Portfolio Turnover.
The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may
result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance. From inception, January 31, 2012, to the most recent
fiscal year end, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 5% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Underlying Index has been developed by MSCI
Inc. (“MSCI”) to measure the combined performance of equity securities of companies primarily engaged in the business of energy exploration and production in both developed and emerging markets. MSCI begins with the MSCI All Country
World Investable Market Index, and then selects securities of companies that are primarily focused on oil and gas exploration and production, and coal and consumable fuels production and mining. As of June 30, 2012, the Underlying Index consisted of
companies in the following 32 countries or regions: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Fund, under normal market conditions, will invest at
least 40% of its assets in issuers organized or located outside
the United States or doing business outside the United States.
BFA uses a “passive” or indexing
approach to try to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear
overvalued.
Indexing may eliminate the
chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping
portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.
BFA uses a representative sampling indexing
strategy to manage the Fund. “Representative sampling” is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities
selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability and yield) and liquidity measures similar
to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.
The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its
assets in securities of the Underlying Index or in depositary receipts representing securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest