Description to the S&P 500 SPDR ETF, traded under ticker symbol SPY: This ETF is a fund that aims to correspond to both the price and yield performance of the S&P 500 Index, before expenses. The S&P 500 Index is composed of five hundred selected stocks trading in the U.S., spanning over 20 separate industry groupings. The S&P 500 index was first published in 1957 and is widely followed as one of the key indices for large cap American stocks. The index is maintained by Standard & Poor's, with the components selected by committee to be representative of the industries in the United States economy.