| GUGGENHEIM FUNDS TRUST Class R6 | Guggenheim Diversified Income Fund | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Guggenheim Diversified Income Fund | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Guggenheim Diversified Income Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to achieve high current income with consideration for capital appreciation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 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. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although the actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs (whether or not you redeem your shares at the end of the given period) would be: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The above Example reflects applicable contractual fee waiver/expense reimbursement arrangements for the current duration of the arrangements only. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 44% of the average value of its portfolio. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Fund intends to pursue its investment objective by constructing a broadly diversified global portfolio with exposure across multiple high-income asset classes that provide an opportunity for growth. The Fund seeks diversification by investing primarily in asset classes that Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, LLC (the “Investment Manager”) believes provide exposure to different geographic regions, different positions in issuers’ capital structures and different investment styles. To achieve its intended portfolio, the Investment Manager allocates the Fund’s assets among multiple underlying investment strategies, primarily high-income credit and equity strategies. The Fund may indirectly obtain exposure to these asset classes, and pursue its investment objective, by investing significantly in affiliated and unaffiliated investment vehicles, including other investment companies managed by the Investment Manager or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to provide broad exposure to high-income asset classes while incorporating elements of both strategic and tactical allocation. The Investment Manager sets target weightings for the Fund’s allocations, which it reviews and changes regularly and rebalances as needed, to accomplish a mix that the Investment Manager believes will maximize the Fund’s risk-adjusted yield in a given market while satisfying the Fund’s investment objective. Although the Fund is not constrained by fixed allocation proportions, the Fund anticipates that over the long term the fixed-income component will represent a greater portion of the Fund's portfolio than the equity component. However, the Fund's allocations may vary significantly from time to time based on the Investment Manager’s view of income generation, risk/return analysis, relative value and market conditions, and, during certain periods, the Fund may invest up to 100% of its assets in either fixed-income instruments or equity securities. Although the Fund will principally invest in securities listed, traded or dealt in developed markets countries, it may also invest without limitation in securities listed, traded or dealt in other countries, including emerging markets countries (such as sovereign debt securities and Eurodollar bonds and obligations). Such securities may be denominated in foreign currencies. The Fund invests directly or through investment vehicles in a diverse portfolio of fixed-income instruments of any maturity and duration with a bias towards instruments that the Investment Manager believes offer higher yields. The Fund’s income-oriented fixed-income investments may be represented by a broad range of investment grade and high-yield bonds, bank loans, asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds and risk-linked securities (often referred to as event-linked bonds or catastrophe or insurance-linked bonds). The Fund may hold fixed-income instruments of any quality, rated or unrated, including, those that are rated below investment grade, or if unrated, determined to be of comparable quality (also known as “high yield securities” or “junk bonds”). These may include instruments that are in default at the time of purchase. If nationally recognized statistical rating organizations assign different ratings to the same security, the Fund will use the higher rating for purposes of determining the security’s credit quality. The Investment Manager uses a process for selecting instruments for purchase and sale that is based on intensive credit research and involves extensive due diligence and relative valuation based on each issuer, region and sector. The Investment Manager also considers macroeconomic outlook and geopolitical issues. The Fund also invests directly or through investment vehicles in a diverse portfolio of high-income equity securities, which include common and preferred stocks, issued by issuers of any market capitalization. To reduce volatility and mitigate drawdown (or the decrease in value of investments from their peak), the Investment Manager seeks high dividend yields based on a well-diversified portfolio comprised of securities with demonstrated historically low volatility in their returns that are issued by companies that the Investment Manager believes exhibit stable earnings. In addition, the Fund may invest directly or through investment vehicles in a diversified portfolio of real estate investment trusts (“REITs”), with an emphasis on REITs with higher yields. The Investment Manager uses a top-down approach to analyze relative value and risk and identify attractive geographic regions and property sectors combined with a bottom-up approach to individual security selection. The Fund may invest in instruments issued by issuers that are engaged in or related to the infrastructure group of industries. The Fund may invest in closed-end funds to, among other things, obtain exposure on the basis of qualitative features and quantitative measures to high-income domestic and foreign master limited partnerships ("MLPs") that are generally in energy-related industries. The Fund may also invest in closed-end funds to seek to exploit perceived pricing dislocations that the Investment Manager believes have the potential to narrow in the near term. The Fund may seek certain exposures through derivative transactions, principally swaps, options, forward contracts, futures and Eurodollar futures (some of these instruments may be traded in the over-the-counter market). The Fund may engage in derivative transactions to seek to hedge against fluctuations in securities prices, interest rates or currency rates, to manage the Fund’s aggregate exposure to the equity markets and to manage other investment risks. The Investment Manager may determine to sell a security for several reasons, including the following: (1) to adjust the portfolio’s average maturity, or to shift assets into or out of higher-yielding securities; (2) if a security’s credit rating has been changed or for other credit reasons; (3) to meet redemption requests; (4) to take gains; or (5) due to relative value. Under adverse or unstable market conditions or abnormal circumstances (for example, in the event of credit events, where it is deemed opportune to preserve gains, or to preserve the relative value of investments or in the case of large cash inflows or anticipated large redemptions), the Fund can make temporary investments and may not be able to pursue or achieve its investment objective. The Fund will primarily invest in affiliated and unaffiliated investment vehicles to achieve its investment objective until it is sufficiently large to invest in securities directly in an efficient manner, at which time the Fund may continue to invest significantly in affiliated and unaffiliated investment vehicles. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PRINCIPAL RISKS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The value of an investment in the Fund will fluctuate and is subject to investment risks, which means investors could lose money. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC or any governmental agency. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below. Allocation Risk—The ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective depends, in part, on the ability of the Investment Manager to allocate effectively the Fund’s assets among multiple investment strategies, underlying funds and asset classes. There can be no assurance that the actual allocations will be effective in achieving the Fund’s investment objective or that an investment strategy or underlying fund will achieve its particular investment objective. Asset-Backed Securities Risk—Investors in asset-backed securities, including residential mortgage-backed securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities and other structured finance investments, generally receive payments that are part interest and part return of principal. These payments may vary based on the rate at which the underlying borrowers pay off their loans. Some asset-backed securities, including mortgage-backed securities, may have structures that make their reaction to interest rates and other factors difficult to predict, causing their prices to be volatile. These instruments are particularly subject to interest rate, credit and liquidity and valuation risks. Capitalization Securities Risk—The Fund may have significant exposure to securities in a particular capitalization range, e.g., large-, mid- or small-cap securities. As a result, the Fund may be subject to the risk that the pre-dominate capitalization range may underperform other segments of the equity market or the equity market as a whole. Counterparty Credit Risk—The Fund makes investments in financial instruments and over-the-counter ("OTC")-traded derivatives involving counterparties to gain exposure to a particular group of securities, index, asset class or other reference asset without actually purchasing those securities or investments, or to hedge a position. Through these investments, the Fund is exposed to credit risks that the counterparty may be unwilling or unable to make timely payments to meet its contractual obligations. If the counterparty becomes bankrupt or defaults on (or otherwise becomes unable or unwilling to perform) its payment obligations to the Fund, the Fund may not receive the full amount that it is entitled to receive or may experience delays in recovering the collateral held by, or on behalf of, the counterparty. If this occurs, the value of your shares in the Fund will decrease. Credit Risk—The Fund could lose money if the issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income instrument or a counterparty to a derivatives transaction or other transaction is unable or unwilling, or perceived to be unable or unwilling, to pay interest or repay principal on time or defaults. The issuer, guarantor or counterparty could also suffer a rapid decrease in credit quality rating, which would adversely affect the volatility of the value and liquidity of the instrument. Credit ratings may not be an accurate assessment of liquidity or credit risk. Derivatives Risk—Derivatives may pose risks in addition to and greater than those associated with investing directly in securities, currencies or other investments, including risks relating to leverage, imperfect correlations with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, high price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty credit, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions. Their use is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. If the Investment Manager is incorrect about its expectations of market conditions, the use of derivatives could also result in a loss, which in some cases may be unlimited. In addition, the Fund’s use of derivatives may cause the Fund to realize higher amounts of short term capital gains (generally taxed at ordinary income tax rates) than if the Fund had not used such instruments. Some of the derivatives in which the Fund invests may be traded (and privately negotiated) in the OTC market. OTC derivatives are subject to heightened credit, liquidity and valuation risks. Certain risks also are specific to the derivatives in which the Fund invests. Emerging Markets Risk—Investments in or exposure to emerging markets are generally subject to a greater level of those risks associated with investing in or being exposed to developed foreign markets, as emerging markets are considered to be less developed than developing countries. Furthermore, investments in or exposure to emerging markets are generally subject to additional risks, including the risks associated with trading in smaller markets, lower volumes of trading, and being subject to lower levels of government regulation and less extensive accounting, financial and other reporting requirements. Equity Securities Risk—Equity securities include common stocks and other equity and equity-related securities (and securities convertible into stocks). The prices of equity securities generally fluctuate in value more than fixed-income investments, may rise or fall rapidly or unpredictably and may reflect real or perceived changes in the issuing company’s financial condition and changes in the overall market or economy. A decline in the value of equity securities held by the Fund will adversely affect the value of your investment in the Fund. Common stocks generally represent the riskiest investment in a company and dividend payments (if declared) to preferred stockholders generally rank junior to payments due to a company’s debtholders. The Fund may lose a substantial part, or even all, of its investment in a company’s stock. Extension Risk—During periods of rising interest rates, an issuer may exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation later than expected, resulting in a decrease in the value of the obligation and in a decline in the Fund's income. Foreign Securities and Currency Risk—Foreign securities carry unique or additional risks when compared to U.S. securities, including currency fluctuations, adverse political and economic developments, unreliable or untimely information, less liquidity and more volatility, limited legal recourse and higher transactional costs. High Yield and Unrated Securities Risk—High yield, below investment grade and unrated high risk debt securities (which also may be known as "junk bonds") may present additional risks because these securities may be less liquid, and therefore more difficult to value accurately and sell at an advantageous price or time, and present more credit risk than investment grade bonds. The price of high yield securities tends to be subject to greater volatility due to issuer-specific operating results and outlook and to real or perceived adverse economic and competitive industry conditions. This exposure may be obtained through investments in other investment companies. Income Risk—Income risk involves the potential for decline in the Fund’s yield (the rate of dividends the Fund pays) in the event of declining interest rates. Infrastructure Companies Risk—Securities and instruments of infrastructure companies are particularly susceptible to adverse economic or regulatory occurrences in their industries. Infrastructure companies may be subject to a variety of factors that may adversely affect their business or operations, including general or local economic conditions and political developments, changes in regulations, environmental problems and changes in interest rates. Interest Rate Risk—Investments in fixed-income instruments are subject to the possibility that interest rates could rise sharply, causing the value of the Fund’s holdings and share price to decline. Changes in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of the Fund's investments in fixed-income instruments. The risks associated with rising interest rates are heightened given the near historically low interest rate environment as of the date of this prospectus. Interest rates may continue to rise in the future, possibly suddenly and significantly, with unpredictable effects on the financial markets and the Fund’s investments. Fixed-income instruments with longer durations are subject to more volatility than those with shorter durations. Investment in Investment Vehicles Risk—Investing in other investment vehicles, including exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"), closed-end funds and other mutual funds, subjects the Fund to those risks affecting the investment vehicle, including the possibility that the value of the underlying securities held by the investment vehicle could decrease or the portfolio becomes illiquid. Moreover, the Fund and its shareholders will incur its pro rata share of the underlying vehicles’ expenses, which will reduce the Fund's performance. In addition, investments in an ETF are subject to, among other risks, the risk that the ETF's shares may trade at a discount or premium relative to the net asset value of the shares and the listing exchange may halt trading of the ETF's shares. Investment in Loans Risk—Investments in loans, including loan syndicates and other direct lending opportunities, involve special types of risks, including credit risk, interest rate risk, counterparty risk and prepayment risk. Loans may offer a fixed or floating interest rate. Loans are often generally below investment grade and may be unrated. The Fund’s investments in loans can also be difficult to value accurately and may be more susceptible to liquidity risk than fixed-income instruments of similar credit quality and/or maturity. The Fund is also subject to the risk that the value of the collateral for the loan may be insufficient or unavailable to cover the borrower’s obligations should the borrower fail to make payments or become insolvent. Participations in loans may subject the Fund to the credit risk of both the borrower and the issuer of the participation and may make enforcement of loan covenants, if any, more difficult for the Fund as legal action may have to go through the issuer of the participations. Transactions in loans are often subject to long settlement periods, thus potentially limiting the ability of the Fund to invest sale proceeds in other investments and to use proceeds to meet its current redemption obligations. Liquidity and Valuation Risk—It may be difficult for the Fund to purchase and sell particular investments within a reasonable time at a fair price, or the price at which it has been valued by the Investment Manager for purposes of the Fund’s net asset value, causing the Fund to be less liquid and unable to realize what the Investment Manager believes should be the price of the investment. Valuation of portfolio investments may be difficult, such as during periods of market turmoil or reduced liquidity, and for investments that may, for example, trade infrequently or irregularly. In these and other circumstances, an investment may be valued using fair value methodologies, which are inherently subjective, reflect good faith judgments based on available information and may not accurately estimate the price at which the Fund could sell the investment at that time. These risks may be heightened for fixed-income instruments because of the near historically low interest rate environment as of the date of this prospectus. Based on its investment strategies, a significant portion of the Fund's investments can be difficult to value and potentially less liquid and thus particularly prone to the foregoing risks. Management Risk—The Fund is actively managed, which means that investment decisions are made based on investment views. There is no guarantee that the investment views will produce the desired results or expected returns, causing the Fund to fail to meet its investment objective or underperform its benchmark index or funds with similar investment objectives and strategies. Furthermore, active and frequent trading that can accompany active management, also called “high turnover,” may have a negative impact on performance. Active and frequent trading may result in higher brokerage costs or mark-up charges, which are ultimately passed on to shareholders of the Fund. Active and frequent trading may also result in adverse tax consequences. Market Risk—The value of, or income generated by, the securities held by the Fund may fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably as a result of factors affecting individual companies or changing economic, political, social or financial market conditions throughout the world. The performance of these investments may underperform the general securities markets or other types of securities. Master Limited Partnerships Risk—Master limited partnerships ("MLPs") are subject to certain risks inherent in the structure of MLPs, including tax risks, limited control and voting rights and potential conflicts of interest. MLPs that concentrate in a particular industry or a particular geographic region are subject to risks associated with such industry or region. Securities issued by MLPs may experience limited trading volumes and, thus, may be relatively illiquid or volatile at times. As partnerships, MLPs may be subject to less regulation (and less protection for investors) under state laws than corporations. In addition, MLPs may be subject to state taxation in certain jurisdictions, which may reduce the amount of income an MLP pays to its investors. The Fund will invest no more than 25% of its total assets in securities of MLPs which are classified as partnerships that are treated as qualified publicly traded partnerships, for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Preferred Securities Risk—A company’s preferred stock generally pays dividends only after the company makes required payments to holders of its bonds and other debt. For this reason, the value of preferred stock will usually react more strongly than bonds and other debt to actual or perceived changes in the company’s financial condition or prospects. Prepayment Risk—Securities subject to prepayment risk generally offer less potential for gains when interest rates decline, because issuers of the securities may be able to prepay the principal due on the securities. These securities generally offer less potential for gains when interest rates decline and may offer a greater potential for loss when interest rates rise. Real Estate Securities Risk—The Fund may invest in securities of real estate companies and companies related to the real estate industry, including real estate investment trusts (“REITs”), which are subject to the same risks as direct investments in real estate. The real estate industry is particularly sensitive to economic downturns. Regulatory and Legal Risk—U.S. and non-U.S. governmental agencies and other regulators regularly implement additional regulations and legislators pass new laws that affect the investments held by the Fund, the strategies used by the Fund or the level of regulation or taxation applying to the Fund (such as regulations related to investments in derivatives and other transactions). These regulations and laws impact the investment strategies, performance, costs and operations of the Fund or taxation of shareholders. Risk-Linked Securities Risk—Risk-linked securities ("RLS"), often referred to as event-linked bonds or catastrophe or insurance-linked bonds, are debt obligations for which the return of principal and the payment of interest are contingent on the non-occurrence of a "trigger" event, such as a hurricane or an earthquake of a specific magnitude or other physical or weather-related phenomenon causing physical or economic loss. If the trigger event occurs, the Fund may lose a portion or all of its accrued interest and/or principal invested in the RLS. In addition to the risk of a triggering event, RLS are subject to other risks, including credit risk and adverse changes in regulatory or jurisdictional interpretations. Sovereign Debt Risk—The debt securities issued by sovereign entities may decline as a result of default or other adverse credit event resulting from a sovereign debtor's unwillingness or inability to repay principal and pay interest in a timely manner, which may be affected by a variety of factors, including its cash flow situation, the extent of its reserves, the availability of sufficient foreign exchange on the date a payment is due, the relative size of the debt service burden to the economy as a whole, the sovereign debtor's policy toward international lenders, and the political constraints to which a sovereign debtor may be subject. Sovereign debt risk is increased for emerging market issuers. Special Situations/Securities in Default Risk—Investments in the securities and debt of distressed issuers or issuers in default involve far greater risk than investing in issuers whose debt obligations are being met and whose debt trade at or close to its “par” or full value because the investments are highly speculative with respect to the issuer’s ability to make interest payments and/or to pay its principal obligations in full and/or on time. Tax Risk—The Fund’s investments and investment strategies, including investments in MLPs and certain investment vehicles, may be subject to special and complex federal income tax provisions that may adversely affect the Fund and its distributions to shareholders. Although the Fund intends to monitor its transactions and may make certain tax elections to mitigate the potential adverse effect of these provisions, there can be no assurance that the Fund will be eligible for any such tax elections or that any adverse effects of these provisions will be mitigated. Moreover, the tax treatment of income, gains and losses attributable to certain investments and derivatives transactions engaged in by the Fund, such as transactions in MLP interests, as well as various other special tax rules applicable to certain financial transactions and financial instruments could affect the amount, timing and character of the Fund’s distributions. In some cases, these tax rules could also result in a retroactive change in the tax character of prior distributions, and may possibly cause all, or a portion, of prior distributions to be reclassified as returns of capital for tax purposes. See “Dividends and Taxes,” below. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PERFORMANCE INFORMATION | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The following chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Because Class R6 shares had not commenced operations as of the date of this Prospectus, the following chart and table show the Fund’s Institutional Class share calendar year performance for one year and average annual returns for the one year and since inception periods for the Fund's Institutional Class shares compared to those of a broad measure of market performance. Class R6 shares and Institutional Class shares of the Fund would have substantially similar performance because they invest in the same portfolio of securities. However, the performance of Class R6 shares would be higher than Institutional Class shares to the extent Class R6 shares pay lower expenses than Institutional Class shares. As with all mutual funds, past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available on the Fund’s website at www.guggenheiminvestments.com or by calling 800.820.0888. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS(for the periods ended December 31, 2017) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After-tax returns shown in the table are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of any state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts ("IRAs"). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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