Below are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about iShares products and our website. If you have a question that isn't addressed here or have additional questions or comments, please contact us.

Q. How can I buy shares of iShares ETFs?

A. Shares of iShares ETFs can be bought and sold during normal trading hours through your broker or trading platform. To trade iShares ETFs, you can use any online, discount or full-service brokerage account. Your broker/dealer will likely charge their usual commissions or fees. (hide answer)

Q. What exchanges are iShares traded on?

A. iShares ETFs are traded on BATS Exchange, BATS Y-Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, EDGA Exchange (Direct Edge A), EDGX Exchange (Direct Edge X), NASDAQ Stock Market, and NYSE Arca. (hide answer)

Q. What exchanges are iShares ETFs listed on?

A. iShares ETFs are listed on BATS Exchange, NASDAQ Stock Market, and NYSE Arca. (hide answer)

Q. How and when are iShares ETFs traded?

A. They can be traded anytime during normal market trading hours, using all the trading strategies associated with stocks (market, limit and stop orders, for example). Certain iShares ETFs also have unlisted trading privileges outside of their primary exchange. All iShares ETFs are book entry, held only in the Depository Trust Company (DTC). (hide answer)

Q. How can I tell if there are options available on certain iShares ETFs?

A. There are a few ways that you can tell which iShares ETFs have options available for trading.

• If options are available on a specific fund, there will be the words "Options Available" at the bottom of the "Trading Information" section on the "Product Overview" page.
• The "Options Available" label links to another page which shows a list of all iShares ETFs which have options available
• On our product list, any fund which has an "*" next to the Ticker Symbol has options available on it.

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Q. Why do some iShares ETFs not have options trading available on them?

A. Decisions on the availability of options rest with the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE), not with iShares. (hide answer)

Q. Do you offer a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP)?

A. No. Investors interested in a DRP should inquire with their broker/dealer to see if they offer one. (hide answer)

Returns (top)

Q. When is performance data available on iShares.com?

A. Performance data is released on the 2nd business day of the month/quarter. (hide answer)

Q. What is the difference between total return and market price return?

A. Total return represents changes to the NAV and accounts for distributions from the fund. Market price return also includes the fund distributions, but instead of NAV, the midpoint price is used. The midpoint is the average of the bid-ask prices at 4:00 PM ET (when NAV is normally determined for most iShares ETFs).

(Index total returns are calculated by determining the percent difference in index level from one period to the other. Total return index levels are used for this purpose.)(hide answer)

Q. Why does an external data provider have different performance numbers than what's listed on iShares.com?

A. Because external sources may be using a different return time period or return type (price vs. total).

iShares.com uses the NAV to calculate the total return values and the midpoint market prices to calculate market price return. Both the total return and market price return are adjusted for distributions.

Performance numbers on Bloomberg, on the other hand, are calculated using the midpoint price of bid/ask, not NAV, and are based on the previous day's data. For example, Bloomberg's midpoint on the 2nd of the month is actually the midpoint from the 1st. If one is using a Bloomberg terminal on the 2nd, they will see a midpoint before market close because it is the midpoint of the previous day. (hide answer)

Q. Where is the closing price on the fund overview page derived from?

A. The closing price listed on the overview page is the primary closing price on the main exchange that the product trades on. If other external sources derive their closing from other sources, there may be small price discrepancies. (hide answer)

Yield & Distributions (top)

Q. Why doesn't iShares.com display the distribution yield for most equity funds?

A. We only display the distribution yield for equity funds managed to track both the total return and the yield of the benchmark index. Currently, that's five funds: IYR, IDU, DVY, IDV and ICF. The yield from these funds is relevant to investors interested in equity income or real estate investing. All other equity iShares Funds are managed to match the total return of the benchmark index, but not necessarily to match the dividend portion of the total return.

In addition, the movement of money in and out of the funds can also cause distributions to fluctuate significantly from one quarter to the next. The potential volatility in distribution yields and the objective of the funds to benchmark the total return as an aggregate means the distribution yield for most equity iShares Funds is not a very useful factor in selecting one fund versus another. (hide answer)

Q. How is the 30-day SEC yield different from the distribution yield?

A. Whereas the distribution yield is an average (the annualized amount of dividends paid/NAV), SEC yield reflects the income earned by the fund during the most recent 30-day period, minus the fund's expenses for that period. Based on the calculation the SEC yield can be skewed by price changes experienced as a percent of NAV and changes in AUM. It is also possible for the yield to be negative at times (for example, if the fund earns no income but incurs expenses).

