Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). Higher portfolio turnover 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 14% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Strategies
The Fund invests primarily in companies of all market capitalizations that are tied economically to emerging market countries.
Under normal market conditions, we will invest at least 80% of the Fund's net assets (plus borrowings for investment purposes) in the equity securities, typically common stock, of companies that are tied economically to emerging market countries.
Emerging market countries are those currently included in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets Index. We will consider qualifying investments to be in companies that are listed on an exchange in an emerging market country, that have at least 50% of their assets in an emerging market country, or that derive at least 50% of their revenues or profits from goods produced or sold, investments made, or services performed in an emerging market country.
Under normal market conditions, the Fund will generally invest in 30 to 50 companies. However, we may invest in fewer or more companies when we believe that doing so will help our efforts to achieve the Fund's investment objective.
We travel extensively outside the U.S. to visit companies and expect to meet with senior management. We use a process of quantitative screening followed by "bottom-up" fundamental analysis with the goal of owning the highest quality growth companies tied economically to emerging market countries. Our analysis may include studying a company's financial statements, visiting company facilities, and meeting with executive management, suppliers and customers.
We do not use allocation models to restrict the Fund's investments to certain regions, countries or industries.
The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets (greater than 5%) in a few sectors. As of the date of this Prospectus, these sectors were financials, information technology, industrials, consumer discretionary, and health care.
The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets (greater than 5%) in a particular region or market, including Asia, India, Taiwan, and China.
The Fund is classified as a non-diversified mutual fund, which means that the Fund may invest a larger percentage of its assets in the securities of a small number of issuers than a diversified fund.
The Fund may invest in initial public offerings (IPOs) and early stage companies.
Principal Risks
All investments carry some degree of risk that will affect the value of the Fund, its investment performance and the price of its shares. As a result, you may lose money if you invest in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency.
The Fund is subject to the following principal investment risks:
Market Risk. Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of the Fund in general, may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as economic, political, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of the Fund could decline in value or underperform other investments due to, among other things, market movements over the short-term or over longer periods during more prolonged market downturns. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious diseases or other public health issues, recessions, or other events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund and its investments. Such events may affect certain geographic regions, countries, sectors and industries more significantly than others. Such events could adversely affect the prices and liquidity of the Fund's portfolio securities or other instruments and could result in disruptions in the trading markets. Any of such circumstances could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund's shares and result in increased market volatility.
Current Market and Economic Conditions Risk. Current market and economic conditions risk is the risk that a particular investment, or shares of the Fund in general, may fall in value due to current market and economic conditions or events. For example, as a means to fight inflation, which remains at elevated levels, the Federal Reserve and certain foreign central banks have raised interest rates and could continue to do so, and the Federal Reserve has announced that it intends to reverse previously implemented quantitative easing. Actions taken by the Federal Reserve or foreign central banks may at times result in unusually high market volatility, may negatively impact companies, including banks and financial services companies, and negatively impact Fund performance. U.S. regulators have also proposed from time to time changes to market and issuer regulations which may impact the Fund, and any regulatory changes adopted could adversely impact the Fund's ability to achieve its investment strategies or make certain investments. Recent and potential future bank failures could result in disruption to the broader banking industry or markets generally and reduce confidence in financial institutions and the economy