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Note 10 - Investment Valuation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Notes to Financial Statements

Fair Value Disclosures [Text Block]

10 - Investment Valuation

FASB Accounting Standards Codification Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures, defines fair value as the price the Trust would receive to sell an asset or pay to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The Trust’s policy is to value its investments at fair value.

Investments in Index Futures are measured at fair value using the last reported CME settlement price for Index Futures.

U.S. Treasury bills are valued at the last available bid price received from independent pricing services. In determining the value of a fixed income investment, pricing services may use certain information with respect to transactions in such investments, quotations from dealers, pricing matrixes, market transactions in comparable investments, various relationships observed in the market between investments and calculated yield measures.

Various inputs are used in determining the fair value of financial instruments. Inputs may be based on independent market data (“observable inputs”) or they may be internally developed (“unobservable inputs”). These inputs are categorized into a disclosure hierarchy consisting of three broad levels for financial reporting purposes. The level of a value determined for a financial instrument within the fair value hierarchy is based on the lowest level of any input that is significant to the fair value measurement in its entirety. The three levels of the fair value hierarchy are as follows:

Level 1 – Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities;

Level 2 – Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability either directly or indirectly, including quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not considered to be active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for the asset or liability, and inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means; and

Level 3 – Unobservable inputs that are unobservable for the asset or liability, including the Trust’s assumptions used in determining the fair value of investments.

Fair value pricing could result in a difference between the prices used to calculate the Trust’s net asset value and the prices used by the Trust’s underlying index, which in turn could result in a difference between the Trust’s performance and the performance of the Trust’s underlying index.

The following table summarizes the value of each of the Trust’s investments by the fair value hierarchy levels as of March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019:

		Level 1				Level 2				Level 3				Total
March 31, 2020
Futures contracts(a)		$	(125,957,813	)		$	—			$	—			$	(125,957,813	)
U.S. Treasury bills			—				491,322,390								491,322,390

December 31, 2019
Futures contracts(a)		$	19,634,651			$	—			$	—			$	19,634,651
U.S. Treasury bills			—				750,519,365				—				750,519,365

(a)	Shown at the unrealized appreciation (depreciation) on the contracts.

The entire disclosure for the fair value of financial instruments (as defined), including financial assets and financial liabilities (collectively, as defined), and the measurements of those instruments as well as disclosures related to the fair value of non-financial assets and liabilities. Such disclosures about the financial instruments, assets, and liabilities would include: (1) the fair value of the required items together with their carrying amounts (as appropriate); (2) for items for which it is not practicable to estimate fair value, disclosure would include: (a) information pertinent to estimating fair value (including, carrying amount, effective interest rate, and maturity, and (b) the reasons why it is not practicable to estimate fair value; (3) significant concentrations of credit risk including: (a) information about the activity, region, or economic characteristics identifying a concentration, (b) the maximum amount of loss the entity is exposed to based on the gross fair value of the related item, (c) policy for requiring collateral or other security and information as to accessing such collateral or security, and (d) the nature and brief description of such collateral or security; (4) quantitative information about market risks and how such risks are managed; (5) for items measured on both a recurring and nonrecurring basis information regarding the inputs used to develop the fair value measurement; and (6) for items presented in the financial statement for which fair value measurement is elected: (a) information necessary to understand the reasons for the election, (b) discussion of the effect of fair value changes on earnings, (c) a description of [similar groups] items for which the election is made and the relation thereof to the balance sheet, the aggregate carrying value of items included in the balance sheet that are not eligible for the election; (7) all other required (as defined) and desired information.

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