Distribution yield is what analysts and investors most often look at, however due to the operation of the funds this value can fluctuate depending on the number of a fund's shares outstanding. For example, if the fund has a small amount of shares outstanding at the beginning of the quarter and receives most of its dividends from the underlying companies early in the quarter, as the quarter moves on and the fund's shares outstanding doubles it now has to pay out dividends to all holders of the fund even though it has received dividends for a smaller number of shares held from earlier in the quarter.

Finally, it is important to recognize that both yields can be influenced by changes in the fund's NAV. (hide answer)

Q. Why do the distribution yield and SEC 30-day yield differ so much from the dividend yield?

A. The distribution yield and SEC yield use the most recent distribution as a representation of the expectation for distributions going forward, while the trailing dividend yield uses the sum of the trailing twelve month distributions — which could be much more or less than the most recent distribution. Additionally, the SEC yield adjusts for fund expenses, which neither the distribution nor trailing dividend yield take into account. (hide answer)

Q. Why does the yield of a fund differ between sources?

A. There are many reasons a yield may be different, oftentimes because each source displays a different type of yield.

For example, the Yahoo! Finance site displays a Trailing Twelve Month Yield as of a specific date, using the last twelve months of fund distributions and the price for the "as of" date.

Instead of a trailing twelve month yield, iShares displays two flavors of yield:

1. The distribution yield, which annualizes the most recent distribution to produce a number that represents the annual yield as a percent of the NAV if the distribution remains the same going forward.
2. The 30-day SEC yield, which like the distribution yield also uses the latest fund distribution but also takes into account fund expenses. (This is a standardized calculation required by the SEC for all funds.)

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Q. Why is the 30-day SEC yield negative?

A. The 30-day SEC yield will be negative in the rare instance that the fund's expenses are higher than the amount of interest earned during the period. This is because the SEC yield represents the net investment income earned by a fund over a 30-day period and reflects the interest earned during the period after deducting the fund's expenses for the period. (hide answer)

Q. Why are distribution details (S.T. & L.T. Capital Gains, Income, Return of Capital) not displayed for the current year?

A. Since we only have estimates for these values, you see a "-" in these fields. iShares doesn't populate these data points until January 31st of the year following the ex-date. In previous years, the zeroes you see for these data points are the actual values. (hide answer)

Q. Where do I find historical yields and distributions for each fund?

A. The historical yields and distributions for all iShares funds are located here. (hide answer)

Q. On fixed income ETFs, what is the average yield to maturity?

A. Yield to Maturity (YTM) is the discount rate that equates the present value of a bond's cash flows with its market price (including accrued interest). The Fund Average YTM is the weighted average of the fund's individual bonds holdings' YTMs based upon Net Asset Value ("NAV"). The measure does not include fees and expenses. (hide answer)

Market Capitalization (top)

Q. Why is the market capitalization of an index holding less than the actual market capitalization of the constituent?

A. Because each index provider has their own methodology and float adjustment period for when changes to a constituent are included in the index, there is sometimes a discrepancy with market capitalization values. For example, the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index® adjusts constituent shares' outstanding values on a quarterly basis unless the change represents greater than 5% of the total shares outstanding. (hide answer)

Q. Why is the index average market cap different from the index providers' published value?

A. The iShares.com average market capitalization is a simple average of the constituents' market caps. However, some vendors calculate a weighted average of the constituent market capitalizations. (hide answer)

Q. Why doesn't iShares show market capitalization data for all of its funds?

A. For many funds, including sector ETFs and non-equity funds, market capitalization data isn't a relevant data point, so we do not include it. (hide answer)

Ratios (top)

Q. What is the Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio?

A. The P/E ratio is the ratio of the price per share over the earnings per share of the fund. (hide answer)

Q. What is the Price to Book (P/B) Ratio?

A. The P/B ratio is the ratio of the price per share over the book value per share of the fund. (hide answer)

Q. Why is the P/E or P/B ratio for a fund missing?

A. The P/E or P/B could be missing because 1) the fund is newer than 12 months, the fund is heavily weighted in preferred securities, or 3) the fund is a fixed income fund.

The P/E and P/B ratios are calculated based on a trailing twelve month methodology, so any fund launched within the last 12 months will not have the data.

