Which company introduced the first exchange‑traded fund, the SPDR S&P 500, in 1993?

State Street Global Advisors introduced the SPDR S&P 500, the first widely recognized U.S. exchange-traded fund, in 1993. Its ticker, SPY, became one of the world’s most heavily traded investment symbols.

The fund launched on 22 January 1993 and was originally called Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipts. It was designed to track the S&P 500 rather than rely on a manager to select individual stocks. Investors could buy and sell shares throughout the trading day, combining features of index funds and exchange-listed securities.

Nathan Most and Steven Bloom, executives associated with the American Stock Exchange, developed the product’s structure, while Boston-based State Street Global Advisors launched and managed it. This is why the company, rather than Vanguard, Invesco, or BlackRock, is the canonical answer here.

A useful qualification is that SPY was not literally the first ETF concept worldwide: Index Participation Shares appeared in the United States in 1989 but were short-lived. SPY is generally described as the first successful or modern ETF and the first ETF based on the S&P 500.