497K 1 gcc15230497k.htm WISDOMTREE ENHANCED COMMODITY STRATEGY FUND

 

 

 

 

 

WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund – GCC (NYSE Arca)

 

 

Summary Prospectus – January 1, 2023

 

Before you invest in the Fund, as defined below, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information (“SAI”), which contain more information about the Fund and the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s current prospectus and SAI are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and SAI, reports to shareholders, as well as other information about the Fund, online at www.wisdomtree.com/resource-library/prospectus-regulatory-reports. You may also obtain this information at no charge by calling 1-866-909-9473 or by sending an e-mail request to getinfo@wisdomtree.com.

 

Investment Objective

The WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to achieve positive total returns in rising or falling markets that are not directly correlated to broad market equity or fixed income returns.

 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.

 

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)  
Management Fees 0.55%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees None
Other Expenses 0.00%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.55%

 

Example

The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost of investing in the Fund shares with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may pay to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

 

  1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
  $ 56 $ 176 $ 307 $ 689

 

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays 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. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 47% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.

 

  

WisdomTree Trust Prospectus     1

 

 

Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund

The Fund is an actively managed exchange traded fund (“ETF”) that intends to provide broad-based exposure to the following four commodity sectors: Energy, Agriculture, Industrial Metals, and Precious Metals primarily through investments in futures contracts. Within these four sectors, the Fund intends to invest in the following commodities: Brent Crude Oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude Oil, Natural Gas, RBOB Gasoline, Low Sulfur Gas Oil, ULS Diesel, Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle, Lean Hogs, Soybeans, Soybean Oil, Soybean Meal, Wheat, Kansas Wheat (Hard Red Wheat), Sugar, Corn, Coffee, Cocoa, Cotton, Copper, Tin, Aluminum, Zinc, Nickel, Lead, Gold, Platinum, and Silver. Weighting among the commodities focuses on liquidity (i.e., commodities with more liquid futures contracts will generally have a higher weighting) combined with qualitative considerations and applicable market views derived from WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) in seeking broad-based exposure among the Energy, Agriculture, Industrial Metals and Precious Metals sectors. Exposure to any particular commodity, as well as potentially additional commodities, are generally determined annually but will vary over time based on the foregoing considerations. The Fund will not invest directly in physical commodities.

 

Futures contracts on commodities generally are agreements between two parties where one party agrees to buy, and the counterparty to sell, a set amount of a physical commodity (or, in some contracts, the cash equivalent) at a pre-determined future date and price. The value of commodity futures contracts is based upon the price movements of the underlying commodities.

 

The Fund may also invest up to 5% of its net assets in bitcoin futures contracts. The Fund will only invest in cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is a futures exchange registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Bitcoin is a digital asset (i.e., a cryptocurrency) whose ownership and behavior are determined by participants in an online, peer-to-peer network that connects computers that run publicly accessible, or “open source,” software that follows the rules and procedures governing the Bitcoin network. References to commodities and commodity-linked derivatives in this Prospectus include bitcoin and bitcoin futures, respectively. The Fund will not invest in bitcoin directly.

 

In order to maintain exposure to a futures contract on a particular commodity, the Fund must sell the position in the expiring contract and buy a new position in a contract with a later delivery month, which is referred to as “rolling.” The Fund expects to employ an “enhanced roll” process by attempting to roll from an expiring futures contract to another futures contract in seeking to generate a greater yield for the Fund. This roll process, generally implemented monthly, aims to maximize the potential roll benefits in backwardated markets and minimize potential losses in contango markets by rolling, as applicable, to the futures contract on a particular commodity which generates the maximum implied yield. Commodity futures contracts trade either in contango, where forward month futures contracts cost more than the current month (leading to negative roll yield) or in backwardation, where forward month futures contracts trade at a discount to the current month (leading to positive roll yield). It is generally the supply and demand factor that determines whether a commodity futures contract is in contango or backwardation.

 

The Fund may invest in Treasury securities and other liquid short-term investments as collateral for its commodity futures contracts.

