The fund provides exposure to a wide spectrum of global investment grade, fixed rate bonds through a passively-managed, index-sampling strategy. This means that the sub-advisor matches the funds investments to the primary risk factors and other key characteristics of the underlying index. The fund gains its exposure either directly by holding bonds that make up the index, or indirectly by investing in other Vanguard ETFs, including US-domiciled ones. The index is market-value weighted, and includes government, government agency, corporate, and securitized fixed income investments. These securities have term to maturity greater than one year. The fund uses derivative instruments to hedge any foreign currency exposure back to CAD.