State Street® SPDR® US Small Cap Low Volatility Index ETF

What this fund is

State Street® SPDR® US Small Cap Low Volatility Index ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from SPDR, traded under the ticker SMLV (ISIN US78468R8878). One trade buys a whole basket of holdings, so your money is spread out instead of riding on a single company. In plain terms it is about owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't, spread across its target market. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the State Street^® US Small Cap Low Volatility Index index — the passive, low-cost approach, and its largest holdings include HORACE MANN EDUCATORS, PHILLIPS EDISON + COMPANY IN and CITY HOLDING CO.

With about 401 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 5.8%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. By industry it concentrates most in ~22.1% Financials and ~10.2% Industrials. It is commonly used to tilt a portfolio towards one market, usually alongside broader, more global funds rather than on its own. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.12% a year — about €12 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund.

It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in the United States and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 15.4% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2013. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from SPDR.)