 

The Fund seeks to gain exposure to commodity markets, in whole or in part, through investments in a subsidiary organized in the Cayman Islands (the “WisdomTree Subsidiary”). The WisdomTree Subsidiary is wholly-owned and controlled by the Fund. The Fund’s investment in the WisdomTree Subsidiary may not exceed 25% of the Fund’s total assets at each quarter-end of the Fund’s fiscal year. The Fund’s investment in the WisdomTree Subsidiary is intended to provide the Fund with exposure to commodity returns while enabling the Fund to satisfy source-of-income requirements that apply to regulated investment companies (“RICs”) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Except as noted, references to the investment strategies and risks of the Fund include the investment strategies and risks of the WisdomTree Subsidiary. References to the Fund include the WisdomTree Subsidiary.

 

The Fund is “non-diversified,” meaning that a relatively high percentage of its assets may be invested in a limited number of issuers.

 

Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. The Fund is subject to the risks described below. The risks are generally presented in alphabetical order to facilitate finding particular risks when comparing them with other funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of

 

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investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”

 

Commodity Risk. The value of commodities and commodity-linked derivative instruments typically is based upon the price movements of a physical commodity or an economic variable linked to such price movements. The prices of commodities and commodity-related investments may fluctuate quickly and dramatically and may not correlate to price movements in other asset classes. An active trading market may not exist for certain commodities. Prices of commodity-linked derivatives instruments have a historically low correlation with the returns of the stock and bond markets and are subject to change based on a variety of factors that may not be anticipated. In addition, bitcoin and bitcoin futures are a relatively new asset class. They are subject to unique and substantial risks, and historically, have been subject to significant price volatility. The market for bitcoin futures is also relatively new and commenced trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2017. As a result, the market for bitcoin futures may be less developed, and potentially less liquid and more volatile, than more established futures markets. While the bitcoin futures market has grown substantially since bitcoin futures commenced trading, there can be no assurance that this growth will continue. The price of bitcoin could drop precipitously (including to zero), which would be expected to have a similar impact on the bitcoin futures price. Each of these factors and events could have a significant negative impact on the Fund.

 

Futures Rolling Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy is subject to risks related to rolling. The price of futures contracts further from expiration may be higher (a condition known as “contango”) or lower (a condition known as “backwardation”), which can impact the Fund’s returns. Because of the frequency with which the Fund expects to roll futures contracts, the impact of such contango or backwardation may be greater than the impact would be if the Fund experienced less portfolio turnover.

 

Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to loss, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time.

 

Market Risk. The trading prices of fixed income securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. In addition, the respiratory illness COVID-19 has spread globally for over two years, resulting in a global pandemic and major disruption to economies and markets around the world, including the United States. During this time, financial markets have experienced extreme volatility and severe losses, and trading in many instruments has been disrupted or suspended. Liquidity for many instruments has been greatly reduced for periods of time. Although many global economies have re-opened fully or decreased the number of public safety measures designed to mitigate virus transmission, some economies, including those of countries with limited access to effective COVID-19 vaccines, have struggled to control the spread of the virus and re-open their economies. As a result, it remains unclear how COVID-19 will impact global markets in the future.

 

Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for the Fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.

 

Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed using proprietary investment strategies and processes. There can be no guarantee that these strategies and processes will be successful or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.

 

Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy will require it to redeem shares for cash or to otherwise include cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used.

 

Counterparty and Issuer Credit Risk. As a result of its financial condition, the issuer of a debt security or other instrument, or the counterparty to a derivative or other contract, may default, become unable to pay interest or principal due, or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or be perceived (whether by market participants, rating

 

  

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agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer or counterparty defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto.

 

Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cybersecurity, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cybersecurity, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, institutional investors authorized to purchase and redeem shares directly from the Fund (i.e., Authorized Participants), or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.

 

Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as a commodity, index, interest rate or inflation rate. Generally, derivatives are sophisticated investments that may pose risks that are different from or greater than those posed by investing directly in the underlying reference asset. For example, the return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with that of its underlying reference asset, and minimal requisite initial investments necessary to purchase derivatives positions may expose the Fund to losses in excess of those amounts. Derivatives also can be volatile and may be less liquid than other investments. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. The Fund expects to use futures contracts to implement its principal investment strategies. Other risks specific to futures contracts, as well as other risks of derivatives, generally, such as counterparty and issuer credit risk, interest rate risk, market risk and issuer-specific risk, are described in greater detail elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus.

 

Geopolitical Risk. The United States has experienced security concerns, war, threats of war, aggression and/or conflict, terrorism, economic uncertainty, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, natural and environmental disasters, the spread of infectious illness, widespread disease or other public health issues and/or systemic market dislocations (including due to events outside of the United States) that have led, and in the future may lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on the U.S. and world economies and markets generally, each of which may negatively impact the Fund’s investments.

 

Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates.

 

Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund.

 

Liquidity Risk. The Fund may invest in derivatives and other instruments that may be less liquid than other types of investments. The derivatives in which the Fund invests may not always be liquid. This could have a negative effect on the Fund’s ability to achieve its investment objective and may result in losses to Fund shareholders.

 

Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund.

 

Subsidiary Investment Risk. Changes in the laws of the United States and/or the Cayman Islands, under which the Fund and the WisdomTree Subsidiary are organized, respectively, could result in the inability of the WisdomTree Subsidiary to operate as intended and could negatively affect the Fund and its shareholders.

 

Tax Risk. To qualify for the favorable U.S. federal income tax treatment accorded to RICs, the Fund must, among other things, derive in each taxable year at least 90% of its gross income from certain prescribed sources. The Fund may obtain exposure to the commodities markets by directly entering into commodity-linked derivative instruments, such as listed futures contracts, forward currency contracts, swaps, and structured notes. Income from certain commodity-linked derivative instruments in which the Fund invests may not be considered qualifying income under the 90% test noted above. The Fund intends to invest in such commodity-linked

 

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derivative instruments indirectly through the WisdomTree Subsidiary. The Fund’s investment in the WisdomTree Subsidiary is expected to provide the Fund with exposure to the commodities markets within the limitations of the federal tax requirements of the Code for qualification as a RIC. The “Subpart F” income (defined in Section 951 of the Code to include passive income, including from commodity-linked derivatives and futures) of the Fund attributable to the Fund’s investment in the WisdomTree Subsidiary is “qualifying income” to the Fund to the extent that such income is derived with respect to the Fund’s business of investing in stock, securities or currencies. The Fund expects its “Subpart F” income attributable to its investment in the WisdomTree Subsidiary to be derived with respect to the Fund’s business of investing in stock, securities or currencies and to be treated as “qualifying income”. The Adviser intends to conduct the Fund’s investments in the WisdomTree Subsidiary in a manner consistent with the terms and conditions of the regulations promulgated by the U.S. Treasury, and will monitor the Fund's investments in the WisdomTree Subsidiary to ensure that no more than 25% of the Fund’s assets are invested in the WisdomTree Subsidiary. To the extent the Fund makes a direct investment in commodity-linked derivative instruments, it will seek to restrict the resulting income from such instruments so that, when combined with its other non-qualifying income, the Fund’s non-qualifying income is less than 10% of its gross income. However, the Fund may generate more non-qualifying income than anticipated, may not be able to generate qualifying income in a particular taxable year at levels sufficient to meet the 90% test noted above, or may not be able to accurately predict the non-qualifying income from these investments. Failure to comply with this restriction would have significant negative tax consequences to Fund shareholders.

 

Fund Performance

Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations, or the past 10 calendar years, as applicable. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to that of two relevant broad-based commodities indexes. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.

 

 

The Fund’s year-to-date total return as of September 30, 2022 was 2.74%.

 

Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in the bar chart above)

 

  Return Quarter/Year
Highest Return 10.48% 2Q/2021
Lowest Return 0.45% 3Q/2021

 

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the measurement period.

 

  

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Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2021

 

WisdomTree Enhanced Commodity Strategy Fund 1 Year Since Inception
December 21, 2020
Return Before Taxes Based on NAV 20.31% 21.21%
Return After Taxes on Distributions 15.95% 16.95%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares 12.03% 14.40%
S&P GSCI Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) 40.35% 39.20%
Bloomberg Commodity Index Total Return (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) 27.11% 27.22%

 

Management

 

Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser

WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management” or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Newton Investment Management North America, LLC (“NIMNA”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.

 

Portfolio Managers

The Fund is managed by NIMNA’s Multi-Asset Solutions Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.

 

James Stavena, Head of Portfolio Management, Multi-Asset Solutions, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in December 2020.

 

Dimitri Curtil, Global Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since September 2021.

 

Torrey Zaches, a Portfolio Manager, Multi-Asset Solutions team, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since September 2021.

 

Buying and Selling Fund Shares

The Fund is an ETF. This means that individual shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). In addition, an investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.

 

The Fund issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S. cash.

 

You may access recent information, including information on the Fund’s net asset value, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, on the fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.

 

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment.

 

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Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.

 

  

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