During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 20% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund invests in stocks that are included in the Index. The Index represents the largest and most active non-financial domestic and international securities listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market, based on market value (capitalization). This includes major industry groups, such as computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail and wholesale trade and biotechnology.
The Subadviser invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund's net assets in companies that are listed in the Index. The Fund is managed to seek to track the performance of the Index. The Subadviser may endeavor to track the Index by purchasing every stock included in the Index, in the same proportions; or, in the alternative, the Subadviser may invest in a sampling of Index stocks by utilizing a statistical technique known as "optimization." The goal of optimization is to select stocks which ensure that various industry weightings, market capitalizations, and fundamental characteristics, (e.g., price-to-book, price-to-earnings, debt-to-asset ratios and dividend yields) closely approximate those of the Index.
The Fund may also invest in some futures contracts in order to help the Fund's liquidity and to manage its cash position. If the market value of the futures contracts is close to the Fund's cash balance, then that helps to minimize the tracking errors, while helping to maintain liquidity. The Fund is a non-diversified fund, which means that it will invest in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund.
The Fund may concentrate its investments (invest more than 25% of its total assets) in the technology sector, in the proportion consistent with the industry weightings in the Index.
Although the Fund seeks to track the performance of the Index, the performance of the Fund will not match that of the Index exactly because, among other reasons, the Fund incurs operating expenses and other investment overhead as part of its normal operations.
In order to generate additional income, the Fund may lend portfolio securities to broker-dealers and other financial institutions provided that the value of the loaned securities does not exceed 30% of the Fund's total assets. These loans earn income for the Fund and are collateralized by cash and securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities. Investors
will be given at least 60 days' written notice in advance of any change to the Fund's 80% investment policy set forth above.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
As with any mutual fund, there can be no assurance that the Fund's investment objective will be met or that the net return on an investment in the Fund will exceed what could have been obtained through other investment or savings vehicles. Shares of the Fund are not bank deposits and are not guaranteed or insured by any bank, government entity or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. If the value of the assets of the Fund goes down, you could lose money.
The following is a summary of the principal risks of investing in the Fund.
Technology Sector Risk. Technology stocks historically have experienced unusually wide price swings. Earnings disappointments and intense competition for market share can result in sharp declines in the prices of technology stocks.
Equity Securities Risk. The Fund invests principally in equity securities and is therefore subject to the risk that stock prices will fall and may underperform other asset classes. Individual stock prices fluctuate from day-to-day and may decline significantly. The prices of individual stocks may be negatively affected by poor company results or other factors affecting individual prices, as well as industry and/or economic trends and developments affecting industries or the securities market as a whole.
Index Risk. In attempting to track the performance of the index, the Fund may be more susceptible to adverse developments concerning a particular security, company or industry because the Fund generally will not use any defensive strategies to mitigate its risk exposure.
Failure to Match Index Performance Risk. The ability of the Fund to match the performance of the Underlying Index may be affected by, among other things, changes in securities markets, the manner in which performance of the Underlying Index is calculated, changes in the composition of the Underlying Index, the amount and timing of cash flows into and out of the Fund, commissions, portfolio expenses, and any differences in the pricing of securities by the Fund and the Underlying Index. When the Fund employs an "optimization" strategy, the Fund is subject to an increased risk of tracking error, in that the securities selected in the aggregate for the Fund may perform differently than the Index.