Total | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schwab Fundamental U.S. Broad Market Index ETF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Schwab® Fundamental U.S. Broad Market Index ETF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Investment Objective | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The fund’s goal is to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Russell RAFITM US Index. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fund Fees and Expenses | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund. This table does not reflect any brokerage fees or commissions you may incur when buying or selling fund shares. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a % of the value of your investment) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Example | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those time periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example does not reflect any brokerage fees or commissions you may incur when buying or selling fund shares. Your actual costs may be higher or lower. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Expenses on a $10,000 Investment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 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 the 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 13% of the average value of its portfolio. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investment Strategies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To pursue its goal, the fund generally invests in stocks that are included in the Russell RAFI US Index†. The index selects, ranks, and weights securities by fundamental measures of company size – adjusted sales, retained operating cash flow, and dividends plus buybacks – rather than market capitalization. The index measures the performance of the constituent companies by fundamental overall company scores (scores), which are created using as the universe the U.S. companies in the FTSE Global Total Cap Index (the parent index). Securities are grouped in order of decreasing score and each company receives a weight based on its percentage of the total scores of the U.S. companies within the parent index. The weights of the companies included in the index are determined annually and are implemented using a partial quarterly reconstitution methodology in which the index is split into four equal segments and each segment is rebalanced on a rolling quarterly basis. The index is compiled and calculated by Frank Russell Company in conjunction with Research Affiliates LLC, and the method of calculating the components of the index is subject to change. It is the fund’s policy that, under normal circumstances, it will invest at least 90% of its net assets (including, for this purpose, any borrowings for investment purposes) in stocks included in the index. The fund will notify its shareholders at least 60 days before changing this policy. The fund may sell securities that are represented in the index in anticipation of their removal from the index, or buy securities that are not yet represented in the index in anticipation of their addition to the index. Under normal circumstances, the fund may invest up to 10% of its net assets in securities not included in the index. The principal types of these investments include those that the investment adviser believes will help the fund track the index, such as investments in (a) securities that are not represented in the index but the investment adviser anticipates will be added to the index or as necessary to reflect various corporate actions (such as mergers and spin-offs), (b) other investment companies, and (c) derivatives, principally futures contracts. The fund may use futures contracts and other derivatives primarily to seek returns on the fund’s otherwise uninvested cash assets to help it better track the index. The fund may also invest in cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds, and may lend its securities to minimize the difference in performance that naturally exists between an index fund and its corresponding index. Because it may not be possible or practicable to purchase all of the stocks in the index, the investment adviser seeks to track the total return of the index by using sampling techniques. Sampling techniques involve investing in a limited number of index securities which, when taken together, are expected to perform similarly to the index as a whole. These techniques are based on a variety of factors, including performance attributes, tax considerations, capitalization, dividend yield, price/earnings ratio, industry factors, risk factors and other characteristics. The fund generally expects that its portfolio will hold less than the total number of securities in the index, but reserves the right to hold as many securities as it believes necessary to achieve the fund’s investment objective. The fund generally expects that its industry weightings, dividend yield and price/earnings ratio will be similar to those of the index. The fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry, group of industries or sector to approximately the same extent that the index is so concentrated. The investment adviser seeks to achieve, over time, a correlation between the fund’s performance and that of the index, before fees and expenses, of 95% or better. However, there can be no guarantee that the fund will achieve a high degree of correlation with the index. A number of factors may affect the fund’s ability to achieve a high correlation with the index, including the number of index securities held by the fund as part of the sampling technique. The correlation between the performance of the fund and the index may also diverge due to transaction costs, asset valuations, corporate actions (such as mergers and spin-offs), timing variances, and differences between the fund’s portfolio and the index resulting from legal restrictions (such as diversification requirements) that apply to the fund but not to the index. † Index ownership – The Schwab Fundamental U.S. Broad Market Index ETF is not in any way sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Frank Russell Company (Russell), by the London Stock Exchange Group companies (LSEG), or by Research Affiliates LLC (RA) (collectively the Licensor Parties), and none of the Licensor Parties make any warranty or representation whatsoever, expressly or impliedly, either as to the results to be obtained from the use of the Russell RAFI US Index (the Index) or otherwise. The Index is compiled and calculated by Russell in conjunction with RA. None of the Licensor Parties shall be liable (whether in negligence or otherwise) to any person for any error in the Index and none of the Licensor Parties shall be under any obligation to advise any person of any error therein. “Russell®” is a trademark of Russell. The trade names “Research Affiliates®”, “Fundamental Index®” and “RAFI®” are registered trademarks of RA. Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. has obtained full license from Russell to use the Index. For full disclaimer please see the fund’s statement of additional information. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Risks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The fund is subject to risks, any of which could cause an investor to lose money. The fund’s principal risks include: Market Risk. Financial markets rise and fall in response to a variety of factors, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably. Markets may be impacted by economic, political, regulatory and other conditions, including economic sanctions and other government actions. In addition, the occurrence of global events, such as war, terrorism, environmental disasters, natural disasters and epidemics, may also negatively affect the financial markets. As with any investment whose performance is tied to these markets, the value of an investment in the fund will fluctuate, which means that an investor could lose money over short or long periods. Investment Style Risk. The fund is an index fund. Therefore, the fund follows the securities included in the index during upturns as well as downturns. Because of its indexing strategy, the fund does not take steps to reduce market exposure or to lessen the effects of a declining market. In addition, because of the fund’s expenses, the fund’s performance may be below that of the index. Market disruptions could cause delays in the index’s rebalancing schedule which may result in the index and, in turn, the fund experiencing returns different than those that would have been achieved under a normal rebalancing schedule. Equity Risk. The prices of equity securities rise and fall daily. These price movements may result from factors affecting individual companies, industries or the securities market as a whole. In addition, equity markets tend to move in cycles, which may cause stock prices to fall over short or extended periods of time. Market Capitalization Risk. Securities issued by companies of different market capitalizations tend to go in and out of favor based on market and economic conditions. During a period when securities of a particular market capitalization fall behind other types of investments, the fund’s performance could be impacted. Large-Cap Company Risk. Large-cap companies are generally more mature and the securities issued by these companies may not be able to reach the same levels of growth as the securities issued by small- or mid-cap companies. Mid-Cap Company Risk. Mid-cap companies may be more vulnerable to adverse business or economic events than larger, more established companies and the value of securities issued by these companies may move sharply. Small-Cap Company Risk. Securities issued by small-cap companies may be riskier than those issued by larger companies, and their prices may move sharply, especially during market upturns and downturns. Sampling Index Tracking Risk. The fund may not fully replicate the index and may hold securities not included in the index. As a result, the fund is subject to the risk that the investment adviser’s investment management strategy, the implementation of which is subject to a number of constraints, may not produce the intended results. Because the fund utilizes a sampling approach it may not track the return of the index as well as it would if the fund purchased all of the securities in the index. Tracking Error Risk. As an index fund, the fund seeks to track the performance of the index, although it may not be successful in doing so. The divergence between the performance of the fund and the index, positive or negative, is called “tracking error.” Tracking error can be caused by many factors and it may be significant. Derivatives Risk. The fund’s use of derivative instruments involves risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in securities and other traditional investments. The fund’s use of derivatives could reduce the fund’s performance, increase the fund’s volatility and could cause the fund to lose more than the initial amount invested. In addition, investments in derivatives may involve leverage, which means a small percentage of assets invested in derivatives can have a disproportionately large impact on the fund. Liquidity Risk. The fund may be unable to sell certain securities, such as illiquid securities, readily at a favorable time or price, or the fund may have to sell them at a loss. Securities Lending Risk. Securities lending involves the risk of loss of rights in, or delay in recovery of, the loaned securities if the borrower fails to return the security loaned or becomes insolvent. Concentration Risk. To the extent that the fund’s or the index’s portfolio is concentrated in the securities of issuers in a particular market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the fund may be adversely affected by the performance of those securities, may be subject to increased price volatility and may be more vulnerable to adverse economic, market, political or regulatory occurrences affecting that market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class. Market Trading Risk. Although fund shares are listed on national securities exchanges, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for fund shares will develop or be maintained. If an active market is not maintained, investors may find it difficult to buy or sell fund shares. Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of the shares of the fund will approximate the fund’s net asset value (NAV), there may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly. An investor may pay more than NAV when buying shares of the fund in the secondary market, and an investor may receive less than NAV when selling those shares in the secondary market. The market price of fund shares may deviate, sometimes significantly, from NAV during periods of market volatility or market disruption. For more information on the risks of investing in the fund, please see the “Fund Details” section in the prospectus. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Performance | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The bar chart below shows how the fund’s investment results have varied from year to year, and the following table shows how the fund’s average annual total returns for various periods compared to that of an index. This information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. All figures assume distributions were reinvested. Keep in mind that future performance (both before and after taxes) may differ from past performance. For current performance information, please see www.schwabfunds.com/schwabetfs_prospectus. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annual Total Returns (%) as of 12/31 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best Quarter: 12.48% Q1 2019 Worst Quarter: (14.33%) Q4 2018 Year-to-date performance (before taxes) as of 3/31/20: (26.81%) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Average Annual Total Returns as of 12/31/19 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The after-tax figures reflect the highest individual federal income tax rates in effect during the period and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Your actual after-tax returns depend on your individual tax situation. In addition, after-tax returns are not relevant if you hold your fund shares through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan, an individual retirement account (IRA) or other tax-advantaged account. |
