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Quote of the Day
“I like it, I own it, and my firm is never, ever going to sell it. And to be honest, I hope you fail.”
– The head of west coast distribution for a mutual fund firm, as told by Jay Baker, the Vice President of Options Marketing at AMEX, on the first S&P 500 ETF.
The ETF, “SPY”, traded for the first time on this day in 1993.
January 22nd – This Day in Stock Market History
January 22nd, 1984 – A Superbowl commercial unveils Apple’s first computer to the world.
The computer would be unveiled by Steve Jobs 2 days later on January 24th, 1984.
Source: Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
January 22nd, 1993 – State Street’s Standard & Poor’s Depository Receipts or the SPDR S&P 500, an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), begins trading on the American Stock Exchange. It was the first ETF to trade in the United States.
On its first day, over 1 million shares of the ETF would be traded. However, after the initial excitement wore off, daily volume would reach as low as 17,000 in March of 1993. It would take until June 1993 to catch on and maintain daily volume over 100,000 shares.
I was not able to find the original prospectus for SPY. But according to the 1995 SPY prospectus, the fund was charging 0.20% expense ratio in 1994. Price per share was around $45:

Best January 22nd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1987 – Up 2.46%, 51.60 points.
Worst January 22nd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1932 – Down 5.53%, 4.61 points.
Read of the Day
Our quote of the day above comes from:
SPY: The Idea That Spawned an Industry
<– Go To Previous Day: January 21st, 1980 – Silver prices reach all time high of $52.50/oz.
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