XAR

SPDR Series Trust

A legal trust that houses a family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by State Street Global Advisors, giving everyday investors a way to buy a whole basket of stocks in one trade on an exchange. The SPDR name—pronounced "spider"—stands for Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts, and its first fund, launched in 1993 after the 1987 market crash, was the first ETF listed in the US. Developers almost called the funds "SPIRs" (spoken "spears") before settling on SPDR, worried about spears being tossed around the trading floor.

ETF tracking the S&P Aerospace & Defense Select Industry Index