Gyroscopic Investing

If you haven't heard, see the release below.
Any thoughts, opinions or concerns from the group?

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING CHANGE IN INVESTMENT POLICY

iShares®
iShares Trust

Supplement dated January 29, 2016 to the Summary Prospectus dated July 1, 2015 for the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) (the “Fund”)

The information in this Supplement updates information in, and should be read in conjunction with, the Summary Prospectus for the Fund.
The following changes are expected to take effect on or after March 31, 2016:


Current Underlying Index
Barclays U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index
Index Provider
Barclays Capital Inc.

New Underlying Index
ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Index
Index Provider
Interactive Data Corporation

Change in the Fund’s Principal Investment Strategies
The first two paragraphs on page S-2 of the section of the Summary Prospectus entitled “Principal Investment Strategies” are deleted in their entirety and replaced with the following:

The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the ICE U.S. Treasury 20+ Year Index (the “Underlying Index”), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to twenty years. As of November 30, 2015, there were 33 issues in the Underlying Index.

The Underlying Index includes publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to twenty years and have $300 million or more of outstanding face value, excluding amounts held by the Federal Reserve. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be fixed rate and denominated in U.S. dollars. Excluded from the Underlying Index are inflation linked securities, Treasury bills, cash management bills, any government agency debt issued with or without a government guarantee and zero-coupon issues

Similar changes for SHY:

"Important Notice Regarding Change in Investment Policy – On Wednesday, December 2, 2015 the iShares Trust Board of Trustees approved the change in the investment objective for the iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (ticker symbol: SHY). Beginning on or around Thursday, March 31, 2016, the fund will seek to track a new underlying index, the ICE U.S. Treasury 1-3 Year Index and will cease to track the Barclays U.S. 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Index."

Just because a fund changes index provider doesn't necessarily mean the fund is changing strategy. VTI changed sources fairly recently, and it was pretty seamless.

The weighted average maturity is the same as before, and they're not sneaking in non-treasuries or anything. So offhand, I don't see any reason to be concerned but am interested in other opinions after people look under the hood. 

I think BlackRock does a little bit of lending under the hood with TLT, which is probably no big deal, but it was enough to push me into buying bonds directly. Do they do the same thing with SHY? If so, that would concern me more than a change to another index with similar maturies.

First GTU and now changes with TLT and SHY? Why don't they just leave my PP alone?

Reub wrote: First GTU and now changes with TLT and SHY? Why don't they just leave my PP alone?

Makes you want to hold direct treasuries and physical coins, doesn't it?