The Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes (if any), in the securities of the Nasdaq-100 ESG BuyWrite Index (the "Underlying Index"). The Fund's 80% investment policy is non-fundamental and requires 60 days prior written notice to shareholders before it can be changed.
The Underlying Index seeks to provide long exposure to an equity portfolio that applies a set of specific Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) criteria as part of its security selection process, while also selling call options generally associated with such exposure. Specifically, the Underlying Index measures the performance of a covered call strategy, also known as a “buy-write” strategy, that seeks to provide long exposure by “buying” the underlying components of the Nasdaq-100 ESG Index (the “Reference Index”) and to generate options premium income by “writing” (selling) a succession of one-month, at-the-money (“ATM”) covered call options on the Nasdaq-100 Index. In seeking to track the Underlying Index, the Fund invests in the securities reflected in the Underlying Index by purchasing the underlying holdings of the Reference Index in proportion to their weight in the Reference Index, and systematically writing (selling) a succession of one-month, ATM covered call options on the Nasdaq-100 Index. The implications of the written (sold) call options are described in more detail here:
Call Options – When the Fund sells a call option, the Fund receives a premium in exchange for an obligation to sell shares of the Nasdaq-100 Index at a strike price on the expiration date if the buyer of the call option exercises it. If the
Nasdaq-100 Index closes above the strike price as of the expiration date and the buyer exercises the call option, the investor will have to pay the difference between the value of the Nasdaq-100 Index and the strike price. If the Nasdaq-100 Index closes below the strike price as of the expiration date, the call option may end up worthless and the investor retains the premium. Generally speaking, an at-the-money (“ATM”) call option refers to an option where the strike price of the option is equal to the price of the underlying asset at the time when the option is written (sold).
On a monthly basis, the Underlying Index seeks to achieve its objective by writing (selling) a succession of one-month, ATM call options on the Nasdaq-100 Index corresponding to approximately 100% of the value of the securities in the Reference Index, and will cover such options by holding the component securities of the Reference Index in the same weighting proportion as the Reference Index. Each call option written in the Underlying Index will have an exercise price generally at the prevailing market price of the Nasdaq-100 Index. However, if call options with those precise strike prices are unavailable, the Underlying Index will instead select the call options with the strike price closest to but above the prevailing market price of the Nasdaq-100 Index. Each option position in the Underlying Index’s composition will (i) be traded on a national securities exchange; (ii) be held until expiration date; (iii) expire on its date of maturity; (iv) only be subject to exercise on its expiration date; and (v) be settled in cash.
The Nasdaq-100 Index is composed of securities issued by 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market or Nasdaq Global Market (two of the three tiers of The Nasdaq Stock Market for the U.S. with the most stringent listing requirements) by market capitalization, as defined by Nasdaq (the “Index Provider”).
The Reference Index comprises the securities included in the Nasdaq-100 Index after excluding certain companies that are: 1) engaged in identified business activities, 2) subject to certain controversy, and/or 3) fail to comply with certain fundamental principles. Specifically, the Reference Index employs negative screens to exclude securities of companies with business activities that do not meet certain ESG eligibility criteria. Such screens rely on information from Sustainalytics, a globally-recognized independent provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. Companies’ business activities are distinguished between categories with absolute prohibitions (which do not allow any involvement by a company in a certain business activity) and categories that permit a de minimis amount of a certain business activity (generally, permitting a company to derive less than 5% of its revenues from, or to own less than 10% of another company that engages in, such activity). Examples of business activities with absolute prohibitions include, but are not limited to, arctic oil & gas exploration, cannabis production and controversial weapons, while examples of business activities with limited prohibitions include, but are not limited to, alcoholic beverages, gambling and nuclear power production.
The Reference Index also utilizes information from Sustainalytics to determine issuers’ business controversy levels and ESG Risk Rating Score. Sustainalytics reviews corporate filings and public disclosures to assess a company’s ESG profile. The ESG Risk Rating Score is designed to measure the magnitude of a company’s unmanaged ESG risk, and it is composed of three building blocks that contribute to a company’s overall rating: (1) corporate governance, (2) material ESG issues (“MEIs”), and (3) idiosyncratic ESG issues. The final ESG Risk Ratings Score is calculated as the sum of the individual material ESG issues’ unmanaged risk scores and is intended to represent the overall unmanaged risk of a company. Companies are assigned risk scores ranging from 0 (indicating that ESG risks have been fully managed) to greater than 50 (indicating the highest level of unmanaged ESG risk). The Index Provider excludes companies with an ESG risk rating of 40 or higher (i.e., a “severe risk” rating) from the Underlying Index.
