Strategy. Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in fixed-income securities of emerging market issuers or in instruments with economic characteristics similar to emerging market fixed-income securities. For these purposes, fixed-income securities include fixed-income securities of any type, including bonds and notes (such as corporate and government debt obligations), mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, structured securities that generally pay fixed or variable rates of interest, and loans and loan participations; debt obligations issued at a discount from face value (i.e., that have an imputed rate of interest); non-interest-bearing debt securities (i.e., zero coupon bonds); and other non-equity securities that pay dividends. The Fund primarily invests in a broad range of sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate fixed-income securities … Show more… Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in fixed-income securities of emerging market issuers or in instruments with economic characteristics similar to emerging market fixed-income securities. For these purposes, fixed-income securities include fixed-income securities of any type, including bonds and notes (such as corporate and government debt obligations), mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, structured securities that generally pay fixed or variable rates of interest, and loans and loan participations; debt obligations issued at a discount from face value (i.e., that have an imputed rate of interest); non-interest-bearing debt securities (i.e., zero coupon bonds); and other non-equity securities that pay dividends. The Fund primarily invests in a broad range of sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate fixed-income securities rated B- or better but may also invest in fixed-income securities having a lower credit rating. The Fund does not rely exclusively on rating agencies when making investment decisions. Instead, the Funds investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC (Advisors), performs its own credit analysis, paying particular attention to economic trends and other market events. Country and individual issuer allocations are then overweighted or underweighted relative to the Funds benchmark index, the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index (EMBI) Global Diversified (EMBI-GD Index), when Advisors believes that the Fund can take advantage of what appear to be undervalued, overlooked or misunderstood issuers that offer the potential to boost returns above that of the index. Fund holdings may be denominated in U.S. dollars or non-U.S. dollar currencies, including emerging market currencies. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term assets means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes. The Fund considers an emerging market security to be a security that is principally traded on a securities exchange of an emerging market or that is issued by an issuer that is located or has primary operations in an emerging market. The Fund generally defines an emerging market as any of the countries or markets represented in the Funds benchmark index, the EMBI-GD Index, or any other country or market with similar emerging characteristics. The Fund may also engage in relative value trading, a strategy in which the Fund reallocates assets across different countries, currencies, sectors and maturities. Relative value trading is designed to enhance the Funds returns but increases the Funds portfolio turnover rate. The Fund may purchase and sell futures, options, swaps and other fixed-income derivative instruments to carry out the Funds investment strategies. Show less