Portfolio Turnover. The Fund may pay 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 the 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 5% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the S&P Global 1200 Financials IndexTM (the "Underlying Index"), which measures the performance of companies that S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (the "Index Provider" or "SPDJI"), a subsidiary of S&P Global, Inc., deems to be part of the financials sector of the economy and that SPDJI believes are important to global markets. The Underlying Index is a subset of the S&P Global 1200, which is designed to measure the performance of large-capitalization stocks from major global markets, as determined by SPDJI. As of March 31, 2024, a significant portion of the Underlying Index is represented by securities of companies in the financials industry or sector. The components of the Underlying Index are likely to change over time. As of March 31, 2024, the Underlying Index was composed of securities of companies in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chilé, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland,
Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom (the "U.K.") and the U.S.
BFA uses an indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund's investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to "beat" the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.
Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by aiming to keep portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.
BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. "Representative sampling" is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to that of an applicable underlying index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of an applicable underlying index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.
The Fund generally will invest at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of its Underlying Index and in investments that have economic