Our calculation methodology also requires 80% coverage of the fund holdings in order to create the ratios. So, certain funds that are heavily weighted in preferred securities, such as the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund, don't display the ratios. And of course, P/E and P/B values are not appropriate metrics for fixed income funds. (hide answer)

Q. Why does the P/E ratio of a fund differ from the P/E ratio of the benchmark index?

A. Negative earnings are included in the calculation of the index P/E ratio, while they are excluded from the fund P/E ratio. Additionally, the fund calculation caps the P/E ratios of the underlying holdings at 60, so as to keep inordinately high P/E ratios from skewing the fund data. (hide answer)

Q. Why does the P/E ratio of a fund differ from other sources?

A. iShares calculates a trailing twelve month P/E ratio for each fund, and negative earnings are excluded from the calculation. Other sources may choose to include negative values, or they may use estimated earnings instead of historical earnings. (hide answer)

Q. What is the Sharpe Ratio?

A. The Sharpe Ratio is a relative measure of a portfolio's return-to-risk ratio. It is calculated as the return above the risk-free rate divided by its standard deviation. (hide answer)

Q. How is the Sharpe Ratio calculated?

A. First, you take the annualized risk free rate of return of the 3-month U.S. Treasury bond away from the annualized return of the index. Then, you divide that number by the standard deviation of the annualized return of the index (annualized return of the index-annualized return of the 3-month U.S. Treasury bond)/standard deviation (annualized return of the index)). This calculation uses monthly returns data from the previous 10 years or since inception, whichever comes first. (hide answer)

Q. How is the Treynor ratio calculated?

A. You take the annualized return of the 3-month U.S. Treasury bond away from the annualized return of the index and divide that number by the beta of that return (annualized return of the index-annualized return of the 3-month U.S. Treasury bond)/ (covariance [the correlation between two variables multiplied by the standard deviation of the two variables](index returns, S&P 500 Index returns)/variance [the measure of the dispersion of a distribution] (S&P 500 Index returns))). This calculation uses monthly returns data from the previous 10 years or since inception, whichever comes first. (hide answer)

Beta (top)

Q. What is standard deviation?

A. Standard deviation is a statistical measure of the degree to which an individual value within a probability distribution tends to vary from the mean of the distribution. It is widely applied in modern portfolio theory where past performance of securities is used to predict a range of possible future values with corresponding probabilities. (hide answer)

Q. How is beta calculated?

A. Beta is the covariance of a stock or fund in relation to the rest of the stock market. To calculate Beta, divide the covariance [the correlation between two variables multiplied by the standard deviation of the two variables] of the index and the S&P 500 Index by the variance [the measure of the dispersion of a distribution] of the S&P 500 (covariance (index returns, S&P 500 Index returns)/variance(S&P 500 Index returns)). This calculation uses monthly returns data from the previous 10 years or since inception, whichever comes first. (hide answer)

Q. Why is the beta displayed on iShares.com different from other sources?

A. When it's available, iShares calculates a beta based on one year of daily returns history for each fund. This daily beta can result in a value different from a monthly beta, especially if the two values use different lengths of history. Other sources commonly use three or five years of monthly returns for the beta calculation. (hide answer)

Q. Why is beta not displayed for some funds on iShares.com?

A. Since all betas on iShares.com are calculated relative to the S&P 500 Index, which represents the US equity market, it would be inappropriate for calculating fixed income and precious metal betas. So, beta isn't listed for those fixed income funds and the trusts. (hide answer)

Fixed Income (top)

Q. What does the fund credit rating represent?

A. The purpose of the ratings is to provide investors with a simple system of gradation by which relative creditworthiness of a fund's securities may be noted. The ratings shown are provided by S&P. (hide answer)

Q. Why does the fund credit quality differ from other information providers?

A. This usually happens because most sources are displaying the weighted average credit quality of the fund holdings, and not the credit quality assigned to the fund by the rating agency. iShares.com displays both values. (hide answer)

Q. What is weighted average coupon?

A. The mean of the coupon rates of the underlying bonds in a portfolio. (hide answer)

Q. What is weighted average maturity?

A. The mean of the remaining term to maturity of the underlying bonds in a portfolio. (hide answer)

Q. What is the average yield to maturity?

A. Yield to Maturity (YTM) is the discount rate that equates the present value of a bond's cash flows with its market price (including accrued interest). The Fund Average YTM is the weighted average of the fund's individual bonds holdings' YTMs based upon Net Asset Value ("NAV"). The measure does not include fees and expenses. (hide answer)

Q. What is option adjusted spread (OAS)?

A. It measures the yield spread of a bond or portfolio over US Treasuries. OAS takes into account possible changes in expected bond cash flows due to changes in interest rates. (hide answer)

Q. What is effective duration?

A. Effective duration, like duration, measures the sensitivity of a bond's price to a change in interest rates. An effective duration of 2, for example, means that the price of the bond would decrease/increase by 2% if the interest rate increased/decreased by 1%.

