485BPOS

 

As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 18, 2019

Securities Act File No. 333-183173
Investment Company Act File No. 811-22733

United States Securities and Exchange Commission

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM N-1A

Registration Statement Under the Securities Act of 1933	x
Pre-Effective Amendment No.	¨
Post-Effective Amendment No. 25	x
and/or
Registration Statement Under the Investment Company Act of 1940	x
Amendment No. 28	x

John Hancock Exchange-Traded Fund Trust

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

200 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116-2805
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

Registrant’s Telephone Number, including area code:
(617) 663-3000

Name and address of agent for service:

Kinga Kapuscinski, Esq.

Nicholas J. Kolokithas, Esq.

John Hancock Advisers, LLC
200 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116-2805

Copy to:
Christopher P. Harvey, Esq.
Allison M. Fumai, Esq.
Dechert LLP

One International Place, 40^th Floor
100 Oliver Street
Boston, MA 02110-2605

Title of Securities Being Registered: Shares of beneficial interest ($0.00 par value) of the Registrant.

Approximate Date of Proposed Public Offering: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Registration Statement.

It is proposed that this filing will become effective (check appropriate box):

x immediately upon filing pursuant to paragraph (b) of Rule 485

¨ on (date) pursuant to paragraph (b) of Rule 485

¨ 60 days after filing pursuant to paragraph (a)(1) of Rule 485

¨ on (date) pursuant to paragraph (a)(1) of Rule 485

¨ 75 days after filing pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) of Rule 485

¨ on (date) pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) of Rule 485

If appropriate, check the following box:

¨ this post-effective amendment designates a new effective date for a previously filed post-effective amendment.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EX-101 INSTANCE DOCUMENT

EX-101 SCHEMA DOCUMENT

EX-101 CALCULATION LINKBASE DOCUMENT

EX-101 DEFINITION LINKBASE DOCUMENT

EX-101 LABELS LINKBASE DOCUMENT

EX-101 PRESENTATION LINKBASE DOCUMENT

 

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Registrant certifies that it meets all of the requirements for effectiveness of this Amendment to the Registration Statement under Rule 485(b) under the Securities Act of 1933 and has duly caused this Amendment to the Registration Statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, duly authorized, in the City of Boston, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the 18^th day of March, 2019.

JOHN HANCOCK EXCHANGE-TRADED FUND TRUST
By:	/s/ Andrew G. Arnott
Name:	Andrew G. Arnott
Title:	President and Trustee

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this Amendment to the Registration Statement has been signed below by the following persons in the capacities and on the date indicated.

Signature	Title	Date
/s/Andrew G. Arnott	President and Trustee	March 18, 2019
Andrew G. Arnott
/s/ Charles S. Rizzo	Chief Financial Officer	March 18, 2019
Charles A. Rizzo	(Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer)
/s/ Charles L. Bardelis *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Charles L. Bardelis
/s/ James R. Boyle *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
James R. Boyle
/s/ Peter S. Burgess *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Peter S. Burgess
/s/ William H. Cunningham *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
William H. Cunningham
/s/ Grace K. Fey *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Grace K. Fey
/s/ Marianne Harrison *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Marianne Harrison
/s/ Theron S. Hoffman *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Theron S. Hoffman
/s/ Deborah C. Jackson *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Deborah C. Jackson
/s/ Hassell H. McClellan *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Hassell H. McClellan
/s/ James M. Oates *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
James M. Oates
/s/ Steven R. Pruchansky *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Steven R. Pruchansky
/s/ Gregory A. Russo *	Trustee	March 18, 2019
Gregory A. Russo

*By:	Power of Attorney
By:	/s/ Sarah M. Coutu
	Sarah M. Coutu
	Attorney-In-Fact
*Pursuant to Power of Attorney previously filed with Post-Effective Amendment No. 23 to the Trust’s Registration Statement on December 13, 2018.

