Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The
Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other
characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have
economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised
of high dividend-yielding international common stocks outside the financial sector. Constituent companies are selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in the industrialized
world, excluding Canada and the United States. The Index is comprised of the 10 highest dividend-yielding companies in each sector except financials, selected from the 300 largest companies by market value within the WisdomTree International Equity
Index as of the annual Index screening date. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock in the
annual cycle prior to the annual Index screening date; (iii) market capitalization of at least $100 million as of the annual Index screening date; (iv) average daily dollar trading volume of at least $100,000 for three months preceding the annual
Index screening date; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the six months preceding the annual Index screening date.
Components in the Index are weighted by dividend yield at the
time of the International Weighting Date (i.e., a component company’s weight in the Index is equal to its dividend yield divided by the sum of all the dividend yields for all the component companies in the Index.) A company’s dividend
yield is determined by dividing the company’s dividend per share by its stock price per share. Companies with a higher dividend yield are more heavily weighted. The maximum weight of any one sector and any one country in the Index, at the time
of the Index’s annual screening date, is capped at 25%; however, sector and/or country weights may fluctuate above the specified cap in response to market conditions and/or the application of volume factor adjustments. The Index methodology
applies a volume factor adjustment to reduce a component security’s weight in the Index and reallocate the reduction in weight pro rata among the other securities if, as of the annual Index screening date, a component security no longer meets
certain trading volume thresholds.
WisdomTree
Investments, Inc. (“WisdomTree Investments”), as Index provider, currently uses Standard & Poor’s Global Industry Classification Standards (“S&P GICS”) to define companies within a sector. The following sectors
are included in the Index: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, telecommunication services, and utilities. The financial and real estate sectors are excluded from the Index. A
sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in, among others, the natural gas, oil and petroleum industries. As of June 30, 2017, a significant portion of the Index is comprised of companies
in the telecommunications and utilities sectors.
To the
extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the
same extent as the Index.
Principal Risks of Investing in
the Fund
You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. The Fund is
subject to the risks described below. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objectives. For more information
about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”
■
|
Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to investment risk. Investors in the Fund could lose money, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long
periods of time. |
■
|
Market
Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or
specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. |