SPDR
®
Barclays High Yield Bond ETF
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The fund seeks to provide investment results that, before
fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of an index that tracks the U.S. high yield corporate
bond market.
In seeking to track the performance of the Barclays High Yield
Very Liquid Index (the “Index”), the fund employs a sampling strategy, which means that the fund is not required to
purchase all of the securities represented in the Index. Instead, the fund may purchase a subset of the securities in the Index
in an effort to hold a portfolio of securities with generally the same risk and return characteristics of the Index. The quantity
of holdings in the fund will be based on a number of factors, including asset size of the fund. Based on its analysis of these
factors, SSgA Funds Management, Inc., the investment adviser to the fund, may invest the fund’s assets in a subset of securities
in the Index or may invest the fund’s assets in substantially all of the securities represented in the Index in approximately
the same proportions as the Index.
The Index is designed to measure the performance of publicly
issued U.S. dollar denominated high yield corporate bonds with above-average liquidity. High yield securities are generally
rated below investment grade and are commonly referred to as “junk bonds.” The Index includes publicly issued U.S. dollar
denominated, non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of at least one year, regardless
of optionality, are rated high-yield (Ba1/BB+/BB+ or below) using the middle rating of Moody’s Investors Service, Inc., Fitch
Inc., or Standard & Poor’s, Inc., respectively, and have $500 million or more of outstanding face value. The
three largest bonds of each issuer with a maximum age of five years can be included in the Index. Each index eligible issuer will
be capped at two percent. In addition, securities must be registered or issued under Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933,
as amended. Original issue zero coupon bonds, step-up coupons, and coupons that change according to a predetermined schedule are
also included. The Index includes only corporate sectors. The corporate sectors are Industrial, Utility, and Financial Institutions.
Excluded from the Index are non-corporate bonds, structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements,
bonds with equity-type features (e.g., warrants, convertibility), floating-rate issues, Eurobonds, defaulted bonds, payment in
kind (PIK) securities and emerging market bonds. The Index is issuer capped and the securities in the Index are updated on the
last business day of each month. As of September 30, 2013, there were approximately 647 securities in the Index and the modified
adjusted duration of securities in the Index was approximately 4.32 years.
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