Fund
nor BFA can offer assurances that the Underlying Index's calculation methodology
or sources of information will provide an accurate assessment of included
securities.
Concentration
Risk. The Fund may be susceptible to an
increased risk of loss, including losses due to adverse events that affect the
Fund’s investments more than the market as a whole, to the extent that the
Fund's investments are concentrated in the securities and/or other assets of a
particular issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market,
industry, group of industries, sector, market segment or asset class. The Fund
may be more adversely affected by the underperformance of those securities
and/or other assets, may experience increased price volatility and may be more
susceptible to adverse economic, market, political or regulatory occurrences
affecting those securities and/or other assets than a fund that does not
concentrate its investments.
Consumer
Discretionary Sector Risk. The success of
consumer product manufacturers and retailers is tied closely to the performance
of domestic and international economies, interest rates, exchange rates, supply
chains, competition, consumer confidence, changes in demographics and consumer
preferences. Companies in the consumer discretionary sector depend heavily on
disposable household income and consumer spending, and may be strongly affected
by social trends and marketing campaigns. These companies may be subject to
severe competition, which may have an adverse impact on their
profitability.
Cybersecurity
Risk. The Fund, Authorized Participants,
service providers and the relevant listing exchange are susceptible to
operational, information security and related “cyber” risks both directly and
through their service providers. Similar types of cybersecurity risks are also
present for issuers of securities in which the Fund invests, which could result
in material adverse consequences for such issuers and may cause the Fund’s
investment in such issuers to lose value. In general, cyber incidents can result
from deliberate attacks or unintentional events. Cyber incidents include, but
are not limited to, gaining unauthorized access to digital systems (e.g., through “hacking” or malicious software coding)
for purposes of misappropriating assets or sensitive information, corrupting
data, or causing operational disruption. Cyberattacks may also be carried out in
a manner that does not require gaining unauthorized access, such as causing
denial-of-service attacks on websites (i.e., efforts to make network services unavailable to
intended users). Recently, geopolitical tensions may have increased the scale
and sophistication of deliberate attacks, particularly those from nation-states
or from entities with nation-state backing.
Cybersecurity
failures by, or breaches of, the systems of the Fund's adviser, distributor and
other service providers (including, but not limited to, index and benchmark
providers, fund accountants, custodians, transfer agents and administrators),
market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the
Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and impact business
operations, potentially resulting in: financial losses, interference with the
Fund’s ability to calculate its NAV, disclosure of confidential trading
information, impediments to trading, submission of erroneous trades or erroneous
creation or redemption orders, the inability of the Fund or its service
providers to transact business, violations of applicable privacy and
other