•Regulatory
changes or actions may alter the operations and profitability of
the Funds.
•Regulatory
and exchange daily price limits, position limits and accountability
levels may cause the Sponsor to restrict the creation of
Creation Units
which could have a negative impact on the operation of each Fund,
prevent a Fund from achieving its investment objective, and
disrupt
secondary market trading of Fund Shares.
•The
use of futures contracts may expose the Funds to liquidity and
other risks, which could result in significant loss to the
Funds.
•Margin
requirements and position limits applicable to futures contracts
and the ability of and market required by swap counterparties
may limit a
Fund’s ability to achieve sufficient exposure and prevent a Fund
from achieving its investment objective.
•The
insolvency of a futures commission merchant (“FCM”) or
clearinghouse or the failure of an FCM or clearinghouse to properly
segregate Fund
assets held as margin on futures transactions may result in losses
to the Funds.
•A
Fund’s performance could be adversely affected if an FCM reduces
its internal risk limits for the Fund.
•The
use of swap agreements may expose the Funds to liquidity risk,
counterparty credit risk and other risks, which could result in
significant loss to
the Funds.
•The
use of derivatives, such as swap agreements and forward contracts,
exposes the Funds to counterparty credit risks.
•The
use of options strategies may expose the Funds to significant loss
and liquidity, counterparty and other risks.
•Use
of an options strategy is costly and may not protect a
Fund.
•Shareholders’
tax liability may exceed cash distributions on the
Shares.
•Investors
in our Funds may be exposed to various tax risks, as described in
further detail below.
•Natural
disasters and public health disruptions, such as the COVID-19
virus, may have a significant negative impact on the performance
of each
Fund; the risks and other information described herein could become
outdated as a result of such events.
•Financial
markets, including the benchmark and Financial Instruments used by
a Fund and Fund Shares may be subject to unusual trading
activity,
volatility, and potential fraud and/or manipulation by third
parties, which could have a negative impact on the performance of
the benchmark
and the Fund or the liquidity and price of Fund
Shares.
•Benchmark
changes and market transactions, including the daily rebalancing of
futures contracts by the Funds may have a significant impact
on the
trading, liquidity and price of the futures contracts underlying
the benchmark and, in turn, a significant impact on the performance
of the
benchmark and the Funds and the trading, liquidity, and price of
Fund Shares.
•Purchases
of Creation Units by Authorized Participants may be limited or
suspending by the Sponsor in its sole discretion. For example,
the Sponsor
may limit or suspend the purchase of Creation Units if it believes
doing so would help a Fund manage its portfolio, such as by
allowing
a Fund to comply with counterparty or position limits, or to manage
or otherwise comply with Share registration requirements, or
in response
to significant and/or rapid increases in the size of a Fund as a
result of an increase in creation activity. This may, among
other things,
cause Fund Shares to trade at a premium to NAV or otherwise have a
negative impact on the liquidity and trading of Fund
Shares.
Risks Specific to the Geared Funds, VIX Futures Fund, Natural Gas
Funds, Precious Metals Funds, and Currency Funds
•The
use of leveraged or inverse leveraged positions increases risk and
could result in the total loss of an investor’s investment within
a single
day.
•Due
to the compounding of daily returns, a Geared Fund’s returns over
periods longer than a single day will likely differ in amount and
possibly even
direction from the Fund’s stated multiple times the return of its
benchmark for such period. Intraday price performance of
Geared Fund
shares will likely differ from the Fund’s stated daily multiple
times the performance of its benchmark for such day.