 

Exhibit Index

EX-101.INS	XBRL Instance Document
EX-101.SCH	XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
EX-101.CAL	XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
EX-101.DEF	XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
EX-101.LAB	XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document
EX-101.PRE	XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

XML

Label	Element	Value
Prospectus:	rr_ProspectusTable
Document Type	dei_DocumentType	485BPOS
Document Period End Date	dei_DocumentPeriodEndDate	Apr. 30, 2018
Registrant Name	dei_EntityRegistrantName	John Hancock Exchange-Traded Fund Trust
Central Index Key	dei_EntityCentralIndexKey	0001478482
Amendment Flag	dei_AmendmentFlag	false
Document Creation Date	dei_DocumentCreationDate	Feb. 26, 2019
Document Effective Date	dei_DocumentEffectiveDate	Feb. 26, 2019
Prospectus Date	rr_ProspectusDate	Feb. 26, 2019

XML

(John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF)

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b></div>

To seek to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the John Hancock Dimensional Media and Communications Index (the Index).

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> FEES AND EXPENSES </b></div>

This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund.

<b>Annual fund operating expenses (%) (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)</b>

Annual Fund Operating Expenses - (John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF)	(John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF)
Management fee	0.38%
Other expenses	0.47%	[1]
Total annual fund operating expenses	0.85%
Contractual expense reimbursement	(0.45%)	[2]
Total annual fund operating expenses after expense reimbursements	0.40%

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> EXPENSE EXAMPLE </b></div>

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other funds. Please see below a hypothetical example showing the expenses of a $10,000 investment in the fund for the time periods indicated assuming you redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example assumes a 5% average annual return and that fund expenses will not change over the periods. The example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of shares of the fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

Expense Example - (John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF)	1 Year	3 Years
(John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF) | USD ($)	41	226

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PORTFOLIO TURNOVER </b></div>

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. Because the fund had not commenced operations as of the date of the fund's prospectus, there is no portfolio turnover to report.

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b></div>

The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in securities that compose the fund's Index. The Index is designed to comprise securities in the media and communications sector within the U.S. Universe whose market capitalizations are larger than that of the 1001st largest U.S. company at the time of reconstitution. Stocks that compose the Index include those that may be considered medium or smaller capitalization company stocks. The selection and weighting of securities in the Index involves a rules-based process that may sometimes be referred to as multifactor investing, factor-based investing, strategic beta, or smart beta. Securities are classified according to their market capitalization, relative price, and profitability. Weights for individual securities are then determined by adjusting their free-float adjusted market capitalization weight within the universe of eligible names so that names with smaller market capitalizations, lower relative price and higher profitability generally receive an increased weight relative to their unadjusted weight, and vice versa. This process can be summarized as follows:

• Adjustments for market capitalization: Securities within the eligible universe are assigned into size groups, with the intent of increasing the weights of smaller names within the eligible universe and decreasing weights of larger names within the eligible universe. Securities in the smallest market capitalization group will have their free-float market capitalization increased by a size adjustment factor. Securities in the middle group will have their free-float market capitalization increased by a lesser size adjustment factor. Securities in the group with the largest market capitalization will receive the lowest size adjustment factor of the three groups.
• Adjustments for relative price and profitability: Securities are assigned to a relative price group and to a profitability group. Relative price adjustment factors are assigned with the intent of increasing the weights of names with lower relative prices and decreasing the weights of names with higher relative prices. Similarly, profitability adjustment factors are assigned with the intent of increasing the weights of names with higher profitability and decreasing the weights of names with lower profitability.
• Securities are then weighted after taking into account their free-float, size, relative price and profitability adjustments, subject to a cap of 6% on a single company at time of reconstitution.

The Index is reconstituted and rebalanced on a semiannual basis. The media and communications sector is composed of companies in areas such as the creation, development or provision of media, communications, telecommunications, or internet backbone services or technology. The U.S. Universe is defined as a free float-adjusted market-capitalization-weighted portfolio of U.S. operating companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NYSE MKT LLC, NASDAQ Global Market, or such other securities exchanges deemed appropriate in accordance with the rules-based methodology that is maintained by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. This means that the market-capitalization of a particular company within the eligible universe of stocks is adjusted to exclude the share capital of a company that is not considered freely available for trading in the public equity markets.

The fund, using an indexing investment approach, attempts to approximate the investment performance of the Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicates the Index. The fund may concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to the extent that the Index concentrates in an industry or group of industries.

