Selection Criteria
The Trust’s portfolio is constructed and the
securities were selected six business days prior to the initial date of deposit (the “Inception
Date”) using the Security Selection Rules
outlined below. Security Selection Rules: In constructing the Trust’s portfolio, 28
securities were selected based on the following
rules-based criteria: - Initial Universe: Start with an initial
universe of securities that include all
Australia, Brazil, Canada or Mexico
domiciled companies in the materials or
energy sectors which meet the following
criteria:
- Security must be a common share or
depositary receipt.
- Security may not be a real estate
investment fund, investment fund,
exchange-traded fund, trust or
limited partnership.
- Market capitalization greater than
$200 million.
- Minimum 30-day average daily
dollar trading volume greater than
$1 million. U.S.-traded American
Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) do
not have to meet this liquidity
minimum as long as the underlying
foreign local shares do meet the
minimum criteria.
- For companies with multiple
listings, only one security is
included. Preference is given to a
U.S.-traded ADR security, if
available, or to the most liquid
security if the company is only
traded on non-U.S. exchanges.
- Rank on Fundamentals: Rank every
company in the initial universe against
other companies in the same sector along
each of the following reported financial
metrics. The ranking uses a scale of 1
through 10 (1 representing the highest
scoring 10% in the sector and 10
representing the lowest scoring 10% in
the sector):
- Return on assets calculated as
operating income divided by total
assets.
- Earnings before interest and taxes
divided by enterprise value.
- Sales per share growth by trailing
year-over-year growth.
- Define Sub-Universe: Reduce the initial
universe of securities to a sub-universe
that meets the following requirements:
- Exclude the lowest ranked 25% of
securities determined by the average
of the three financial rankings
described in step 2.
- Exclude the 20% of the initial
universe with the lowest trailing six
month total return.
- Minimum one year of trading history
for the company.
- Exclude securities not listed on a
major U.S. (New York Stock
Exchange or NASDAQ Stock
Market), Australian, Canadian or
Mexican exchange.
- Exclude securities that have pending
cash-only merger and acquisition or other corporate action events which
will lead to delisting the security
from the qualifying exchanges
above.
- Selection: Select from the sub-universe
the top dividend yielding securities
domiciled from each of the four
countries, with the 28 total securities
equally weighted as of the selection date.
Selections must adhere to following
portfolio limits:
- Seven securities per country. In the
event any country has less than
seven qualifying names in the sub-universe,
then substitute securities
are selected from the other countries
equally.
- Maximum one-third of the portfolio
in small-capitalization companies
(less than $1 billion USD) as of the
selection date.
- Minimum one-third of the portfolio
in large-capitalization companies
(greater than $5 billion USD) as of
the selection date.
Please note that due to the fluctuating nature
of security prices, the weighting of an individual
security or sector in the Trust portfolio may
change after the portfolio selection date.
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Risks and Other Considerations
As with all investments, you may lose some
or all of your investment in the Trust. No
assurance can be given that the Trust’s
investment objective will be achieved. The Trust
also might not perform as well as you expect.
This can happen for reasons such as these: - Securities prices can be volatile. The
value of your investment may fall over
time. Market value fluctuates in
response to various factors. These can
include stock market movements,
purchases or sales of securities by the
Trust, government policies, litigation,
and changes in interest rates, inflation,
the financial condition of the securities’
issuer or even perceptions of the issuer.
Units of the Trust are not deposits of any
bank and are not insured or guaranteed
by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation or any other government
agency.
- Due to the current state of the
economy, the value of the securities
held by the Trust may be subject to
steep declines or increased volatility
due to changes in performance or
perception of the issuers. Starting in
December 2007, economic activity
declined across all sectors of the
economy, and most countries experienced
increased unemployment. The economic
crisis affected the global economy with
European and Asian markets also
suffering historic losses. Standard &
Poor’s Rating Services recently lowered
its long-term sovereign credit rating on
the United States to “AA+” from “AAA,”
which could lead to increased interest
rates and volatility. Extraordinary steps
have been taken by the governments of
several leading countries to combat the
economic crisis; however, the impact of
these measures is not yet fully known and
cannot be predicted.
- The Trust includes securities of
companies in the basic materials
sector. General risks of companies in
the basic materials sector include the
general state of the economy, consolidation, domestic and
international politics and excess
capacity. In addition, basic materials
companies may also be significantly
affected by volatility of commodity
prices, import controls, worldwide
competition, liability for environmental
damage, depletion of resources and
mandated expenditures for safety and
pollution control devices.
- The Trust includes securities issued by
companies in the energy sector.
Companies in the energy sector are
subject to volatile fluctuations in price
and supply of energy fuels, and can be
impacted by international politics and
conflicts, including the unrest in Iraq
and hostilities in the Middle East,
terrorist attacks, the success of
exploration projects, reduced demand as
a result of increases in energy efficiency
and energy conservation, natural
disasters, clean-up and litigation costs
associated with environmental damage
and extensive regulation.
- Share prices or dividend rates on the
securities in the Trust may decline
during the life of the Trust. There is no
guarantee that the issuers of the
securities will declare dividends in the
future and, if declared, whether they
will remain at current levels or increase
over time.
- The Trust includes securities issued by
companies involved with the
production of certain commodities.
Commodity companies include those
companies involved in the production of
building materials, aluminum, nonferrous
metals, precious metals and steel
and other commodities, as well as
companies that explore for, produce, refine, distribute or sell petroleum, gas
products and other commodities.
General risks of commodity companies
include price and supply fluctuations,
excess capacity, economic recession,
government regulations and overall
capital spending rates. Exposure to
commodities markets may subject the
Trust to greater volatility than other
investments. Certain commodities may
be produced in a limited number of
countries and may be controlled by a
small number of producers.
- The Trust invests in foreign securities
and ADRs. The trust’s investment in
foreign securities and ADRs presents
additional risk. ADRs are issued by a
bank or trust company to evidence
ownership of underlying securities
issued by foreign corporations.
Securities of foreign issuers present risks
beyond those of domestic securities.
More specifically, foreign risk is the risk
that foreign securities will be more
volatile than U.S. securities due to such
factors as adverse economic, currency,
political, social or regulatory
developments in a country, including
government seizure of assets, excessive
taxation, limitations on the use or
transfer of assets, the lack of liquidity or
regulatory controls with respect to
certain industries or differing legal
and/or accounting standards.
- The Trust includes securities issued by
companies headquartered or
incorporated in Australia, Brazil,
Canada and Mexico. As a result,
political, economic or social
developments in these countries may
have a significant impact on the
securities included in the Trust. See
“Investment Risks” for additional information concerning the risks
associated with an investment in
securities issued by companies located
in these countries.
- The Trust includes securities issued by
companies headquartered or
incorporated in countries considered
to be emerging markets. The
performance of the securities included in
the Trust may be dependent, in part, on
the growth or decline of emerging
market countries. Emerging markets are
generally defined as countries with low
per capita income in the initial stages of
their industrialization cycles. Risks of
investing in developing or emerging
countries include the possibility of
investment and trading limitations,
liquidity concerns, delays and
disruptions in settlement transactions,
political uncertainties and dependence on
international trade and development
assistance. Companies headquartered in
emerging market countries may be
exposed to greater volatility and market
risk. In addition, the economies of
emerging market countries may be
extremely volatile and subject to
increased risks.
- The Trust includes securities whose
value may be dependent on currency
exchange rates. The U.S. dollar value of
these securities may vary with
fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.
Most foreign currencies have fluctuated
widely in value against the U.S. dollar
for various economic and political
reasons such as the activity level of
large international commercial banks,
various central banks, speculators,
hedge funds and other buyers and sellers
of foreign currencies.
The Trust invests in securities issued by
small-capitalization and mid-capitalization
companies. These
securities customarily involve more
investment risk than securities of large-capitalization
companies. Small-capitalization
and mid-capitalization
companies may have limited product
lines, markets or financial resources and
may be more vulnerable to adverse
general market or economic
developments.
- Inflation may lead to a decrease in the
value of assets or income from
investments.
- The Sponsor does not actively manage
the portfolio. The Trust will generally
hold, and may, when creating additional
units, continue to buy, the same
securities even though a security’s
outlook, market value or yield may have
changed.
See “Investment Risks” in Part A of the
prospectus and “Risk Factors” in Part B of the
prospectus for additional information.
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