Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts
The SPDR S&P 500 is an exchange-traded fund from State Street Global Advisors that tracks the S&P 500. For a long time, the fund was the largest ETF in the world. As of August 2012, it is the largest exchange-traded product in the world, and also the most actively traded.
On 29 January 1993 , Boston asset manager SSgA (State Street Global Advisors) launched the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts as the first exchange-traded fund in the United States (preceded by the short-lived Index Participation Shares which had launched in 1989). The fund is part of the SPDRs ETF chain. Designed and developed by executives Nathan Most and Steven Bloom, the fund first traded on that market, but has since been listed elsewhere, including the .
According to web glossary InvestorWords.com:
"One SPDR unit is valued at approximately 1/10 of the value of the S&P 500. Dividends are distributed quarterly, and are based on the accumulated stock dividends held in trust, less any expenses of the trust."
The sponsor is PDR Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of .
Since 2011, the fund is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (1557).
SPDR S&P 500's competition is largely other funds that are also based on the S&P 500. Other funds are based on similar indexes such as iShares Russell 1000 (NYSE Arca: IWB).
A somewhat different idea is the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight (NYSE Arca: RSP), which uses an equal-weight version of the S&P 500.
ETFs that are based on the S&P 500 index include:
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