SPDR funds (pronounced "spider"[1]) are a family of
exchange-traded funds (ETFs) traded in the
United States,
Europe,
Mexico and
Asia-Pacific and managed by
State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). Informally, they are also known as Spyders or Spiders. SPDR is a trademark of Standard and Poor's Financial Services LLC,[2] a subsidiary of
S&P Global. The name is an acronym for the first member of the family, the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, now the
SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF, which is designed to track the
S&P 500 stock market index.
For a long time,[clarification needed] the SPDR S&P 500 was the largest ETF in the world. SSGA also manage the
SPDR Gold Shares, which for a while[clarification needed] was the second-largest ETF in the world.[3] As of August 2012, they were the first and second largest exchange-traded products in the world.[4]
The funds are formulated as
unit investment trusts. In 2007, SSGA rebranded its other United States ETFs as SPDRs, including the StreetTRACKS family and its other flagship ETF shares, the DOW DIAMONDS, that tracks the
Dow Jones Industrial Average. This move united all U.S. ETFs managed by SSGA, a total of 23 at that time, under a single brand.[5]
At the end of 2006, the total portfolio that became known as SPDRs had $102 billion of
assets under management.[5]
As of Dec 2019, SPDR is the third largest ETF provider, behind
iShares and
Vanguard, with assets of $714 bn.[6]
In 1998, SSGA and
Merrill Lynch introduced the Sector Spiders, which now consist of ten funds which follow the eleven
GICS sectors of the S&P 500.[9][10]
Because the S&P 500 contains only four telecommunications companies, those companies are a part of the information technology SPDR, and that one fund represents those two sectors.
SSGA also launched a number of index-based ETFs under the brand StreetTRACKS. These were renamed SPDRs in 2007.
SSGA also manages ETFs that are sold on exchanges outside the United States.
In Australia SSGA manages three SPDR branded ETFs.
They are listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange and are the following: