The Fund (primarily through the Subsidiary) is expected to invest significantly in commodity-linked futures contracts, including long and/or short positions on such futures contracts, in furtherance of its investment objective. Futures contracts are standardized, exchange-traded contracts that provide for the sale or purchase of a specified financial instrument, asset (e.g., commodity) or currency at a future time at a specified price. The value of a futures contract tends to increase and decrease in tandem with the value of the underlying instrument. Depending on the terms of the particular contract, futures contracts are settled through either physical delivery of the underlying instrument on the settlement date or by payment of a cash settlement amount on the settlement date. In particular, commodity futures contracts normally specify a certain date for the delivery of the underlying physical commodity. In order to avoid the delivery process and maintain a long futures position, the Fund and the Subsidiary will typically replace futures contracts as they approach expiration by contracts that have a later expiration. This process is known as “rolling” a futures position. As a result, the Fund and the Subsidiary do not expect to engage in physical settlement of commodities futures.
The seventh paragraph under the subsection “Principal Investment Strategies” in the “More Information About the Fund” section of the Prospectus is hereby superseded and replaced with the following:
Derivatives, including those described above, along with interest rate futures and options contracts (including options on futures contracts), may also be utilized to increase, modify, reduce or short commodity market positions or exposures. Actual exposures will vary over time based on factors such as market movements and assessments of market conditions by the Fund’s portfolio managers. The Fund may engage in derivative transactions on both U.S. and foreign exchanges or in the “over-the-counter” (OTC) market. The Fund may at times emphasize one or more sectors in selecting its investments, including the agricultural, energy and precious metals sectors.
The information under the subsection “Principal Risks” in the “More Information About the Fund” section of the Prospectus is hereby revised to include the following:
Short Positions Risk. The Fund may establish short positions which introduce more risk to the Fund than long positions (where the Fund owns the instrument or other asset) because the maximum sustainable loss on an instrument or other asset purchased (held long) is limited to the amount paid for the instrument or other asset plus the transaction costs, whereas there is no maximum price of the shorted instrument or other asset when purchased in the open market. Therefore, in theory, short positions have unlimited risk. The Fund’s use of short positions in effect “leverages” the Fund. Leverage potentially exposes the Fund to greater risks of loss due to unanticipated market movements, which may magnify losses and increase the volatility of returns. To the extent the Fund takes a short position in a derivative instrument or other asset, this involves the risk of a potentially unlimited increase in the value of the underlying instrument or other asset. Short positions also involve transaction and other costs that will reduce potential Fund gains and increase potential Fund losses.
The rest of the section remains the same.
Shareholders should retain this Supplement for future reference.