Effective duration takes into account the embedded options within a bond to derive a realistic measure of the bond's interest rate sensitivity. For corporate and municipal bonds, the typical embedded option is a call option, which allows the issuer to call or pay off the bond should interest rates fall. For mortgage-backed, collateralized mortgage obligations and asset-backed securities, the embedded option consists of a prepayment option held by the borrower allowing for early payoff of the underlying loans. Because both call and prepayment options are held by the borrower, effective duration will in general be less than duration to stated maturity. (hide answer)

Q. How does laddering work? Do I need to ladder my fixed income ETFs?

A. To attempt to reduce the risk associated with rolling over maturing bonds all at once, some investors use a "bond ladder" approach. In a bond ladder, investors stagger a portfolio of bonds across different maturities, each of which occupies a rung on a ladder: 1-year maturities on one rung, 3-year maturities on another, and so on.

But because fixed income ETFs have a constant duration, investors do not have to continually buy and sell bonds as time passes to keep the portfolio's duration profile intact the way they do with a bond ladder. (hide answer)

Indexes & Holdings (top)

Q. Why are the index level values available in the Tracking Error Chart different from other sources?

A. Most indexes provide a price and total return index level, and different sources use different values. iShares.com uses total return index levels for all indexes, except for the following:

• The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index uses price returns (total return index levels are not provided by the index provider)
• The MSCI Indexes use net dividend index levels (the total return net of taxes)

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Q. What period of time is used to calculate index fundamentals displayed on the Index Details pages of iShares.com?

A. The calculations are based on 10 years of index history. In cases when 10 years of historical data is not available, the calculation is from the month-end date following the inception of the index. (hide answer)

Q. Why do the holdings percentages not add up to 100%?

A. The holdings percentages include cash and dividends booked, but not yet received. Additionally, the top holdings and sectors boxes on the fund overview pages only account for the top ten of their respective data points, so anything not in the top ten will not be included in these data boxes. (hide answer)

Q. What does tracking error measure?

A. It's a common misconception that tracking error (or active risk) measures a difference in performance. In actuality, it is the annualized standard deviation of the monthly difference between portfolio return and benchmark return. (hide answer)

Continuing Education (top)

Q. Does iShares offer free Continuing Education (CE) credits?

A.Yes. iShares offers free online Continuing Education credits from two regulatory bodies: CFP^® credits from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. and CIMA^® credits from the Investment Management Consultants Association^® (IMCA^®). You can sign up for Continuing Education courses here. (Registration Required) (hide answer)

Q. How do I qualify for credits?

A. To qualify for credits, a participant must register for the online course, watch the video or presentation in its entirety, and pass the examination afterwards with a score of 70% or higher. (hide answer)

Q. What if I have questions or encounter technical problems when taking a course?

A. You can access 24/7 live chat support by clicking the green button at the bottom of the player once you’ve launched your course. (hide answer)

Q. How long does it take before continuing education credits are credited to me?

A. Participants should allow for 2-3 weeks after course completion for their credits to appear. iShares batches and forwards weekly files to the CFP Board and IMCA^® for processing. (hide answer)

Q. How do I confirm that the credits have been credited to me?

A. CE credits are issued by the regulatory body, not iShares, so it's best to check directly with the regulatory body you're associated with. You should receive an email from iShares confirming successful completion (please check your spam folder) – and your results will then be sent to your organization in the next weekly batch for final processing. (hide answer)

Using Our Site (top)

Q. What is the optimum screen resolution for viewing iShares.com?

A. iShares.com is best viewed as a screen resolution of 1024x768 or greater. (hide answer)

Q. Is there a preferred browser for viewing iShares.com?

A. iShares.com has been designed for cross-browser compatibility and has been thoroughly tested on the following browsers: Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8; Firefox 2 and 3; and Safari 3.

If you have any concerns viewing any portion of iShares.com, please contact us. (hide answer)

Q. What software and/or plugins are needed for an optimal viewing experience?

A. This site contains many documents in the common PDF format. If your computer can't currently view PDF files, please download the free Adobe Reader here. Several sections of the site also require Flash Player 9.0 or higher for proper viewing. You can download Flash Player for free, or upgrade your version, here. (hide answer)

Q. What are the benefits of registering for an account on iShares.com?

A. By registering for free with iShares.com, you gain access to premium tools and expanded access to our content, including portfolio strategies, product information, and much more. In addition, you'll have access to new product updates and the ability to opt in and out of notices. (hide answer)