Strategy. The Index provides exposure to the iShares TIPS Bond ETF (the iShares ETF), which seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury bonds, commonly known as TIPS. TIPS are securities issued by the U.S. Treasury that are designed to provide inflation protection to investors. TIPS are income-generating instruments whose interest and principal payments are adjusted for inflation. Inflation is a sustained increase in prices that erodes the purchasing power of money. The inflation adjustments, which are typically applied monthly to the principal of the bond, follows a designated index, the consumer price index (CPI), and TIPS principal payments are adjusted according to changes in the CPI. A fixed coupon rate is applied to the … Show more… The Index provides exposure to the iShares TIPS Bond ETF (the iShares ETF), which seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury bonds, commonly known as TIPS. TIPS are securities issued by the U.S. Treasury that are designed to provide inflation protection to investors. TIPS are income-generating instruments whose interest and principal payments are adjusted for inflation. Inflation is a sustained increase in prices that erodes the purchasing power of money. The inflation adjustments, which are typically applied monthly to the principal of the bond, follows a designated index, the consumer price index (CPI), and TIPS principal payments are adjusted according to changes in the CPI. A fixed coupon rate is applied to the inflation-adjusted principal so that as inflation rises, both the principal value and the interest payments increase. This can provide investors with a hedge against inflation, as it helps preserve the purchasing power of an investment. Because of this inflation adjustment feature, inflation-protected bonds typically have lower yields than conventional fixed-rate bonds. The iShares ETF tracks the performance of a portfolio of all publicly-issued US. Treasury inflation-protected securities that have at least one year remaining to maturity, are rated investment-grade, have $250 million or more outstanding face value, are denominated in U.S. Dollars and are fixed-rate and non-convertible. iShares is a registered trademark of BlackRock, Inc. or its subsidiaries (BlackRock). Neither BlackRock nor the iShares Funds make any representations regarding the advisability of investing in the Fund. The Fund will concentrate its investment in a particular industry or group of industries ( i.e. , hold 25% or more of its total assets in investments that provide inverse leveraged exposure to a particular industry or group of industries) to approximately the same extent as the Index is so concentrated. The Fund, under normal circumstances, invests at least 80% of the Funds net assets (plus borrowing for investment purposes) in swap agreements, futures contracts, short positions or other financial instruments that provide inverse (opposite) or short daily exposure to the Index or to ETFs that track the Index, which, in combination, provider returns consistent with the Funds investment objective. The Fund may also gain inverse leveraged exposure by investing in a combination of financial instruments, such as swaps or futures contracts that provide short exposure to the Index, to a representative sample of the securities in the Index that has aggregate characteristics similar to those of the Index or to an ETF that tracks the same Index or a substantially similar index, or the Fund may short securities of the Index, or short an ETF that tracks the same Index or a substantially similar index. The Fund invests in derivatives as a substitute for directly shorting securities in order to gain inverse leveraged exposure to the Index or its components. When the Fund shorts securities, including the securities of another investment company, it borrows shares of that security or investment company, which it then sells. The Fund closes out a short sale by purchasing the security that it has sold short and returning that security to the entity that lent the security. On a day-to-day basis, the Fund is expected to hold money market funds, deposit accounts with institutions with high quality credit ratings, and/or short-term debt instruments that have terms-to-maturity of less than 397 days and exhibit high quality credit profiles, including U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements. The Fund seeks to remain fully invested at all times consistent with its stated inverse leveraged investment objective, but may not always have inverse exposure to all of the securities in the Index, or its weighting of inverse exposure to securities or industries may be different from that of the Index. In addition, the Fund may have inverse exposure to securities, ETFs or financial instruments not included in the Index. The Fund will attempt to achieve its investment objective without regard to overall market movement or the increase or decrease of the value of the securities in the Index. At the close of the markets each trading day, Rafferty rebalances the Funds portfolio so that its exposure to the Index is consistent with the Funds inverse leveraged investment objective. For example, if the Index has fallen on a given day, net assets of the Fund should rise, meaning that the Funds exposure will need to be increased. Conversely, if the Index has risen on a given day, net assets of the Fund should fall, meaning the Funds exposure will need to be reduced and that a shareholder should lose money, a result that is the opposite of traditional index tracking ETFs. This re-positioning strategy may result in high portfolio turnover. The terms daily, day, and trading day, refer to the period from the close of the markets on one trading day to the close of the markets on the next trading day. The Fund is non-diversified, meaning that a relatively high percentage of its assets may be invested in a limited number of issuers of securities. Additionally, the Funds investment objective is not a fundamental policy and may be changed by the Funds Board of Trustees without shareholder approval. Because of daily rebalancing and the compounding of each days return over time, the return of the Fund for periods longer than a single day will be the result of each days returns compounded over the period, which will very likely differ from -200% of the return of the Index over the same period. The Fund will lose money if the Index performance is flat over time, and as a result of daily rebalancing, the Indexs volatility and the effects of compounding, it is even possible that the Fund will lose money over time while the Indexs performance decreases over a period longer than a single day. Show less