TAX RISK. The Fund intends to elect and to qualify each year to be treated as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). The federal income tax treatment of the securities in which the Fund may invest, including the Fund’s option strategy, may not be clear or may be subject to recharacterization by the Internal Revenue Service. It could be more difficult to comply with the tax requirements applicable to RICs if the tax characterization of investments or the tax treatment of the income from such investments were successfully challenged by the Internal Revenue Service. Any such failure to comply with the rules applicable to RICs could cause the Fund to fail to qualify as such. To qualify and maintain its status as a RIC, the Fund must meet certain income, diversification and distributions tests. For purposes of the diversification test, the identification of the issuer (or, in some cases, issuers) of a particular Fund investment can depend on the terms and conditions of that investment. In particular, there is little or no published Internal Revenue Service guidance or case law on how to determine the “issuer” of certain derivatives that the Fund may enter into. Based upon the language in the legislative history, the Fund intends to treat the issuer of an equity option as the referenced asset, which and to treat any income it may derive from an equity option as “qualifying income” under the provisions of the Code applicable to RICs. In the case of FLEX Options, as the referenced asset, which, assuming the referenced asset qualifies as a RIC, treating the issuer as the referenced asset would allow the Fund to count the FLEX Options as automatically diversified investments under the RIC diversification requirements. If the income is not qualifying income or the issuer of equity options, including FLEX Options. is not appropriately the referenced asset, the Fund may not qualify, or may be disqualified, as a RIC. If the Fund does not qualify as a RIC for any taxable year and certain relief provisions are not available, the Fund’s taxable income will be subject to tax at the Fund level and to a further tax at the shareholder level when such income is distributed.
The Fund’s investments in offsetting positions with respect to the Underlying ETF may affect the character of gains or losses realized by the Fund under the Code’s “straddle” rules and may increase the amount of short-term capital gain realized by the Fund. Certain options the Fund holds may not qualify as “Section 1256 contracts” under Section 1256 of the Code, and disposition of such options will likely result in short-term or long-term capital gains or losses depending on the holding period.
There is a risk that if the offsetting FLEX Options are held by a single person that the IRS may take the position that the FLEX Options, viewed together, should be treated as a single debt instrument for federal tax purposes. The result of such a position would be that the Fund would fail the RIC diversification tests causing the RIC to be taxed as a C corporation, unless certain cure rights based upon reasonable cause may apply. The Fund has obtained an opinion of tax counsel that the FLEX Options should not be collapsed into a single instrument. However, such an opinion is not binding upon the IRS or the courts.
TRADING ISSUES RISK. Trading in Fund shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in shares inadvisable. In addition, trading in Fund shares on the Exchange is subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to the Exchange’s “circuit breaker” rules. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the Exchange necessary to maintain the listing of the Fund will continue to be met or will remain unchanged. The Fund may have difficulty maintaining its listing on the Exchange in the event the Fund’s assets are small, the Fund does not have enough shareholders, or if the Fund is unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders.
UNDERLYING ETF CONCENTRATION RISK. The Underlying ETF may be susceptible to an increased risk of loss, including losses due to adverse events that affect the Underlying ETF's investments more than the market as a whole, to the extent that the Underlying ETF's investments are concentrated in the securities and/or other assets of a particular issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector, market segment or asset class.
UNDERLYING ETF EQUITY RISK. Because the Fund holds FLEX Options that reference the Underlying ETF, the Fund has exposure to the equity securities markets. Equity securities prices fluctuate for several reasons, including changes in investors’ perceptions of the financial condition of an issuer or the general condition of the relevant equity market, such as market volatility, or when political or economic events affecting an issuer occur. Common stock prices may be particularly sensitive to rising interest rates, as the cost of capital rises and borrowing costs increase. Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.
UNDERLYING ETF RISK. The Fund invests in FLEX Options that reference an ETF, which subjects the Fund to certain of the risks of owning shares of an ETF as well as the types of instruments in which the Underlying ETF invests. The value of an ETF will fluctuate over time based on fluctuations in the values of the securities held by the ETF, which may be affected by changes in general economic conditions, expectations for future growth and profits, interest rates and the supply and demand for those securities. In addition, ETFs are subject to absence of an active market risk, premium/discount risk, tracking error risk and trading issues risk. Brokerage, tax and other expenses may negatively impact the performance of the Underlying ETF and,