what does spider mean 
spider spdr is a short form name for a standard poor s depository receipt an exchange traded fund etf managed by state street global advisors that tracks the standard poor s 500 index s p 500 each share of an spdr contains a 10th of the s p 500 index and trades at roughly a 10th of the dollar value level of the s p 500 spdrs can also refer to the general group of etfs to which the standard poor s depositary receipt belongs 12