497K 1 d428742d497k.htm SPDR SERIES TRUST SPDR Series Trust

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SPDR® Barclays Convertible Securities ETF      CWB   

(NYSE Ticker)

SUMMARY PROSPECTUS - OCTOBER 31, 2012

Before you invest in the SPDR Barclays Convertible Securities ETF (the “Fund”), you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, which contain more information about the Fund and the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information dated October 31, 2012, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, as well as other information about the Fund, online at https://www.spdrs.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=CWB. You may also obtain this information at no charge by calling (866) 787-2257 or by sending an e-mail request to Fund_inquiry@ssga.com.

 

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The SPDR Barclays Convertible Securities ETF (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 United States convertible securities markets with outstanding issue sizes greater than $500 million.

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund (“Shares”). This table and the example below do not reflect brokerage commissions you may pay on purchases and sales of the Fund’s Shares.

 

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment):
MANAGEMENT FEES    0.40%    
DISTRIBUTION AND SERVICE (12b-1) FEES*    None    
OTHER EXPENSES    0.00%    
TOTAL ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES    0.40%    

 

* The Fund has adopted a Distribution and Service (12b-1) Plan pursuant to which payments of up to 0.25% of average daily net assets may be made, however, the Board has determined that no such payments will be made through at least October 31, 2013.

EXAMPLE:

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated, and then sell all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

YEAR 1   YEAR 3   YEAR 5   YEAR 10
$41   $128   $224   $505

PORTFOLIO TURNOVER:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 17% of the average value of its portfolio.

THE FUND’S PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY

In seeking to track the performance of the Barclays U.S. Convertible Bond >$500MM 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. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (“SSgA FM” or the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund, generally expects the Fund to hold less than the total number of securities in the Index, but reserves the right to hold as many securities as it believes necessary to achieve the Fund’s investment objective.

 

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Under normal market conditions, the Fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the Index or in securities that the Adviser determines have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of the securities that comprise the Index. The Fund will provide shareholders with at least 60 days notice prior to any material change in this 80% investment policy. In addition, the Fund may invest in debt securities that are not included in the Index, cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds (including money market funds advised by the Adviser).

The Index is designed to represent the market of U.S. convertible securities, such as convertible bonds, with outstanding issue sizes greater than $500 million. Convertible bonds are bonds that can be exchanged, at the option of the holder, for a specific number of shares of the issuer’s preferred stock (“Preferred Securities”) or common stock. The Index components are a subset of issues in the Barclays Convertible Composite Index. To be included in the Index a security must meet the following requirements: (i) have an outstanding issue size greater than $500 million; (ii) be a non-called, non-defaulted security; (iii) have at least 31 days until maturity; (iv) be U.S. dollar denominated; and (v) be a registered or a convertible tranche issued under Rule 144A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Index is rebalanced on a monthly basis, at the end of each month. As of September 30, 2012, there were approximately 104 securities in the Index.

The Index is sponsored by Barclays, Inc. (the “Index Provider”) which is not affiliated with the Fund or the Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index.

PRINCIPAL RISKS OF INVESTING IN THE FUND

As with all investments, there are certain risks of investing in the Fund, and you could lose money on an investment in the Fund.

PASSIVE STRATEGY/INDEX RISK:  The Fund is managed with a passive investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities. This differs from an actively managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund may hold constituent securities of the Index regardless of the current or projected performance of a specific security or a particular industry or market sector. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

INDEX TRACKING RISK:  While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index as closely as possible (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund’s return may not match or achieve a high degree of correlation with the return of the Index due to operating expenses, transaction costs, cash flows, regulatory requirements and operational inefficiencies. For example, the Adviser anticipates that it may take several business days for additions and deletions to the Index to be reflected in the portfolio composition of the Fund.

DEBT SECURITIES INVESTING RISK:  The value of the debt securities may increase or decrease as a result of the following: market fluctuations, increases in interest rates, inability of issuers to repay principal and interest or illiquidity in debt securities markets; the risk of low rates of return due to reinvestment of securities during periods of falling interest rates or repayment by issuers with higher coupon or interest rates; and/or the risk of low income due to falling interest rates. To the extent that interest rates rise, certain underlying obligations may be paid off substantially slower than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply. This may result in a reduction in income from debt securities income.

CONVERTIBLE SECURITIES RISK:  Convertible securities tend to be subordinate to other debt securities issued by the same issuer. Also, issuers of convertible securities are often not as strong financially as issuers with higher credit ratings. Convertible securities generally provide yields higher than the underlying stocks, but generally lower than comparable non-convertible securities. Because of this higher yield, convertible securities generally sell at a price above their “conversion value,” which is the current market value of the stock to be received upon conversion. The difference between this conversion value and the price of convertible securities will vary over time depending on changes in the value of the underlying common stocks and interest rates.

PREFERRED SECURITIES RISK:  There are special risks associated with investing in Preferred Securities. Generally, Preferred Security holders (such as the Fund) have no voting rights with respect to the issuing company unless certain events occur. In addition, Preferred Securities are subordinated to bonds and other debt instruments in a company’s capital structure and therefore will be subject to greater credit risk than those debt instruments. Unlike debt securities, dividend payments on a Preferred Security typically must be declared by the issuer’s board of directors. An issuer’s

 

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board of directors is generally not under any obligation to pay a dividend (even if such dividends have accrued), and may suspend payment of dividends on Preferred Securities at any time. In the event an issuer of Preferred Securities experiences economic difficulties, the issuer’s Preferred Securities may lose substantial value due to the reduced likelihood that the issuer’s board of directors will declare a dividend and the fact that the Preferred Security may be subordinated to other securities of the same issuer. There is a chance that the issuer of any of the Fund’s holdings will default (fail to make scheduled dividend payments on the Preferred Security or scheduled interest payments on other obligations of the issuer not held by the Fund).

INTEREST RATE RISK.  Because many Preferred Securities pay dividends at a fixed rate, their market price can be sensitive to changes in interest rates in a manner similar to bonds — that is, as interest rates rise, the value of the Preferred Securities held by the Fund are likely to decline. To the extent that the Fund invests a substantial portion of its assets in fixed rate Preferred Securities, rising interest rates may cause the value of the Fund’s investments to decline significantly.

ISSUER RISK.  Because many Preferred Securities allow holders to convert the Preferred Securities into common stock of the issuer, their market price can be sensitive to changes in the value of the issuer’s common stock and, therefore, declining common stock values may also cause the value of the Fund’s investments to decline.

CALL RISK.  Preferred Securities often have call features which allow the issuer to redeem the security at its discretion. The redemption of a Preferred Security having a higher than average yield may cause a decrease in the Fund’s yield.

FOREIGN SECURITIES RISK:  Returns on investments in foreign securities could be more volatile than, or trail the returns on, investments in U.S. securities. Investments in securities issued by entities based outside the U.S. pose distinct risks since political and economic events unique to a country or region will affect those markets and their issuers. Further, such entities and/or their securities may also be affected by currency controls; different accounting, auditing, financial reporting, and legal standards and practices; expropriation; changes in tax policy; greater market volatility; differing securities market structures; higher transaction costs; and various administrative difficulties, such as delays in clearing and settling portfolio transactions or in receiving payment of dividends. Securities traded on foreign markets may be less liquid (harder to sell) than securities traded domestically. These risks may be heightened in connection with investments in developing or emerging countries.

NON-DIVERSIFICATION RISK:  The Fund is non-diversified and may invest a larger percentage of its assets in securities of a few issuers or a single issuer than that of a diversified fund. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be disproportionately impacted by the performance of relatively few securities.

FUND PERFORMANCE

The following bar chart and table provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing the Fund’s performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns for certain time periods compare with the average annual returns of the Index. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available online at http://www.spdrs.com.     

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURN (year ended 12/31)*

 

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Highest Quarterly Return: 8.91% (Q3 2010)

Lowest Quarterly Return: -13.25% (Q3 2011)

 

*  As of September 30, 2012, the Fund’s Calendar Year-To-Date return was 11.56%

 

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AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (for periods ending 12/31/11)

The after-tax returns presented in the table below are calculated using highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Your actual after-tax returns will depend on your specific tax situation and may differ from those shown below. After-tax returns are not relevant to investors who hold Shares of the Fund through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. The returns after taxes can exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit for a shareholder from realizing a capital loss on a sale of Fund Shares.

 

      ONE YEAR   

SINCE INCEPTION

(4/14/09)

RETURN BEFORE TAXES    -6.60%    12.70%
RETURN AFTER TAXES ON DISTRIBUTIONS    -7.76%    10.96%
RETURN AFTER TAXES ON DISTRIBUTIONS AND SALE OF FUND SHARES    -3.89%    10.02%

BARCLAYS U.S. CONVERTIBLE BOND >$500MM INDEX

(reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)

   -6.45%    14.91%

 

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

INVESTMENT ADVISER

SSgA FM serves as the investment adviser to the Fund.

PORTFOLIO MANAGERS

The professionals primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund are Michael Brunell, Patrick Bresnehan and Max DeSantis.

MICHAEL BRUNELL is a Vice President of SSgA FM and is a member of the Passive Fixed Income Portfolio Management Group. He joined the Adviser in 1997.

PATRICK BRESNEHAN is a Vice President of SSgA FM and a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Fixed Income Portfolio Management Team. He joined the Adviser in 2010.

MAX DESANTIS is a Vice President of SSgA FM and is a Portfolio Manager in the Passive Fixed Income Portfolio Management Group. He joined the Adviser in 2008.

PURCHASE AND SALE INFORMATION

The Fund will issue (or redeem) Shares to certain institutional investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) only in large blocks of 100,000 Shares known as “Creation Units.” Creation Unit transactions are typically conducted in exchange for the deposit or delivery of in-kind securities and/or cash constituting a substantial replication, or a representation, of the securities included in the Fund’s benchmark Index.

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund Shares trade at market prices rather than at net asset value (“NAV”), Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).

TAX INFORMATION

The Fund’s distributions are expected to be taxed as ordinary income and/or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account.

 

 

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