The fund is non-diversified, which means that it may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund.

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PRINCIPAL RISKS </b></div>

An investment in the fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Many factors affect performance, and the fund's shares will fluctuate in price, meaning you could lose money.

During periods of heightened market volatility or reduced liquidity, governments, their agencies, or other regulatory bodies, both within the United States and abroad, may take steps to intervene. These actions, which could include legislative, regulatory, or economic initiatives, might have unforeseeable consequences and could adversely affect the fund's performance or otherwise constrain the fund's ability to achieve its investment objective.

The fund's main risks are listed below in alphabetical order. Before investing, be sure to read the additional descriptions of these risks beginning on page 5 of the prospectus.

Active trading market risk. Active trading markets for fund shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Market makers are not obligated to make a market in the fund's shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units.

Authorized participant concentration risk. To the extent that authorized participants are unable or otherwise unavailable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders and no other authorized participant is able to create or redeem in their place, shares may trade at a discount to net asset value (NAV) and may face delisting.

Cybersecurity and operational risk. Cybersecurity breaches may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to fund assets, customer data, or proprietary information, or cause a fund or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality. Similar incidents affecting issuers of a fund's securities may negatively impact performance. Operational risk may arise from human error, error by third parties, communication errors, or technology failures, among other causes.

Economic and market events risk. Events in the U.S. and global financial markets, including actions taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve or foreign central banks to stimulate or stabilize economic growth, may at times result in unusually high market volatility, which could negatively impact performance. Reduced liquidity in credit and fixed-income markets could adversely affect issuers worldwide. Banks and financial services companies could suffer losses if interest rates rise or economic conditions deteriorate.

Equity securities risk. The price of equity securities may decline due to changes in a company's financial condition or overall market conditions.

ETF trading risk. The market price of shares may include a bid-ask spread (the difference between the prices at which investors are willing to buy and sell shares), which may vary over time and may increase for various reasons, including decreased trading volume or reduced market liquidity.

Index risk. Because the fund is not "actively" managed, its performance could be lower than funds that may actively shift their portfolio assets to take advantage of market opportunities or to lessen the impact of a market decline or a decline in the value of one or more issuers. Errors in the construction or calculation of the Index may occur from time to time. Any such errors may not be identified and corrected for some period of time, which may have an adverse impact on the fund and its shareholders.

Industry or sector investing risk. The performance of a fund that focuses on a single industry or sector of the economy depends in large part on the performance of that industry or sector. As a result, the value of an investment may fluctuate more widely than it would in a fund that is diversified across industries or sectors.

Large company risk. Larger companies may grow more slowly than smaller companies or be slower to respond to business developments. Large-capitalization securities may underperform the market as a whole.

Media and communications sector risk. Media and communications companies may be significantly affected by product and service obsolescence due to technological advancement or development, competitive pressures, substantial capital requirements, fluctuating demand and changes in regulation.

Non-diversified risk. Adverse events affecting a particular issuer or group of issuers may magnify losses for non-diversified funds, which may invest a large portion of assets in any one issuer or a small number of issuers.

Premium/discount risk. The NAV of the fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of the fund's holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Small and mid-sized company risk. Small and mid-sized companies are generally less established and may be more volatile than larger companies. Small and/or mid-capitalization securities may underperform the market as a whole.

Tracking error risk. The fund's portfolio composition and performance may vary substantially from that of the Index due to factors such as the fees and expenses of the fund, transaction costs, differences in accrual of dividends, delays in the fund's implementation of changes to the Index, pricing differences in the treatment of corporate actions, or the need to meet new or existing regulatory requirements. Tracking error risk may be heightened in volatile markets or under other unusual market conditions.

Trading issues risk. Trading in shares on NYSE Arca, Inc. (NYSE Arca) may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of NYSE Arca necessary to maintain the listing of the fund will continue to be met.

Value investment style risk. Value stocks, as a category, may underperform other segments of the market or the market as a whole and following a value-oriented investment strategy may cause the fund, at times, to underperform equity funds that employ a different investment style.

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PAST PERFORMANCE </b></div>

This section normally shows how the fund's total returns have varied from year to year, along with a broad-based market index for reference. Because the fund had not commenced operations as of the date of the fund's prospectus, there is no past performance to report.

[1] "Other expenses" have been estimated for the fund's first year of operations.

[2] The advisor contractually agrees to reduce its management fee or, if necessary, make payment to the fund in an amount equal to the amount by which expenses of the fund exceed 0.40% of average daily net assets. Expenses means all the expenses of the fund, excluding (a) taxes, (b) brokerage commissions, (c) interest expense, (d) litigation and indemnification expenses and other extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of the fund's business, (e) borrowing costs, (f) prime brokerage fees, (g) acquired fund fees and expenses paid indirectly, and (h) short dividend expense. This agreement expires on August 31, 2020, unless renewed by mutual agreement of the fund and the advisor based upon a determination that this is appropriate under the circumstances at that time. The advisor also contractually agrees to waive a portion of its management fee and/or reimburse expenses for the fund and certain other John Hancock funds according to an asset level breakpoint schedule that is based on the aggregate net assets of all the funds participating in the waiver or reimbursement. This waiver is allocated proportionally among the participating funds. This agreement expires on June 30, 2020, unless renewed by mutual agreement of the fund and the advisor based upon a determination that this is appropriate under the circumstances at that time.

XML

Label

Element

Value

(John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF)

Prospectus:

rr_ProspectusTable

Objective [Heading]

rr_ObjectiveHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b></div>

Objective, Primary [Text Block]

rr_ObjectivePrimaryTextBlock

To seek to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the John Hancock Dimensional Media and Communications Index (the Index).

Expense [Heading]

rr_ExpenseHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> FEES AND EXPENSES </b></div>

Expense Narrative [Text Block]

rr_ExpenseNarrativeTextBlock

This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund.

Operating Expenses Caption [Text]

rr_OperatingExpensesCaption

<b>Annual fund operating expenses (%) (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)</b>

Fee Waiver or Reimbursement over Assets, Date of Termination

rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssetsDateOfTermination

August 31, 2020

Other Expenses, New Fund, Based on Estimates [Text]

rr_OtherExpensesNewFundBasedOnEstimates

"Other expenses" have been estimated for the fund's first year of operations.

Expense Example [Heading]

rr_ExpenseExampleHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> EXPENSE EXAMPLE </b></div>

Expense Example Narrative [Text Block]

rr_ExpenseExampleNarrativeTextBlock

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other funds. Please see below a hypothetical example showing the expenses of a $10,000 investment in the fund for the time periods indicated assuming you redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example assumes a 5% average annual return and that fund expenses will not change over the periods. The example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of shares of the fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

Portfolio Turnover [Heading]

rr_PortfolioTurnoverHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PORTFOLIO TURNOVER </b></div>

Portfolio Turnover [Text Block]

rr_PortfolioTurnoverTextBlock

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. Because the fund had not commenced operations as of the date of the fund's prospectus, there is no portfolio turnover to report.

Strategy [Heading]

rr_StrategyHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b></div>

Strategy Narrative [Text Block]

rr_StrategyNarrativeTextBlock

The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in securities that compose the fund's Index. The Index is designed to comprise securities in the media and communications sector within the U.S. Universe whose market capitalizations are larger than that of the 1001st largest U.S. company at the time of reconstitution. Stocks that compose the Index include those that may be considered medium or smaller capitalization company stocks. The selection and weighting of securities in the Index involves a rules-based process that may sometimes be referred to as multifactor investing, factor-based investing, strategic beta, or smart beta. Securities are classified according to their market capitalization, relative price, and profitability. Weights for individual securities are then determined by adjusting their free-float adjusted market capitalization weight within the universe of eligible names so that names with smaller market capitalizations, lower relative price and higher profitability generally receive an increased weight relative to their unadjusted weight, and vice versa. This process can be summarized as follows:

• Adjustments for market capitalization: Securities within the eligible universe are assigned into size groups, with the intent of increasing the weights of smaller names within the eligible universe and decreasing weights of larger names within the eligible universe. Securities in the smallest market capitalization group will have their free-float market capitalization increased by a size adjustment factor. Securities in the middle group will have their free-float market capitalization increased by a lesser size adjustment factor. Securities in the group with the largest market capitalization will receive the lowest size adjustment factor of the three groups.
• Adjustments for relative price and profitability: Securities are assigned to a relative price group and to a profitability group. Relative price adjustment factors are assigned with the intent of increasing the weights of names with lower relative prices and decreasing the weights of names with higher relative prices. Similarly, profitability adjustment factors are assigned with the intent of increasing the weights of names with higher profitability and decreasing the weights of names with lower profitability.
• Securities are then weighted after taking into account their free-float, size, relative price and profitability adjustments, subject to a cap of 6% on a single company at time of reconstitution.

The Index is reconstituted and rebalanced on a semiannual basis. The media and communications sector is composed of companies in areas such as the creation, development or provision of media, communications, telecommunications, or internet backbone services or technology. The U.S. Universe is defined as a free float-adjusted market-capitalization-weighted portfolio of U.S. operating companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NYSE MKT LLC, NASDAQ Global Market, or such other securities exchanges deemed appropriate in accordance with the rules-based methodology that is maintained by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. This means that the market-capitalization of a particular company within the eligible universe of stocks is adjusted to exclude the share capital of a company that is not considered freely available for trading in the public equity markets.

The fund, using an indexing investment approach, attempts to approximate the investment performance of the Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicates the Index. The fund may concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to the extent that the Index concentrates in an industry or group of industries.

The fund is non-diversified, which means that it may invest its assets in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund.

Risk [Heading]

rr_RiskHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PRINCIPAL RISKS </b></div>

Risk Narrative [Text Block]

rr_RiskNarrativeTextBlock

An investment in the fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Many factors affect performance, and the fund's shares will fluctuate in price, meaning you could lose money.

During periods of heightened market volatility or reduced liquidity, governments, their agencies, or other regulatory bodies, both within the United States and abroad, may take steps to intervene. These actions, which could include legislative, regulatory, or economic initiatives, might have unforeseeable consequences and could adversely affect the fund's performance or otherwise constrain the fund's ability to achieve its investment objective.

The fund's main risks are listed below in alphabetical order. Before investing, be sure to read the additional descriptions of these risks beginning on page 5 of the prospectus.

Active trading market risk. Active trading markets for fund shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Market makers are not obligated to make a market in the fund's shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units.

Authorized participant concentration risk. To the extent that authorized participants are unable or otherwise unavailable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders and no other authorized participant is able to create or redeem in their place, shares may trade at a discount to net asset value (NAV) and may face delisting.

Cybersecurity and operational risk. Cybersecurity breaches may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to fund assets, customer data, or proprietary information, or cause a fund or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality. Similar incidents affecting issuers of a fund's securities may negatively impact performance. Operational risk may arise from human error, error by third parties, communication errors, or technology failures, among other causes.

Economic and market events risk. Events in the U.S. and global financial markets, including actions taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve or foreign central banks to stimulate or stabilize economic growth, may at times result in unusually high market volatility, which could negatively impact performance. Reduced liquidity in credit and fixed-income markets could adversely affect issuers worldwide. Banks and financial services companies could suffer losses if interest rates rise or economic conditions deteriorate.

Equity securities risk. The price of equity securities may decline due to changes in a company's financial condition or overall market conditions.

ETF trading risk. The market price of shares may include a bid-ask spread (the difference between the prices at which investors are willing to buy and sell shares), which may vary over time and may increase for various reasons, including decreased trading volume or reduced market liquidity.

Index risk. Because the fund is not "actively" managed, its performance could be lower than funds that may actively shift their portfolio assets to take advantage of market opportunities or to lessen the impact of a market decline or a decline in the value of one or more issuers. Errors in the construction or calculation of the Index may occur from time to time. Any such errors may not be identified and corrected for some period of time, which may have an adverse impact on the fund and its shareholders.

Industry or sector investing risk. The performance of a fund that focuses on a single industry or sector of the economy depends in large part on the performance of that industry or sector. As a result, the value of an investment may fluctuate more widely than it would in a fund that is diversified across industries or sectors.

