The Knowledge Leaders International Index is an equal-weighted index that tracks highly innovative companies. The index is designed to capture the Knowledge Effect, the tendency of stocks of highly innovative companies to experience excess returns. The index is constructed of Knowledge Leaders through a proprietary process that measures a company’s investment in its future growth. The model adjusts a company’s financial history to capitalize these investments and reveal the companies with the greatest knowledge intensity. The companies that pass a quantitative Knowledge Leaders screen comprise the index. The index consists of foreign stocks in the form of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) for mid- and large-cap companies from the developed world, including North America, Europe and Asia, ex United States. The index is a total return index. It rebalances twice a year, in March and September.
Please note that the index chart above may be partly comprised of historical performance illustration based on a backtest. The guideline provides an indication where this is the case.