regarding accounting, auditing, financial
reporting and record keeping and therefore, material information related to an investment may not
be available or reliable. Additionally, the Fund may have substantial difficulties exercising its legal rights or enforcing a counterparty’s legal obligations in certain jurisdictions outside of the United States,
in particular in emerging markets countries, which can increase the risks of loss.
Strategy Risk. The Fund’s investment strategies may
not always provide greater market protection than other equity instruments particularly in rising
equity markets when the Fund is expected to underperform traditional long-only equity strategies.
In addition, as a result of the structure of the options overlay strategy, the Fund is not expected to provide market protection during times of low market volatility; during such periods, the Fund is expected to perform in line
with broad equity markets.
Options Risk. The value of the Fund’s positions in Index options or options on ETFs will fluctuate in response to changes in the value of the underlying index. Writing index
call options or options on ETFs can reduce equity market risk, but it limits the opportunity to
profit from an increase in the market value of stocks in exchange for upfront cash at the time of selling the call option. The Fund also risks losing all or part of the cash paid for purchasing put options. Unusual market
conditions or the lack of a ready market for any particular option at a specific time may reduce
the effectiveness of the Fund’s option strategies, and for these and other reasons, the Fund’s option strategies may not reduce the Fund’s volatility to the extent desired and could result in losses.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives, including options and futures, may be riskier than other types of investments and may increase
the volatility of the Fund. Derivatives may be sensitive to changes in economic and market
conditions and may create leverage, which could result in losses that significantly exceed the Fund’s original investment. Certain derivatives also expose the Fund to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the
derivative counterparty will not fulfill its contractual obligations (and includes credit risk
associated with the counterparty). Certain derivatives are synthetic instruments that attempt to replicate the performance of certain reference assets. With regard to such derivatives, the Fund does not have a claim
on the reference assets and is subject to enhanced counterparty risk. Derivatives may not perform
as expected, so the Fund may not realize the intended benefits. When used for hedging, the change
in value of a derivative may not correlate as expected with the security or other risk being hedged. In addition, given their complexity, derivatives may expose the Fund to risks of mispricing or improper valuation. Derivatives
also can expose the Fund to derivative liquidity risk, which includes the risks involving the
liquidity demands that derivatives can create to make payments of margin, collateral or settlement payments to counterparties, legal risk, which includes the risk of loss resulting from insufficient or unenforceable
contractual documentation, insufficient capacity or authority of the Fund’s counterparty
and operational risk, which includes documentation or settlement issues, system failures, inadequate controls and human error.
Geographic Focus Risk. The Fund may focus its investments in one or more regions or small groups of countries. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be subject to
greater volatility than a more geographically diversified fund.
European Market
Risk. The Fund’s performance will be affected by political, social and economic conditions
in the various countries in which it invests in Europe and in Europe more generally, such as
growth of the economic output (the gross national product), the rate of inflation, the rate at which capital is reinvested into European economies, the success of governmental actions to reduce budget deficits, the
resource self-sufficiency of European countries and interest and monetary exchange rates between
European countries. European financial markets may experience volatility due to concerns about
high government debt levels, credit rating downgrades, rising unemployment, the future of the euro as a common currency, possible restructuring of government debt and other government measures responding to those
concerns, and fiscal and monetary controls imposed on member countries of the European
Union.
Japan Risk. The Japanese economy may be subject to economic, political and social instability, which could have a negative impact on Japanese securities. In the past,
Japan’s economic growth rate has remained relatively low, and it may remain low in the
future. Furthermore, the Japanese economic growth rate could be impacted by Bank of Japan’s monetary policies, rising interest rates, tax increases, budget deficits, consumer confidence and volatility in the Japanese yen. At
times, the Japanese economy has been adversely impacted by government intervention and
protectionism, changes in its labor market, and an unstable financial services sector. International trade, government support of the financial services sector and other troubled sectors, government policy, natural
disasters, an aging demographic and declining population and/or geopolitical developments
associated with actual or potential conflicts with one or more countries in Asia could significantly affect the Japanese economy. Strained foreign relations with neighboring countries (China, South Korea, North Korea and
Russia) may not only negatively impact the Japanese economy, but also the geographic region as
well as globally. A significant portion of Japan’s trade is conducted with developing nations and can be affected by conditions in these nations or by currency fluctuations. Japan is an island state with few natural
resources and limited land area and is reliant on imports for its commodity needs. Any
fluctuations or shortages in the commodity markets could have a negative impact on the Japanese economy. In addition, Japan's economy has in the past and could in the future be significantly impacted by natural
disasters.
Smaller Company Risk. Investments in securities of smaller companies (mid cap and small cap companies) may be riskier, less liquid, more volatile and more vulnerable to economic, market and industry changes than securities of
larger, more established companies. The securities of smaller companies may trade less frequently
and in smaller volumes than securities of larger companies. As a result, changes in the price of securities issued by such companies may be more sudden or erratic than the prices of securities of large capitalization
companies, especially over the short term. These risks are higher for small cap
companies.
Privately Placed Securities
Risk. Privately placed securities generally are less liquid than publicly traded securities and
the Fund may not always be able to sell such securities without experiencing delays in finding
buyers or reducing the sale price for such securities. The disposition of some of the securities
held by the Fund may be restricted under federal securities laws. As a result, the Fund may not
be able to dispose of such