Oldest ETFs Still Trading Today: Complete List by Inception
On January 22, 1993, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) began trading on the American Stock Exchange — the very first ETF listed in the United States. Created by Nathan Most and launched by State Street Global Advisors as a unit investment trust, SPY was originally aimed at institutional traders but quickly attracted retail interest. It remains the most traded ETF in the world.
The idea wasn’t entirely new. Vanguard founder Jack Bogle had launched the first index fund back in 1976, and Canada’s Toronto 35 Index Participation Units (TIPS) preceded SPY as an early attempt to make an index tradable on an exchange. An even earlier effort — Index Participation Shares in 1989 — was blocked by a federal court ruling that classified it as a futures contract.
The first wave of ETFs that followed SPY includes several funds still trading today:
- MDY (May 1995): The SPDR S&P MidCap 400 ETF Trust, the second-oldest US ETF, tracking 400 mid-sized companies.
- iShares “EW” country suite (March 1996): Barclays Global Investors launched 17 international ETFs in a single day — including EWJ (Japan), EWG (Germany), EWU (United Kingdom), EWQ (France), and others covering markets from Australia to Mexico.
- Sector SPDRs (late 1998): The first ETFs to break the S&P 500 into individual sector exposures.
- First bond ETFs (2002): iShares introduced IEF, LQD, SHY, and TLT — the first fixed-income ETFs.
Growth was slow at first. There were just 19 ETFs in existence by 1997 and only 80 by the year 2000. Vanguard entered the ETF market in 2001, initially branding its products “VIPERs” (Vanguard Index Participation Equity Receipts) before rebranding in 2006. The first actively managed ETF didn’t appear until 15 years after SPY’s launch. Today, more than 14,000 ETFs trade globally.
For a broader look at the ETF universe, see our complete list of ETFs or explore the largest ETFs by assets under management.
Regulated brokerThe table below lists the oldest ETFs still trading today, ranked by inception date. Only funds that have maintained continuous listings since launch are included.
| Stock | Price | Change % | 52 Week Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| $495.91 | 0.63% | ||
| $66.59 | 1.33% | ||
| $102.89 | 1.83% | ||
| $731.58 | 0.31% | ||
| $672.37 | 1.25% | ||
| $29.48 | 2.12% | ||
| $57.82 | 0.67% | ||
| $90.99 | 0.75% | ||
| $46.27 | 2.47% | ||
| $42.50 | 2.23% | ||
| $45.54 | 2.53% | ||
| $176.75 | 2.87% | ||
| $79.54 | 0.03% | ||
| $734.96 | 0.33% | ||
| $694.94 | 0.12% | ||
| $360.20 | 0.46% | ||
| $672.54 | 0.31% | ||
| $282.26 | 1.58% | ||
| $60.21 | 0.89% | ||
| $88.46 | 0.18% |
