(VEGA) STAR Global Buy-Write ETF

Overview

How VEGA Works

The AdvisorShares STAR Global Buy-Write ETF (NYSE Arca: VEGA) seeks consistent repeatable returns across all market cycles. VEGA is sub-advised by Partnervest Advisory Services, LLC (“Portfolio Manager”). The Portfolio Manager seeks to achieve the investment objective by using a proprietary strategy known as Volatility Enhanced Global Appreciation (“VEGA”). VEGA is primarily a “fund of funds” and employs a “Buy-Write” or “Covered Call” overlay for its global allocation strategy using Exchange Traded Products (ETPs).

According to the internal benchmark policy, the Portfolio Manager will use both ETFs and individual equities to implement its tactical allocation strategy in which the volatility of each of the underlying positions determines the amount of option hedging. During periods of high volatility, the Portfolio Manager will write (or sell) a call option against some of its positions in order to hedge downside risk, while generating an income stream from the sale of options. At any given time, approximately 60% to 85% of VEGA’s positions will have covered options. Additionally when volatility is low, the portfolio manager buys protective put options to manage downside risk.

Fund Documents

VEGA Fact Sheet, as of April 30, 2018

Portfolio Manager Commentaries

April 2018 Portfolio Manager's Commentary

Asset Allocation

VEGA in the News

12/29/2016 -

AdvisorShares Press Release, AdvisorShares Announces December 2016 Distributions

09/16/2012 - Caplinger, Dan. "A Rare Timely New ETF." http://www.fool.com/investing/etf/2012/09/16/a-rare-timely-new-etf.aspx

09/13/2012 -

AdvisorShares Press Release, AdvisorShares Announces the Launch of the STAR Global Buy-Write ETF (VEGA)

Performance -Month-End

VEGA Performance History (%) as of 4/30/2018

	NAV	Market Price Return	MSCI World Index
1 Month	0.46	0.20	1.15
3 Months	-3.91	-3.97	-5.15
YTD	-1.08	-1.14	-0.15
1 Year	6.15	6.09	13.22
3 Years	4.57	4.77	7.55
5 Years	4.50	4.47	9.28
Since Inception (09/17/2012)	3.90	3.89	10.32

Performance -Quarter-End

VEGA Performance History (%) as of 3/31/2018

	NAV	Market Price Return	MSCI World Index
1 Month	-1.34	-1.10	-2.18
3 Months	-1.53	-1.33	-1.28
YTD	-1.53	-1.33	-1.28
1 Year	6.53	6.70	13.59
3 Years	4.75	4.87	7.97
5 Years	4.26	4.25	9.70
Since Inception (09/17/2012)	3.88	3.91	10.25

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. All Fund data and performance data quoted is believed to be accurate, and unless otherwise stated, is sourced from the Fund administrator, the Advisor’s or Sub-Advisor’s proprietary data, and Morningstar. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than original cost. Returns less than one year are not annualized.

The MSCI World Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets. One cannot invest directly in an index.

Fund Distributions

Ex-Date	Record Date	Pay Date	Cash Div	ST Cap Gain	LT Cap Gain	Return of Capital	Total Distribution
12-27-18	12-28-18	12-31-18	-	-	-	-	-
12-27-17	12-29-17	01-02-18	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00/per share
12-28-16	12-30-16	01-04-17	$0.2243	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.2243/per share
12-29-15	12-31-15	01-05-16	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00/per share
12-29-14	12-31-14	01-05-15	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00/per share
12-27-13	12-31-13	01-03-14	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00/per share
12-27-12	12-31-12	01-03-13	$0.167	$0.031	$0.00	$0.00	$0.198/per share

Why Invest in VEGA?

Low Volatility Risk Managed Solution - The asset allocation, option writing decisions, and overall portfolio put protection is heavily driven by volatility. When added to a traditional investment portfolio, VEGA will attempt to manage downside risk while seeking to gain as much of the upside growth as possible.
For a Total Return Solution - The performance for VEGA will be driven by both equity growth and income; additionally, option income may provide additional return diversification to the overall total return of the portfolio.

5 Key Attributes

Tactical - The asset allocation of the portfolio is tactically managed based on the volatility of the underlying asset classes. This tactical allocation provides a secondary form of managing risk in the portfolio.
Options Hedging - As markets drop, the levels of implied volatility increase. Higher implied volatility results in higher than average option premiums that can offset downside moves, and VEGA will employ a higher percentage of hedging. When volatility is low, long term protective puts can be employed to protect in severe downward spikes. Volatility-based reinvesting insures a buy low, sell high discipline using a portion of the earned option income.
Harnessing Volatility - Option premiums are used to seek to enhance the VEGA portfolio by writing call options on the ETF positions, in an effort to create less dependence on markets for returns during market downturns. Volatility may allow investors to add to their return when options are not exercised.
Total Return Solution - The Portfolio Manager believes that VEGA can structure a target outcome, through an option overlay strategy on a global allocation strategy to generate returns.
Income - The overwrite options strategy seeks to generate a return stream in the form of option premiums that accrue independently of the underlying investments and are not subject to equity risk.

About the Portfolio Managers

Kenneth R. Hyman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Kenneth R. Hyman founded Partnervest in 2001 and is responsible for the direction and oversight of Partnervest’s business, financial, and operational affairs. He also serves as Co-Portfolio Manager and member of the Investment Management Committee overseeing the STAR Asset Management program. Established in 2001, the Sub-Advisor provides investment management solutions to investors and the advisors that serve them. Prior to establishing Partnervest, Mr. Hyman was the Senior Executive and Financial Officer for Integral Securities, Inc. and Integral Securities Europe Ltd. Prior to Partnervest and Integral, Mr. Hyman was the Managing Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Mercer Global Securities and the Director of Operations for Mercer Global Advisors, one of the nation’s largest fee-only financial planning and investment management firms. He was also the Vice-President of Trading for Associated Financial Group, a financial services company providing support to more than 328 representatives in over 179 branch and satellite offices.

David Young, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Young joined Partnervest Advisory Services in 2015 and serves as Chief Investment Officer and member of the Investment Management Committee. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Anfield Capital Management LLC, an SEC registered investment advisory firm that specializes in risk-based global allocation and fixed income strategies. Prior to founding Anfield, Mr. Young spent 15 years at PIMCO, focusing on investment strategy, portfolio management and asset allocation. While there, he formed and chaired the first multi-asset investment committee and headed the account management group in London. Mr. Young holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine and degrees in Economics and Political Science from UC, Irvine, where he has also served as an adjunct professor.

Peter Van De Zilver, Portfolio Manager
Mr. Van De Zilver joined Partnervest Advisory Services in 2015 and serves as portfolio manager and member of the Investment Management Committee. He is the Director of Portfolio Analytics and Risk Management at Anfield Capital Management LLC, an SEC registered investment advisory firm that specializes in risk-based global allocation and fixed income strategies. He has over 20 years of investment management experience and served in a senior position at PIMCO in the Portfolio Analytics group, where he was responsible for the architecture, development and implementation of many analytics and risk management systems. Mr. Van De Zilver holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and degrees in Physics, Mathematics and Economics from the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam, as well as an MA degree in Economics from the University of Southern California.

There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investment in the Fund is subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal amount invested. Other Fund risks included: allocation risk; derivative risk; early closing risk; Exchange Traded Note risk; liquidity risk, market risk; trading risk; commodity risk; concentration risk; counterparty risk; credit risk; emerging markets and foreign securities risk; foreign currency risk; large-, mid- and small- cap stock risk. Please see the prospectus for detailed information regarding risk.

The Fund is also subject to options risk. Writing and purchasing call and put options are specialized activities and entail greater than ordinary investment risk. The value of the Fund’s positions in options fluctuates in response to the changes in value of the underlying security. The Fund also risks losing all or part of the cash paid for purchasing call and put options. The Fund may not be suitable for all investors.

An option is a privilege, sold by one party to another that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) a stock at an agreed upon price within a certain period or on a specific date. An option premium is income received by an investor who sells or "writes" an option contract to another party. A covered call option involves holding a long position in a particular asset, in this case shares of an ETP, and writing a call option on that same asset with the goal of realizing additional income from the option premium. A put option is a contract that gives the owner of the option the right to sell a specified amount of the asset underlying the option at a specified price within a specified time. A protective put is an option strategy which entails buys shares of a security and, at the same time, enough put options to cover those shares. This can act as a hedge on the invested security, since matching puts with shares of the stock can limit the downside (due to the nature of puts). Exercising an option means to put into effect the right specified in a contract.

The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive five stars, the next 22.5% receive four stars, the next 35% receive three stars, the next 22.5% receive two stars, and the bottom 10% receive one star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three- and five-year Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns.

© 2017 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Manager Minutes, April 2018

Price History

As of: 05/23/2018

NAV	$31.22	Closing Price	$31.19
Change	$0.02	Change	$-0.17
Shares Outstanding	525,000	Volume	5,736
4PM Bid/Offer Midpoint	$31.21	Premium/Discount	$-0.01
Assets Under Management	$16,390,740.39
Premium/Discount Historical Data

Holdings