Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in fixed-income investments of foreign issuers and derivative instruments, including those used to manage currency risk. The Fund primarily invests in a broad range of investment-grade sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate fixed-income investments. The Fund may also invest in other fixed-income securities, including those of non-investment-grade quality (usually called “high-yield” or “junk bonds”). Securities of non-investment-grade quality are speculative in nature. The Fund does not rely exclusively on rating agencies when making investment decisions. Instead, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC (“Advisors”), performs its own credit analysis, paying particular attention to economic trends and other market events. Country and individual issuer allocations are then overweighted or underweighted relative to the Fund’s benchmark index, the Bloomberg Global Aggregate ex-USD Index (Hedged) (the “Index”), when Advisors believes that the Fund can take advantage of what appear to be undervalued, overlooked or misunderstood issuers that offer the potential to boost returns above that of the Index. Fund holdings may be denominated in U.S. dollars or non-U.S. dollar currencies, including emerging market currencies. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will seek to hedge to the U.S. dollar approximately 80% of the Fund’s total exposure to investments denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar (on a net assets basis). Such hedging is intended to manage the currency risk associated with investment in bonds denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The Fund may invest in fixed-income securities of any maturity or duration. As of December 31, 2023, the duration of the Index was 7.08 years. “Duration” is a measure of volatility in the price of a bond in response to a change in prevailing interest rates, with a longer duration indicating more volatility. The Fund considers investments of foreign issuers to generally include one or more of the following: (1) companies whose securities are principally traded outside of the United States, (2) companies having their principal business operations outside of the United States, (3) companies organized outside of the United States, and (4) foreign governments and agencies or instrumentalities of foreign governments. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term “assets” means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

Derivative instruments, including those used to manage currency risk, are included as assets of the Fund for the purposes of the Fund’s 80% policy.

The Fund may also engage in relative value trading, a strategy in which the Fund reallocates assets across different countries, currencies, sectors and maturities. While this strategy is designed to enhance the Fund’s returns, it may also increase the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate. In addition, an increase in interest rates as well as other factors contributing to market volatility could lead to increased portfolio turnover.

The Fund may purchase and sell futures, options, swaps and other fixed-income derivative instruments to carry out the Fund’s investment strategies. In particular, the Fund may utilize forward currency contracts and currency-related futures contracts and swap agreements to manage currency risk.

The Fund may also seek exposure to Regulation S fixed-income securities through investment in a Cayman Islands exempted company that is wholly owned and controlled by the Fund (the “Regulation S Subsidiary”). Regulation S securities are securities of U.S. and non-U.S. issuers that are issued through private placement offerings without registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933. The Regulation S Subsidiary is advised by Advisors and has the same investment objective as the Fund. The Regulation S Subsidiary may invest without limitation in Regulation S securities.

The Fund may also seek exposure to certain bonds or fixed-income securities that are sold subject to selling restrictions generally designed to restrict the purchase of such bonds to non-U.S. persons (as defined for applicable U.S. federal income tax purposes) (“TEFRA Bonds”) through investment of up to 25% of its total assets in a separate Cayman Islands exempted company that is wholly owned and controlled by the Fund (the “TEFRA Bond Subsidiary”). The TEFRA Bond Subsidiary is advised by Advisors and has the same investment objective as the Fund. The TEFRA Bond Subsidiary may invest without limitation in TEFRA Bonds.