Reflections on 30 Years of SPY and Indexing

Earlier this week, I was honored and privileged to join State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) and industry peers at the New York Stock Exchange to mark the 30th anniversary of SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, more popularly known as “SPIDER” or “SPY” in the markets.

While this is an important milestone in finance, at the same time, I can’t help but feel nostalgic to be celebrating this 30-year journey, as the evolution of indexing has been a critical part of my own career.

When I started my career in financial services in 1991, just a few years before the launch of SPY, I could not have imagined how it would come to transform the industry. When SPY launched in 1993, it was a pioneer that helped usher in the era of index-based investing and opened the stock market’s doors to a wider range of investors and savers globally.

As indexing has grown in its importance, it has spurred nearly an entire new industry inside of finance, which has not only created a more transparent financial system but meaningful careers for thousands of employees at S&P Dow Jones Indices and throughout the sector. For me, indexing has not only given me a meaningful career, but it has provided for my family and led to work opportunities and experiences around the world. Working in this space, my career and life have been enriched by having the chance to meet and work with many of the financial market’s most brilliant minds. I have also watched this industry grow and build a nurturing community over time. Celebrating milestones such as SPY’s birthday feels like a reunion among family and friends, and I am eternally grateful for the friendships and connections my family and I have made over the years.

In my current role, SPY’s longevity reflects the value of independently governed, transparent, and rules-based market benchmarks such as the S&P 500® Index. Since the launch of SPY, the liquid ecosystem of the S&P 500 and many of S&P Dow Jones Indices’ benchmarks has significantly grown.

Our indices have become trusted gauges of broad market and sector-level performance throughout different cycles. Reliable and resilient benchmarks such as the S&P 500 are more important now than ever as we continue to navigate uncertain and highly volatile market and macroeconomic conditions.

The benefits of indexing are well documented and since the launch of SPY and other ETFs, the relevance of the S&P 500 is no longer just limited in the U.S. but has extended globally as more market participants seek balanced and diverse exposures to domestic, regional and global equities.

Today, as I mark this anniversary from the perspective of an independent global index provider, I’m very proud to continue to have a front-row seat in our industry’s ongoing growth and evolution. In my own career, I have seen directly how indexing has made an immense impact in making markets more accessible and affordable to everyday investors.  SPY, the S&P 500 and other indices have played an important role in increasing market transparency and accessibility.

Let us also look to the future and commit ourselves as an industry to develop further market innovations. As we mark this anniversary, I remain excited at the growth and innovation that lies instore over the next 30 years. #sp500 #etfs

S&P®, S&P 500®, SPY®, SPDR®, The 500 and US 500 are trademarks of S&P Global or its affiliates.