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RISKS AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Investors should consider the following risk factors and special considerations associated with investing in the fund, which may cause you to lose money.
Investment Risk. An investment in the Fund is subject to investment risk, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount that you invest.
Equity Risk. A principal risk of investing in the Fund is equity risk, which is the risk that the value of the securities held by the Fund will fall due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of securities held by the Fund participate, or factors relating to specific companies in which the Fund invests. For example, an adverse event, such as an unfavorable earnings report, may depress the value of equity securities of an issuer held by the Fund; the price of common stock of an issuer may be particularly sensitive to general movements in the stock market; or a drop in the stock market may depress the price of most or all of the common stocks and other equity securities held by the Fund. In addition, common stock of an issuer in the Fund’s portfolio may decline in price if the issuer fails to make anticipated dividend payments because, among other reasons, the issuer of the security experiences a decline in its financial condition. Common stock is subordinated to preferred stocks, bonds and other debt instruments in a company’s capital structure, in terms of priority to corporate income, and therefore will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of such issuers. In addition, while broad market measures of common stocks have historically generated higher average returns than fixed income securities, common stocks have also experienced significantly more volatility in those returns.
Foreign Investment Risk. The Fund’s investments in non-U.S. issuers, although limited to ADRs, may involve unique risks compared to investing in securities of U.S. issuers, including, among others, less market liquidity, generally greater market volatility than U.S. securities and less complete financial information than for U.S. issuers. In addition, adverse political, economic or social developments could undermine the value of the Fund’s investments or prevent the Fund from realizing the full value of its investments. Financial reporting standards for companies based in foreign markets differ from those in the United States. Finally, the value of the currency of the country in which the Fund has invested could decline relative to the value of the U.S. dollar, which may affect the value of the investment to U.S. investors. In addition, the underlying issuers of certain depositary receipts, particularly unsponsored or unregistered depositary receipts, are under no obligation to distribute shareholder communications to the holders of such receipts, or to pass through to them any voting rights with respect to the deposited securities.
Medium-sized Company Risk. Investing in securities of medium-sized companies involves greater risk than is customarily associated with investing in more established companies. These companies’ stocks may be more volatile and less liquid than those of more established companies. These stocks may have returns that vary, sometimes significantly, from the overall stock market.
MLP Risk. Investments in securities of MLPs involve risks that differ from an investment in common stock. Holders of the units of MLPs have more limited control and limited rights to vote on matters affecting the partnership. There are also certain tax risks associated with an investment in units of MLPs. In addition, conflicts of interest may exist between common unit holders, subordinated unit holders and the general partner of a MLP, including a conflict arising as a result of incentive distribution payments.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of its portfolio securities in connection with the quarterly rebalancing of the Index, and therefore the Fund’s investments. A portfolio turnover rate of 200%, for example, is equivalent to the Fund buying and selling all of its securities two times during the course of the year. A high portfolio turnover rate (such as 100% or more) could result in high brokerage costs. While a high portfolio turnover rate can result in an increase in taxable capital gains distributions to the Fund’s shareholders, the Fund will seek to utilize the creation and redemption in kind mechanism to minimize capital gains to the extent possible.
Non-Correlation Risk. The Fund’s return may not match the return of the Index for a number of reasons. For example, the Fund incurs a number of operating expenses not applicable to the Index, and incurs costs in buying and selling securities, especially when rebalancing the Fund’s securities holdings to reflect changes in the composition of the Index.
The Fund may not be fully invested at times, either as a result of cash flows into the Fund or reserves of cash held by the Fund to meet redemptions and expenses. If the Fund utilizes a sampling approach or futures or other derivative positions, its return may not correlate as well with the return on the Index, as would be the case if it purchased all of the securities in the Index with the same weightings as the Index.
Replication Management Risk. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund is not “actively” managed. Therefore, it would not necessarily sell a security because the security’s issuer was in financial trouble unless that security is removed from the Index.
Issuer-Specific Changes. The value of an individual security or particular type of security can be more volatile than the market as a whole and can perform differently from the value of the market as a whole. The value of securities of smaller issuers can be more volatile than that of larger issuers.
Non-Diversified Fund Risk. The Fund is considered non-diversified and can invest a greater portion of assets in securities of individual issuers than a diversified fund. As a result, changes in the market value of a single investment could cause greater fluctuations in share price than would occur in a diversified fund.
Claymore ETFs are listed on the NYSE Arca, depending on the ETF listing, the same way as shares of a publicly-traded company. Claymore ETFs can be purchased through most brokerage accounts. They can be bought and sold throughout the day on the NYSE Arca, depending on the ETF listing, during normal trading hours. The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of 50,000 shares (each block of 50,000 shares is called a “Creation Unit”) or multiples thereof. Only broker-dealers or large institutional investors with creation and redemption agreements, called Authorized Participants (“APs”), can purchase or redeem these Creation Units.
Investors buying or selling ETF shares on the secondary market may incur brokerage costs and other transactional fees. Shares of ETFs may fluctuate in price due to daily changes in trading volume. At times, shares may not have a high volume of trading. Except when aggregated in Creation Units, Shares are not redeemable securities of the Fund.
The Fund is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Zacks Investment Research, Inc. ("Zacks"). Zacks makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, regarding the advisability of investing in securities generally or in the Fund particularly or the ability of the Index to track general market performance. Zacks’ only relationship to Claymore is the licensing of the Index which is determined, composed and calculated by Zacks without regard to Claymore or the Fund. Zacks has no obligation to take the needs of Claymore or the owners of the Fund into consideration in determining, composing or calculating the Index. Zacks shall not be liable to any person for any error in the Index nor shall it be under any obligation to advise any person of any error therein.
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