At times of high market volatility there may not be the normal number of buyers and sellers of securities, which can lead to a difference between the price you would pay to buy a security and the price you would receive for selling it. We amend the buy/sell spread in our funds to ensure that this cost difference is borne by those who are transacting and not the other unit holders.
Buy/sell spreads vary by fund and we may change the spreads from time to time to reflect the latest brokerage costs and market conditions. The spreads are reviewed at least annually and more frequently as required during periods of heightened volatility.
A buy/sell spread is only charged on application and withdrawal of units from a fund, it is not charged to unit holders that are not transacting. The spread is applied to the unit price when you either buy or sell units in a fund. As an example, if a fund has a unit price of $1.00 and a buy/sell spread of 0.1%/0.3%, you will pay $1.001 per unit to buy units and receive $0.997 per unit when selling.
The spread is not paid to us, but stays in the fund to prevent non-transacting investors from being impacted by the costs of trading from those that need to buy/sell units.