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 80% 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 generally comprised of 200 U.S. companies with the highest composite scores based on two fundamental factors (value and quality measures) and two technical factors (momentum and correlation). To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the quarterly Index screening date: (i) listed on a U.S. stock exchange and incorporated and headquartered in the United States; (ii) median daily dollar trading volume of at least $1,000,000 for each of the preceding three months; and (iii) only common stocks, real estate investment trusts (“REITs”), tracking stocks and holding companies are eligible for inclusion in the Index.

The top 800 companies by market capitalization that meet the foregoing criteria (the “Starting Universe”) are assigned a score for each of the following factors:

The score for each factor is used to calculate a company’s overall factor score. Companies from the Starting Universe are ranked by their overall factor score, and the top twenty-five percent (25%) (i.e., 200 out of 800 companies) are selected for inclusion in the Index. Companies are weighted in the Index by a combination of their overall factor score and their inverse volatility over the prior 12 months, subject to certain sector weighting considerations set forth below. For the inverse volatility weighting component, the Index methodology determines each company’s volatility (or risk) as measured by standard deviation over the past 12 months, which reflects the average amount a company’s stock price has differed from the mean over that period. Companies with higher overall factor scores and lower volatility (or risk) receive higher weights in the Index and companies with lower overall factor scores and higher volatility (or risk) receive lower weights in the Index.

The Index is reconstituted and rebalanced quarterly. On the Index’s quarterly screening date, the maximum weight of any security in the Index is capped at 4% and the sectors are weighted the same as the sector weights in the Starting Universe (i.e., sector neutral). The Index also may adjust the weight of individual components on the quarterly screening date based on certain quantitative thresholds or limits tied to key metrics of a component security, such as its trading volume. To the extent the Index reduces an individual component’s weight, the excess weight will be reallocated pro rata among the other components. Similarly, if the Index increases a component’s weight, the weight of the other components will be reduced on a pro rata basis to contribute the weight needed for such increase. The weight of a sector in the Index may fluctuate from the sector neutral weighting, and the weight of an individual component in the Index may fluctuate above or below specified caps and thresholds, respectively, between screening dates in response to market conditions.

WisdomTree, Inc. (“WisdomTree”), as Index provider, currently uses the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®), a widely recognized industry classification methodology developed by MSCI, Inc. and Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, to define companies within a given sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in the energy equipment and services industry as well as the oil, gas and consumable fuels industry. As of June 30, 2023, companies in the information technology sector comprised a significant portion (i.e., in excess of 15% of the Index’s total weighting) of the Index; however, the Index’s sector exposure may change from time to time.

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.