What started as an experiment has proved to be an unequivocal success. Twenty-four years ago today, SPY was listed on the American Stock Exchange. Today, there are more than 6,000 ETFs/ETNs, which give investors the ability to trade baskets of stocks all day, unlike traditional mutual funds. ETFs now hold $3 trillion in assets, with SPY at the top of the heap, at $220 billion. For just .0945%, you can access the S&P 500. The chart below shows how closely it has tracked the index.
Below is a quick review of the notable statistics of this revolutionary product.
Volume
Total dollar amount of SPY traded since inception: $68,958,292,273,656
Total number of shares traded: 511,383,761,745
Biggest volume day ever: 10/10/2008: 871,546,886 (The six biggest volume days occurred between September and November 2008)
October 2008 was the heaviest volume month: 11,889,533,913
Performance
It closed its first trading day at $28.13. On Friday, it closed at $226.74.
Including dividends, it’s up 705.91% since it began trading.
Dividends
On January 31, it will make a distribution of $1.33, up 523% from the first dividend payment of $0.21.
It currently yields ~2%, but last year it paid $4.42, a 15.7% return on your original investment.
It has paid a cumulative $53.60 per share, a 90% payout of the original purchase price.
For a good story on the origins of the ETF, check out this article from the Financial Times.
For more on Nathan Most, here is his New York Times obituary
Michael Batnick is a managing partner at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is the co-host of Animal Spirits, What Are Your Thoughts, and The Compound and Friends. For disclosure information please see here.
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