SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap Growth ETF

SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap Growth ETF (SLYG), from State Street, tracks the S&P SmallCap 600 Growth Index. The index holds smaller US companies with strong sales growth, improving earnings and rising share prices. A company must have positive earnings to get into the index, which keeps out many unprofitable small firms. The fund's 0.15% annual fee is between iShares' IJT (0.18%) and Vanguard's VIOG (0.10%), which track the same index.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, SLYG returned +14.6%, 6th of 9 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +5.4% and its 10-year +10.8%.
• In the 2020 COVID crash it fell 39.9% and regained its old high 7.6 months after the low.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2008 (-41.2%); its best was 2009 (+47.1%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 59.4% (Oct 10, 2007 to Mar 9, 2009), recovered by Dec 2, 2010.

As of Jun 30, 2026, the fund held 347 securities; the ten largest made up 10.91% of assets, and 2.6% sat in cash and money-market holdings.

• Over the three months to Jun 30, 2026, investors added a net $262.5M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +11.63%, +1.04%, +9.56%.

The fund aims to track the S&P SmallCap 600 Growth Index. S&P Dow Jones Indices, which is not affiliated with State Street, runs the index. The index starts from the S&P SmallCap 600, a list of US stocks. To join that list, a company must be worth between $1.2 billion and $8 billion when it is added. Its shares must trade often, at least 10% of its shares must be available to the public, and it must have positive earnings over the latest four quarters and the latest quarter. From that pool, the index takes the stocks with the strongest growth traits. It measures these by sales growth, changes in earnings relative to share price, and momentum (how strongly a share price has been rising).

Each stock is weighted by its market value, meaning share price times shares available. Caps keep the fund within tax rules. The index is rebuilt once a year in December and rebalanced every quarter, in March, June, September and December. Portfolio turnover was 53%, so roughly half the portfolio changes over a year.

SSGA Funds Management, State Street's adviser, uses sampling. This means the fund can hold a subset of the index's stocks or nearly all of them. It must keep at least 80% of its assets in index stocks, and it may use futures to manage cash. As of June 30, 2026, it held 347 stocks, and the top ten made up 10.9% of assets.

• SLYG charges 0.15% a year, versus an average of 0.13% for the similar funds below (6th of 9, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $15 in the first year and $192 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It gives focused exposure to small US growth stocks, which have had deep, long drops and pay little income, so it fits better as a small add-on than as a foundation.

SLYG could add smaller US growth companies, which large-company index funds hold little of. The trade-off is sharp swings. The fund fell 59.4% between October 2007 and March 2009 and did not regain its old peak until December 2010. It dropped 39.9% in the 2020 COVID crash and recovered by November 2020. It lost 27.5% in 2022 and did not recover until July 2024. Its worst calendar year was 2008, when it lost 41.2%. Anyone who sold shares to cover spending in years like these would have locked in losses. Income is small: the yield was 0.72% as of October 27, 2026, paid quarterly. Costs are low at 0.15% a year. In the SEC's standard example, that comes to $192 over 10 years on $10,000. Past results don't predict future returns, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports.