government or government-sponsored mortgage-backed securities and have wider variances in a number of terms including interest rate, term, size, purpose, and borrower characteristics. There may be a limited market for such securities. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
■ | Prepayment Risk and Extension Risk. Many issuers have a right to prepay their fixed income securities. Issuers may be more likely to prepay their securities if interest rates fall. If this happens, the Fund will not benefit from the rise in the market price of the securities that normally accompanies a decline in interest rates and will be forced to reinvest prepayment proceeds at a time when yields on securities available in the market are lower than the yield on prepaid securities. The Fund may also lose any premium it paid on prepaid securities. Many issuers have a right to prepay their fixed income securities. Issuers may be more likely to prepay their securities if interest rates fall. If this happens, the Fund will not benefit from the rise in the market price of the securities that normally accompanies a decline in interest rates and will be forced to reinvest prepayment proceeds at a time when yields on securities available in the market are lower than the yield on prepaid securities. If interests rate rise, then issuers may extend the duration of a fixed income security so that it is paid off more slowly than expected and the value of the security may decline. |
■ | Repurchase Agreement Risk. In the event that the other party to a repurchase agreement defaults on its obligations, the Fund would generally seek to sell the underlying security serving as collateral for the repurchase |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 55 |
agreement. However, the value of collateral may be insufficient to satisfy the counterparty's obligation and/or the Fund may encounter delay and incur costs before being able to sell the security. Such a delay may involve loss of interest or a decline in price of the security, which could result in a loss. In addition, if the Fund is characterized by a court as an unsecured creditor, it would be at risk of losing some or all of the principal and interest involved in the transaction. | |
■ | Securitized Credit Securities Risk. Movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of other types of Securitized Credit Securities, such as asset-backed securities, collateralized loan obligations and credit risk transfer securities. Securitized Credit Securities can also be subject to the risk of default on the underlying assets, while also being subject to greater liquidity risk than other types of asset-backed securities. Many Securitized Credit Securities are also subject to prepayment risk in a declining interest rate environment and extension risk in an increasing rate environment. |
■ | TBA Transactions Risk. The Fund may enter into “TBA Transactions” for mortgage-backed securities. There can be no assurance that a security purchased on a forward commitment basis will ultimately be issued or delivered by the counterparty. During the settlement period, the Fund will still bear the risk of any decline in the value of the security to be delivered. Because TBA Transactions do not require the purchase and sale of identical securities, the characteristics of the security delivered to the Fund may be less favorable than the security delivered to the dealer. If the counterparty to a transaction fails to deliver the securities, the Fund could suffer a loss. At the time of its acquisition, a TBA security may be valued at less than the purchase price. |
Year | Total Return |
2020 | |
2021 | - |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
56 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
WisdomTree Mortgage Plus Bond Fund | 1 Year | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | ( |
|
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
|
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ( |
|
Bloomberg
U.S. Securitized MBS/ABS/CMBS Index (Reflects no deduction for fees,
expenses or taxes) |
( |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Voya Investment Management Co., LLC (the “Voya IM” or the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by Voya IM's Securitized Credit and Agency RMBS Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
Dave Goodson, Managing Director, Head of Securitized Fixed Income and Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in November 2019.
Jonathan Abshire, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Structured Finance, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in November 2019.
Jeff Dutra, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, Structured Finance, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in November 2019.
Justin McWhorter, CFA, CPA, Senior Portfolio Manager, Structured Finance, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in November 2019.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 57 |
Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
58 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The WisdomTree Yield Enhanced U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Enhanced Yield Index (the “Index”).
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is designed to broadly capture the U.S. investment grade, fixed income securities market while seeking to enhance yield within desired risk parameters and constraints. Rather than re-weight individual securities, the Index uses a rules-based approach to re-weight subgroups of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index with the aim of earning a higher yield while broadly retaining the risk characteristics of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index. The 20 subgroups identified in the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index reflect the different risk dimensions of investment grade securities such as sector (asset class) exposure (i.e., treasuries, agency, credit, and securitized), interest rate risk (i.e., duration) and credit risk (i.e., spread). Yield can typically be increased by shifting exposure along any of a number of these risk dimensions and re-weighting the subcomponents of the Index. At the security level, the Index draws from the universe defined by the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index, which consists of investment grade debt
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 59 |
securities denominated in U.S. dollars. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, debt securities must have at least $250 million in par amount outstanding with the exception of asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities which must have an original deal size of $500 million, a minimum tranche size of $25 million, and at least $300 million of the original transaction still outstanding. The Index consists of U.S. Treasuries and U.S. Government-related bonds (e.g., obligations of the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities), corporate bonds, mortgage-backed pass- through securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and asset-backed securities that are publicly offered for sale in the United States. Index components are U.S. dollar-denominated debt securities with fixed rate coupons that have at least one year to final maturity.
The Index segments the eligible universe of U.S. investment grade fixed income securities into subgroups defined by sector, quality and maturity characteristics. There are 20 defined subgroups, with six subgroups covering the treasury and agency sectors, nine covering the credit markets, and the remaining five covering securitized securities. The Index employs a proprietary weighting methodology that seeks to enhance yield by allocating more weight to subgroups with higher yields while maintaining defined risk constraints designed to mitigate volatility and turnover drift from the eligible U.S. investment grade fixed income universe. Subgroups with higher yields are identified based on a subgroup’s yield to worst measurements, rather than its yield to maturity. Yield to worst refers to the lowest potential yield that can be received on a bond without issuer default. The Index uses yield to worst measurements to determine the yield of each subgroup, except the three mortgage-backed securities subgroups, which use yield to worst calculations of Treasury bonds whose maturities match the average life of its mortgage securities plus their option-adjusted spreads. However, to retain the broad risk characteristics of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index, the Index also employs constraints that include caps on tracking error volatility, duration, sector and subgroup weights, and turnover. The Index’s constraints are capped relative to the constraints of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index. For example, the total weight of the subgroups in each of the four sectors of the Index – treasuries, agency, credit, and securitized – cannot deviate from their weights in the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index by more than 20%, 10%, 20% and 20%, respectively. The weights are determined at the sub-group level (negative weights for a sub-group are not permitted) and passed down to the individual security level, where each security’s weight is equal to the subgroup weight multiplied by its market capitalization weight within the subgroup. The Index is rebalanced on a monthly basis.
The duration range of the Index is expected to be within one year of the duration of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index. Historically, such universe has had a duration range between approximately three and seven years. Duration is a measure used to determine the sensitivity of a portfolio to changes in interest rates with a longer duration portfolio being more sensitive to changes in interest rates. For example, the value of a fund with a portfolio duration of seven years would be expected to drop by 7% for every 1% increase in interest rates.
A significant portion of the bonds represented in the Index are U.S. agency mortgage-backed pass-through securities. U.S. agency mortgage-backed 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 pool of mortgages. Most transactions in mortgage-backed pass-through securities 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.
The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in other fixed income securities and/or such other investments, including other exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) that invest in fixed income securities with characteristics similar to the Index constituents, that the Adviser and/or Sub-Adviser believe will help the Fund track the performance of the Index. Other fixed income securities will consist primarily of investment grade securities with similar risk characteristics as the Index components, but up to 5% of the Fund’s total assets may be held in non-investment grade securities with credit ratings deemed to be of no less than BB.
60 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a seven-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 7% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party |
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 61 |
for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. | |
■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
■ | Issuer Credit Risk. The financial condition of an issuer of a debt security or other instrument may cause such issuer to default, become unable to pay interest or principal due or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or cause such issuer to be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities Risk. Movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain types of mortgage- and asset-backed securities. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities can also be subject to the risk of default on the underlying mortgages or other assets. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities are subject to fluctuations in yield due to prepayment rates that may be faster or slower than expected. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a mortgage-related transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss. |
■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair value prices may be adversely impacted and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the Index tracking risk. The Fund’s use of sampling techniques may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
■ | TBA Transactions Risk. The Fund may enter into “TBA Transactions” for mortgage-backed securities. There can be no assurance that a security purchased on a forward commitment basis will ultimately be issued or delivered by the counterparty. During the settlement period, the Fund will still bear the risk of any decline in the value of the security to be delivered. Because TBA Transactions do not require the purchase and sale of identical securities, the characteristics of the security delivered to the Fund may be less favorable than the security delivered to the dealer. If the counterparty to a transaction fails to deliver the securities, the Fund could suffer a loss. At the time of its acquisition, a TBA security may be valued at less than the purchase price. |
62 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
Year | Total Return |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | - |
2019 | |
2020 | |
2021 | - |
The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
Return | Quarter/Year | |
WisdomTree Yield Enhanced U.S. Aggregate Bond Fund | 1 Year | 5 Years | Since
Inception |
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ( |
||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ( |
||
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Enhanced Yield Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
||
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | ( |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. ("WisdomTree Asset Management" or the "Adviser") serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
David Nieman, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since November 2020.
Nancy Rogers, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Fixed Income Index Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since December 2020.
Gregg Lee, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since January 2021.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 63 |
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.
64 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
The WisdomTree Yield Enhanced U.S. Short-Term Aggregate Bond Fund (the “Fund”) will seek to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Bloomberg U.S. Short Aggregate Enhanced Yield Index (the “Index”).
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
Management Fees | |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | |
Other Expenses | |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
The following
example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in
the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the
hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if
they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that
the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the
same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail
investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund.
1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
$
|
$
|
$
|
$
|
The Fund pays
transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or
“turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate
higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are
held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund
operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the
most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is designed to broadly capture the short-term U.S. investment grade, fixed income securities market while seeking to enhance yield within desired risk parameters and constraints. The Index is comprised of those subgroups of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index (i.e., Treasuries, agencies, credit and securitized) with effective maturities generally shorter than five years (“ST Agg Universe”). The Index uses a rules-based approach to re-weight these subgroups to achieve higher yields, while managing risk through constraints on expected tracking error and turnover, as well as sector, duration, and credit exposure relative to the market value-weighted ST Agg Universe. Individual securities within a subgroup are market value-weighted within the subgroup. The Index is rebalanced on a monthly basis.
WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 65 |
The Index draws from the ST Agg Universe, which consists of U.S. dollar-denominated securities, including U.S. Treasuries, U.S. Government-related bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed pass-through securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and asset-backed securities that are publicly offered for sale in the United States. These securities feature fixed rate coupons and have at least $300 million in par amount outstanding and one year to final maturity, with the exception of asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities, which must have an original deal size of $500 million, a minimum tranche size of $25 million, and at least $300 million of the original transaction still outstanding.
The duration of the Index is generally expected not to exceed the duration of the ST Agg Universe by more than 0.5 years. The ST Agg Universe has historically had a duration range between approximately two and three years. Duration is a measure used to determine the sensitivity of a portfolio to changes in interest rates with a longer duration portfolio being more sensitive to changes in interest rates. For example, the value of a fund with a portfolio duration of three years would be expected to drop by 3% for every 1% increase in interest rates.
The Index includes U.S. agency mortgage-backed pass-through securities, which are securities issued by entities such as Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“FHLMC”) and Federal National Mortgage Association (“FNMA”) that are backed by pools of mortgages. Most transactions in mortgage-backed pass-through securities 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.
The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in other fixed income securities and/or such other investments, with characteristics similar to the Index constituents, that the Adviser and/or Sub-Adviser believe will help the Fund track the performance of the Index. Other fixed income securities will consist primarily of investment grade securities with similar risk characteristics as the Index components, but up to 5% of the Fund’s total assets may be held in non-investment grade securities (“junk bonds”) with credit ratings deemed to be of no less than BB.
■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a three-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 3% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for |
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many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future. | |
■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
■ | Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches. |
■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index may not perform as intended. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
■ | Issuer Credit Risk. The financial condition of an issuer of a debt security or other instrument may cause such issuer to default, become unable to pay interest or principal due or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or cause such issuer to be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
■ | Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities Risk. Movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain types of mortgage- and asset-backed securities. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities can also be subject to the risk of default on the underlying mortgages or other assets. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities are subject to fluctuations in yield due to prepayment rates that may be faster or slower than expected. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a mortgage-related transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss. |
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■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs operating expenses and portfolio transaction costs, while also managing cash flows and potential operational inefficiencies, not incurred by its Index. In addition, when markets are volatile, the ability to sell securities at fair value prices may be adversely impacted and may result in additional trading costs and/or increase the Index tracking risk. The Fund’s use of sampling techniques may affect its ability to achieve close correlation with its Index. |
■ | Non-Diversification
Risk. |
■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
■ | TBA Transactions Risk. The Fund may enter into “TBA Transactions” for mortgage-backed securities. There can be no assurance that a security purchased on a forward commitment basis will ultimately be issued or delivered by the counterparty. During the settlement period, the Fund will still bear the risk of any decline in the value of the security to be delivered. Because TBA Transactions do not require the purchase and sale of identical securities, the characteristics of the security delivered to the Fund may be less favorable than the security delivered to the dealer. If the counterparty to a transaction fails to deliver the securities, the Fund could suffer a loss. At the time of its acquisition, a TBA security may be valued at less than the purchase price. |
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The Fund’s
as of was .
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)
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