Sustainalytics also monitors companies for controversies pertaining to ESG and assesses incidents and events in terms of their level of impact on the environment and society and the related risk to the company itself. Incidents are defined as company activities with unintended and/or undesired negative environmental and/or social impacts on stakeholders, while events are defined as a series of isolated or related incidents that pertain to the same ESG issues. Events are scored by a team of analysts on a scale from 1 (low ESG impact) to 5 (severe ESG impact), depending on the reputational risk to the company and potential impact on stakeholders, as determined by Sustainalytics. The Index Provider excludes companies with a Sustainalytics controversy rating higher than 4 from the Reference Index.
Additionally, eligible issuers must be deemed compliant with the principles of the United Nations Global Compact (“UNGC”). The UNGC is an arrangement by which companies voluntarily and publicly commit to a set of principles drawn from key UN Conventions and Declarations. The principles of the UNGC represent a set of values that the UN believes responsible businesses should incorporate into their operations in order to meet fundamental responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.
Companies in the Reference Index are weighted by their market capitalization and adjusted by their Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating Score. Capping to weights are employed, where necessary, to meet diversification standards, as determined by the Index Provider. The Reference Index is rebalanced quarterly.
The Underlying Index is sponsored by the Index Provider, which is an organization that is independent of, and unaffiliated with, the Fund and Global X Management Company LLC, the investment adviser for the Fund ("Adviser"). The Index Provider determines the relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes or designates a third-party index calculation agent to publish information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. As of December 31, 2023, the Underlying Index had 94 constituents.
The Adviser uses a "passive" or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund's investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to outperform the Underlying Index and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. The call options sold by the Fund will be collateralized by the Fund's equity holdings at the time the Fund sells the options. By selling call options on the value of the portfolio of stocks in the Nasdaq-100 Index, the Fund's covered call strategy may generate income. If the price of the Nasdaq-100 Index is above the strike price of the Fund’s call options positions upon the expiration of the call option, then at expiration the Fund would owe the purchaser of the call option the difference between the strike price and the value of the Nasdaq-100 Index, so the amount owed with respect to the call option would generally offset any gains the Fund may experience from the securities in the Reference Index held by the Fund. For example, if the price of the Nasdaq-100 Index were to increase by 15% from the time the call options were sold to the time the call options expired, then the call options would be expected to have a value equal to approximately 15% of the value the portfolio had at the time when the call options were sold, which would generally offset all of the Fund’s gains from the increase in the Reference Index over the relevant period. However, if the price of the Nasdaq-100 Index is below the strike price of the Fund’s call options positions at expiry, the call options will expire worthless and the Fund will retain the premium.
Because options contracts on the Reference Index are not currently listed, the Underlying Index will write options on the Nasdaq-100 Index. As a result, the performance of the Reference Index, which include most (but not all) of the securities included in the Nasdaq-100 Index, may diverge from the performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index. If the constituents of the Reference Index which are not constituents of the Nasdaq-100 Index underperform the other constituents of the Nasdaq-100 Index, and the Nasdaq-100 Index options written by the Fund expire in the money, then the Fund’s performance will be negative during such period, even if the performance of the Reference Index during such period is positive. Additionally, the value of the Nasdaq-100 Index and the Reference Index may move up or down after the strike price of the call options is selected for a given period, in which case movements in the value of the options contracts may be expected to offset movements in the Reference Index to a greater or lesser extent. As a result, an investor that purchases Fund shares other than on the day that the Fund writes (sells) monthly call options, or who sells shares other than on the day that the call options expire, may experience different investment returns, depending on the relative difference between the strike price of the Fund’s call options positions, and the price of the Nasdaq-100 Index at the time when the investor purchases or sells the Fund.
The Fund generally will use a replication strategy. A replication strategy is an indexing strategy that involves investing in the securities of the Underlying Index in approximately the same proportions as in the Underlying Index. However, the Fund may utilize a representative sampling strategy with respect to the Underlying Index when a replication strategy might be detrimental to shareholders, such as when there are practical difficulties or substantial costs involved in compiling a portfolio of equity securities to follow the Underlying Index, in instances in which a security in the Underlying Index becomes temporarily illiquid, unavailable or less liquid, or as a result of legal restrictions or limitations (such as tax diversification requirements) that apply to the Fund but not the Underlying Index.
The Adviser expects that, over time, the correlation between the Fund's performance and that of the Underlying Index, before fees and expenses, will exceed 95%. A correlation percentage of 100% would indicate perfect correlation. If the Fund uses a replication strategy, it can be expected to have greater correlation to the Underlying Index than if it uses a representative sampling strategy.
The Fund concentrates its investments (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. As of December 31, 2023, the Underlying Index had significant exposure to the information technology sector.. The Fund is classified as "non-diversified," which means it may invest a larger percentage of its assets in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund.