WisdomTree
CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund – PUTW (NYSE Arca)
Summary Prospectus
– January 1, 2019
Before you invest in the Fund, as defined below, you may want
to review the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information (“SAI”), which contain more information about the Fund and the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s current prospectus and SAI are incorporated by
reference into this summary prospectus. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and SAI, as well as other information about the Fund, online at www.wisdomtree.com/resource-library/prospectus-regulatory-reports. You may also obtain this information
at no charge by calling 1-866-909-9473 or by sending an e-mail request to getinfo@wisdomtree.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Beginning on January 1, 2021, as permitted by
regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, paper copies of the WisdomTree Funds' annual and semi-annual shareholder reports will no longer be sent by mail, unless you specifically request paper copies of the reports. Instead,
annual and semi-annual shareholder reports will be available on the WisdomTree Funds' website (www.wisdomtree.com), and you will be notified by mail each time a report is posted and provided with a website link to access the report.
If you already elected to receive shareholder reports
electronically, you will not be affected by this change and you need not take any action. You may elect to receive shareholder reports and other communications from a Fund electronically anytime by contacting your financial intermediary (such as a
broker-dealer or bank).
Beginning on January 1, 2019,
you may elect to receive all future reports in paper free of charge. Please contact your financial intermediary to request to continue receiving paper copies of your shareholder reports. Your election to receive reports in paper will apply to all
funds held in your account.
Investment Objective
The WisdomTree CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund (the
“Fund”) seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Index (the “Index”).
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy
and hold shares of the Fund. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
| Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) | None |
| Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | |
| Management Fees | 0.44% |
| Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | None |
| Other Expenses | 0.00% |
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.44% |
| Fee Waivers | (0.06)% 1 |
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers | 0.38% 1 |
| 1 | WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. has contractually agreed to limit the Management Fee to 0.38% through December 31, 2019, unless earlier terminated by the Board of Trustees of WisdomTree Trust for any reason at any time. |
Example
The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost
of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may
pay
WisdomTree
Trust Prospectus 1
to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher
or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
| $ 39 | $ 135 | $ 240 | $ 549 |
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, there was no portfolio turnover rate for the Fund since the Fund invested in short-term securities with maturities less than
or equal to 365 days, which are excluded from portfolio turnover calculations.
Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The
Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return, and other
characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have
economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index tracks the value of a cash-secured (i.e., collateralized) put option sales strategy, which consists of selling (or “writing”) S&P 500 Index put options (“SPX Puts”) and investing the sale proceeds in one- and three-month
Treasury bills. By selling a SPX Put, the Fund receives a premium from the option buyer, which increases the Fund’s return if the option is not exercised and expires worthless. If, however, the value of the S&P 500 Index falls below the
SPX Put’s strike price, the option finishes “in-the-money” and the Fund pays the buyer the difference between the strike price and the value of the S&P 500 Index. The Index’s strategy (and, accordingly, the Fund’s
strategy) of selling cash-secured SPX Puts serves to partially offset a decline in the value of the S&P 500 Index to the extent of the premiums received. Further, if the value of the S&P 500 Index increases beyond the amount of premiums
received, Index (and Fund) returns would not be expected to increase accordingly.
All SPX Puts are standardized options traded on the Chicago
Board Options Exchange (“CBOE”). The SPX Puts in the Index are struck at-the-money (i.e., struck at or very near the S&P 500 Index value) and are sold on a monthly basis, usually the third
Friday of the month (the “Roll Date”), which matches the expiration date of the SPX Puts. SPX Puts generally may only be exercised at the expiration date, which is referred to as a European style option. The number of SPX Puts sold by
the Fund varies month to month but is limited by the amount held by the Fund in Treasury bills, the value of which is expected to equal the maximum possible loss from final settlement of the SPX Puts. At each Roll Date, any settlement loss from the
expiring SPX Puts is paid from the Treasury bill investments and a new batch of at-the-money SPX Puts is sold. The revenue from their sale is added to the Treasury bill account. In March quarterly cycle months
(i.e., March, June, September, and December), the three-month Treasury bills are deemed to mature, and so the total cash available is reinvested at the three- month Treasury bill rate. In other months, the
revenue from the sale of SPX Puts is invested separately at the one-month Treasury bill rate. The Fund expects to operate in a similar manner as the foregoing Index description in seeking to track the Index.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. The Fund is subject to the
risks described below. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of
investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”
| ■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to investment risk. Investors in the Fund could lose money, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
| 2 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
| ■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of equity securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. |
| ■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
| ■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
| ■ | Cyber Security Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cyber security, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cyber security, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants, or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. |
| ■ | Derivatives Risk. The Fund invests in derivatives, including SPX Puts. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their performance from an underlying reference asset, such as an index. The return on a derivative instrument may not correlate with the return of its underlying reference asset. Derivatives are subject to a number of risks described elsewhere in the Fund’s Prospectus, such as market risk and issuer-specific risk. Derivatives can be volatile and may be less liquid than other securities. As a result, the value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning and you may lose money. |
| ■ | Implied Volatility Risk. Upon selling a SPX Put, the Fund gains the amount of premium it receives; however, the Fund also incurs a liability that represents the value of the SPX Put it has sold until the SPX Put is exercised or expires. The value of the SPX Puts in which the Fund invests is partly based on the volatility used by market participants to price such options (i.e., implied volatility). Consequently, increases in the implied volatility of the SPX Puts will cause the value of such options to increase (even if the prices of the S&P 500 stocks do not change), which will result in a corresponding increase in the liabilities of the Fund under the SPX Puts and thus decrease the Fund’s NAV. The Fund is therefore exposed to implied volatility risk before the SPX Puts expire or are struck at-the-money. The implied volatility of the SPX Puts sold by the Fund may increase due to general market and economic conditions, perceptions regarding the industries in which the issuers of S&P stocks participate or factors relating to specific S&P companies. |
| ■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
| ■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
| ■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
| WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 3 |
| ■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. |
| ■ | Non-Diversification Risk. Although the Fund intends to invest in SPX Puts, which are valued based on stocks in the S&P Index, and Treasury bills, the Fund will be considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. As a result, the Fund may be more exposed to the risks associated with and developments affecting an individual issuer or a smaller number of issuers than a fund that invests more widely. This may increase the Fund’s volatility and cause the performance of a relatively smaller number of issuers to have a greater impact on the Fund’s performance. |
| ■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund will pay transaction costs, such as commissions or mark-ups in the bid/offer spread on SPX Puts, when it writes options on the Roll Date. Because the Fund “turns over” its SPX Puts every month in this fashion, the Fund will incur high levels of transaction costs. While the turnover of the SPX Put positions is not deemed “portfolio turnover” for accounting purposes, the economic impact to the Fund is similar to what could occur if the Fund experienced high portfolio turnover (e.g., in excess of 100% per year). |
| ■ | Put Option Risk. Options may be subject to volatile swings in price influenced by changes in the value of the underlying instrument. The SPX Puts sold by the Fund may have imperfect correlation to the returns of the Index. Although the Fund collects premiums on the options it writes, the Fund’s risk of loss if its options expire in-the-money (i.e., the Fund, as the seller of the SPX Puts, owes the buyer of the SPX Puts) may outweigh the gains to the Fund from the receipt of such option premiums. The potential return to the Fund is limited to the amount of option premiums it receives; however, the Fund can potentially lose up to the entire strike price of each option it sells. |
Fund Performance
Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an
indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s
average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to the Index and that of a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses
or taxes. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the
Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund’s
year-to-date total return as of September 30, 2018 was 5.37%.
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in
the bar chart above)
| Return | Quarter/Year | |
| Highest Return | 3.56% | 1Q/2017 |
| Lowest Return | 1.59% | 3Q/2017 |
After-tax returns are calculated
using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold
your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at
the end of the measurement period.
| 4 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
Average Annual Total Returns for the periods ending December
31, 2017
| WisdomTree CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Strategy Fund | 1 Year | Since
Inception February 24, 2016 |
| Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | 10.29% | 11.59% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions | 9.08% | 10.50% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | 6.24% | 8.62% |
| CBOE S&P 500 PutWrite Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 10.85% | 12.23% |
| S&P 500 Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 21.83% | 21.82% |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management”
or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Global Tactical Asset Allocation
Strategies Portfolio Management team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
Vassilis Dagioglu, a Managing Director, Head of Asset
Allocation Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in February 2016.
James Stavena, a Managing Director, Asset Allocation Portfolio
Management Team Leader, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception in February 2016.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that shares of the Fund are listed on a
national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and trade at market prices. Most investors will buy and sell shares of the Fund through brokers. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than
NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
The Fund
issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. Currently, Creation Units
generally consist of 50,000 shares, though this may change from time to time. Creation Units are not expected to consist of less than 25,000 shares. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S.
cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income
or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other
Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a
broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities
that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares.
These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the
Intermediary’s website for more information.
| WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 5 |
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