XML 12 R152.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v2.4.0.6
GMO Trust | GMO Currency Hedged International Equity Fund
GMO CURRENCY HEDGED INTERNATIONAL EQUITY FUND
Investment objective
Total return greater than that of its benchmark, the MSCI EAFE Index (Hedged).
Fees and expenses
The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.
Annual Fund operating expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses -
GMO Trust
GMO Currency Hedged International Equity Fund
Class III
Management fee [1] 0.54%
Shareholder service fee [1] 0.15%
Other expenses 0.04%
Acquired fund fees and expenses (underlying fund expenses) 0.58%
Total annual operating expenses 1.31%
Expense reimbursement/waiver [1] (0.61%)
Total annual operating expenses after expense reimbursement [2] 0.70%
[1] Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC (the "Manager" or "GMO") has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for the following expenses to the extent that they are borne by the Fund: audit expenses, fund accounting expenses, pricing service expenses, non-investment related tax expenses, transfer agency expenses, non-investment related legal expenses provided to the Fund by or at the direction of the Manager, federal securities law filing expenses, printing expenses, state and federal registration fees and custody expenses. The Manager also has agreed to waive and/or reduce the Fund's management fees and shareholder service fees to the extent necessary to offset the management fees and shareholder service fees directly or indirectly paid to the Manager as a result of the Fund's direct or indirect investments in other GMO Funds. Management fees and shareholder service fees will not be waived below zero. These waivers and reimbursements will continue through at least June 30, 2013, and may not be terminated prior to this date without the action or consent of the Fund's Board of Trustees.
[2] Total annual operating expenses after expense reimbursement/waiver (Fund and underlying fund expenses)
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated, regardless of whether or not you redeem your shares at the end of such periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same as those shown in the table. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example - (USD $)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
GMO Trust GMO Currency Hedged International Equity Fund Class III
72 [1] 366 682 1,578
[1] After reimbursement
Portfolio turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities. 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 its fiscal year ended February 29, 2012, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate (excluding short-term investments) was 24% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal investment strategies
The Fund is a fund of funds and invests primarily in other GMO Funds. The Fund may invest in International Core Equity Fund, International Intrinsic Value Fund, International Large/Mid Cap Value Fund, International Growth Equity Fund, International Small Companies Fund, Asset Allocation International Small Companies Fund, and Flexible Equities Fund (collectively, the “underlying Funds”) and may invest in securities directly.

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests directly and indirectly (through investment in the underlying Funds) at least 80% of its assets in equity investments (see “Name Policies”). The term “equity investments” refers to direct and indirect investments in common stocks and other stock-related securities, such as preferred stocks, convertible securities, depositary receipts, and exchange-traded equity REITs and income trusts.

The Manager uses multi-year forecasts of returns and risk among major sectors in the international equity markets (e.g., large-cap value, large-cap growth, large-cap core, small- and mid-cap value and small- and mid-cap growth) to select the underlying Funds and decide how much to invest in each. An important component of those forecasts is the expectation that valuation reversion ultimately drives market returns. The Manager shifts investments among the underlying Funds in response to changes in its investment outlook and market valuations and may use redemptions or purchases of Fund shares to rebalance the Fund’s investments.

The Manager assesses the currency exposure of the underlying Funds’ holdings and then attempts to hedge at least 70% of that exposure relative to the U.S. dollar through the use of currency forwards and other derivatives. While the Fund’s benchmark is fully hedged, the Fund may take active overweighted and underweighted positions in particular currencies relative to its benchmark.

For cash management purposes, the Fund may invest in U.S. Treasury Fund and unaffiliated money market funds. The Fund also may lend its portfolio securities.
Principal risks of investing in the Fund
The value of the Fund’s shares changes with the value of the Fund’s investments. Many factors can affect this value, and you may lose money by investing in the Fund. References to investments include those held directly by the Fund and indirectly through the Fund’s investments in the underlying Funds. The Fund and some of the underlying Funds are non-diversified investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and therefore a decline in the market value of a particular security held by the Fund or an underlying Fund may affect the Fund’s or the underlying Fund’s performance more than if the Fund or underlying Fund were a diversified investment company. The principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below. For a more complete discussion of these risks, including those risks to which the Fund is exposed as a result of its investments in the underlying Funds, see “Description of Principal Risks.”
  • Market Risk – Equity Securities – The market price of equity investments may decline due to factors affecting the issuing companies, their industries, or the economy and equity markets generally. If the Fund or an underlying Fund purchases equity investments at a discount from their value as determined by the Manager, the Fund runs the risk that the market prices of these investments will not appreciate to or decline from that value for a variety of reasons, one of which may be the Manager’s overestimation of the value of those investments. The Fund or an underlying Fund also may purchase equity investments that typically trade at higher multiples of current earnings than other securities, and the market prices of these investments often are more sensitive to changes in future earnings expectations than those other securities. Because the Fund and the underlying Funds normally do not take temporary defensive positions, declines in stock market prices generally are likely to reduce the net asset value of the Fund’s shares.
  • Management and Operational Risk – The Fund runs the risk that GMO’s investment techniques will fail to produce desired results. The Fund’s portfolio managers may use quantitative analyses and models, and any imperfections or limitations in those analyses and models could affect the ability of the portfolio managers to implement the strategies they wish to pursue. By necessity, these analyses and models make simplifying assumptions that limit their efficacy. Models that appear to explain prior market data can fail to predict future market events. Further, the data used in models may be inaccurate and may not include the most recent information about a company or a security. The Fund also runs the risk that GMO’s fundamental assessment of an investment may be wrong or that deficiencies in GMO’s or another service provider’s internal systems or controls will cause losses for the Fund or impair Fund operations.
  • Non-U.S. Investment Risk – The market prices of many non-U.S. securities fluctuate more than those of U.S. securities. Many non-U.S. markets are less stable, smaller, less liquid, and less regulated than U.S. markets, and the cost of trading in those markets often is higher than in U.S. markets. Non-U.S. portfolio transactions generally involve higher commission rates, transfer taxes, and custodial costs than similar transactions in the U.S. In addition, the Fund may be subject to non-U.S. taxes, including potentially on a retroactive basis, on (i) capital gains it realizes or dividends or interest it receives on non-U.S. securities, (ii) transactions in those securities and (iii) the repatriation of proceeds generated from the sale of those securities. Also, many non-U.S. markets require a license for the Fund to invest directly in those markets, and the Fund is subject to the risk that it could not invest if its license were terminated or suspended. In some non-U.S. markets, prevailing custody and trade settlement practices (e.g., the requirement to pay for securities prior to receipt) expose the Fund to credit and other risks with respect to participating brokers, custodians, clearing banks or other clearing agents, escrow agents and issuers. Further, adverse changes in investment regulations, capital requirements or exchange controls could adversely affect the value of the Fund’s investments.
  • Derivatives Risk – The use of derivatives involves the risk that their value may not move as expected relative to the value of the relevant underlying assets, rates, or indices. Derivatives also present other risks, including market risk, liquidity risk, currency risk and counterparty risk.
  • Fund of Funds Risk – The Fund is indirectly exposed to all of the risks of an investment in the underlying Funds in which it invests, including the risk that those Funds will not perform as expected. Because the Fund bears the fees and expenses of the underlying Funds in which it invests, a reallocation of the Fund’s investments to underlying Funds with higher fees or expenses will increase the Fund’s total expenses. The fees and expenses associated with an investment in the Fund are less predictable than those associated with an investment in funds that charge a fixed management fee.
  • Liquidity Risk – Low trading volume, lack of a market maker, large position size, or legal restrictions may limit or prevent the Fund from selling particular securities or unwinding derivative positions at desirable prices.
  • Smaller Company Risk – Smaller companies may have limited product lines, markets, or financial resources, may lack the competitive strength of larger companies, or may lack managers with experience or depend on a few key employees. The securities of small- and mid-cap companies often are less widely held and trade less frequently and in lesser quantities, and their market prices often fluctuate more, than the securities of companies with larger market capitalizations.
  • Counterparty Risk – The Fund runs the risk that the counterparty to an over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives contract or a borrower of the Fund’s securities will be unable or unwilling to make timely settlement payments or otherwise honor its obligations.
  • Currency Risk – Fluctuations in exchange rates can adversely affect the market value of the Fund’s non-U.S. currency holdings and investments denominated in non-U.S. currencies. In addition, hedging a non-U.S. currency can have a negative effect on performance if the U.S. dollar declines in value relative to that currency.
  • Leveraging Risk – The use of derivatives and securities lending creates leverage. Leverage increases the magnitude of the Fund’s losses when the value of its investments (including derivatives) declines.
  • Market Disruption and Geopolitical Risk – Geopolitical and other events may disrupt securities markets and adversely affect global economies and markets. Those events, as well as other changes in non-U.S. and U.S. economic and political conditions, could adversely affect the value of the Fund’s investments.
  • Focused Investment Risk – Focusing investments in countries, regions, sectors, companies, or industries with high positive correlations to one another creates more risk than if the Fund’s investments were less correlated.
  • Large Shareholder Risk – To the extent that a large number of shares of the Fund is held by a single shareholder (e.g., an institutional investor or another GMO Fund) or a group of shareholders with a common investment strategy (e.g., GMO asset allocation accounts), the Fund is subject to the risk that a redemption by those shareholders of all or a large portion of their Fund shares will disrupt the Fund’s operations.
Performance
The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s annual total returns from year to year for the periods indicated and by comparing the Fund’s average annual total returns for different calendar periods with those of the Fund’s benchmark and an additional broad-based international stock index selected by the Manager. After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest 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. After-tax returns shown are not relevant if you are tax-exempt or if you hold your Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements (such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account). Past performance (before and after taxes) is not an indication of future performance.
Annual Total Returns/Class III Shares
Years Ending December 31
Bar Chart
Highest Quarter: 16.08% (2Q2003)
Lowest Quarter: –15.63% (3Q2002)
Year-to-Date (as of 3/31/12): 7.44%
Average Annual Total Returns
Periods Ending December 31, 2011
Average Annual Total Returns - GMO Trust GMO Currency Hedged International Equity Fund
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Incept.
Inception Date
Class III
(9.68%) (4.64%) 3.61% 6.51% Jun. 30, 1995
Return After Taxes on Distributions Class III
(9.89%) (7.23%) 1.15% 2.69% Jun. 30, 1995
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares Class III
(5.78%) (4.08%) 2.86% 4.00% Jun. 30, 1995
MSCI EAFE Index (Hedged) (Fund benchmark) (returns reflect no deduction for fees or expenses, but are net of withholding tax on dividend reinvestments) Class III
(12.10%) (5.85%) 1.04% 4.78% Jun. 30, 1995
MSCI EAFE Index (returns reflect no deduction for fees or expenses, but are net of withholding tax on dividend reinvestments) Class III
(12.14%) (4.72%) 4.67% 3.95% Jun. 30, 1995