Large company risk. Larger companies may grow more slowly than smaller companies or be slower to respond to business developments. Large-capitalization securities may underperform the market as a whole.

Media and communications sector risk. Media and communications companies may be significantly affected by product and service obsolescence due to technological advancement or development, competitive pressures, substantial capital requirements, fluctuating demand and changes in regulation.

Non-diversified risk. Adverse events affecting a particular issuer or group of issuers may magnify losses for non-diversified funds, which may invest a large portion of assets in any one issuer or a small number of issuers.

Premium/discount risk. The NAV of the fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of the fund's holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.

Small and mid-sized company risk. Small and mid-sized companies are generally less established and may be more volatile than larger companies. Small and/or mid-capitalization securities may underperform the market as a whole.

Tracking error risk. The fund's portfolio composition and performance may vary substantially from that of the Index due to factors such as the fees and expenses of the fund, transaction costs, differences in accrual of dividends, delays in the fund's implementation of changes to the Index, pricing differences in the treatment of corporate actions, or the need to meet new or existing regulatory requirements. Tracking error risk may be heightened in volatile markets or under other unusual market conditions.

Trading issues risk. Trading in shares on NYSE Arca, Inc. (NYSE Arca) may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of NYSE Arca necessary to maintain the listing of the fund will continue to be met.

Value investment style risk. Value stocks, as a category, may underperform other segments of the market or the market as a whole and following a value-oriented investment strategy may cause the fund, at times, to underperform equity funds that employ a different investment style.

Risk Nondiversified Status [Text]

rr_RiskNondiversifiedStatus

Non-diversified risk. Adverse events affecting a particular issuer or group of issuers may magnify losses for non-diversified funds, which may invest a large portion of assets in any one issuer or a small number of issuers.

Risk Lose Money [Text]

rr_RiskLoseMoney

Many factors affect performance, and the fund's shares will fluctuate in price, meaning you could lose money.

Risk Not Insured Depository Institution [Text]

rr_RiskNotInsuredDepositoryInstitution

An investment in the fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Bar Chart and Performance Table [Heading]

rr_BarChartAndPerformanceTableHeading

<div style="font-size:10pt;padding-top:5pt;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0;"><b> PAST PERFORMANCE </b></div>

Performance Narrative [Text Block]

rr_PerformanceNarrativeTextBlock

This section normally shows how the fund's total returns have varied from year to year, along with a broad-based market index for reference. Because the fund had not commenced operations as of the date of the fund's prospectus, there is no past performance to report.

(John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF) | (John Hancock Multifactor Media and Communications ETF)

Prospectus:

rr_ProspectusTable

Management fee

rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets

0.38%

Other expenses

rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets

0.47%

^[1]

Total annual fund operating expenses

rr_ExpensesOverAssets

0.85%

Contractual expense reimbursement

rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets

(0.45%)

^[2]

Total annual fund operating expenses after expense reimbursements

rr_NetExpensesOverAssets

0.40%

Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year

rr_ExpenseExampleYear01

$ 41

Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years

rr_ExpenseExampleYear03

$ 226

[1] "Other expenses" have been estimated for the fund's first year of operations.

[2] The advisor contractually agrees to reduce its management fee or, if necessary, make payment to the fund in an amount equal to the amount by which expenses of the fund exceed 0.40% of average daily net assets. Expenses means all the expenses of the fund, excluding (a) taxes, (b) brokerage commissions, (c) interest expense, (d) litigation and indemnification expenses and other extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of the fund's business, (e) borrowing costs, (f) prime brokerage fees, (g) acquired fund fees and expenses paid indirectly, and (h) short dividend expense. This agreement expires on August 31, 2020, unless renewed by mutual agreement of the fund and the advisor based upon a determination that this is appropriate under the circumstances at that time. The advisor also contractually agrees to waive a portion of its management fee and/or reimburse expenses for the fund and certain other John Hancock funds according to an asset level breakpoint schedule that is based on the aggregate net assets of all the funds participating in the waiver or reimbursement. This waiver is allocated proportionally among the participating funds. This agreement expires on June 30, 2020, unless renewed by mutual agreement of the fund and the advisor based upon a determination that this is appropriate under the circumstances at that time.