FUND DESCRIPTION: SPDR Barclays Short Term International Treasury Bond ETF is an exchange-traded index fund or Index ETF which is a separate investment portfolio of the SPDR Series Trust, an investment management company. INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE: SPDR Barclays Short Term International Treasury Bond ETF seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Barclays 1-3 Year Global Treasury ex-US Capped Index. INDEX DESCRIPTION: The Barclays 1-3 Year Global Treasury ex-US Capped Index is designed to measure the performance of fixed-rate local currency sovereign debt of investment-grade countries outside the United States that have remaining maturities of one to three years. The Index includes government bonds issued by investment-grade countries outside the United States, in local currencies, that have remaining maturities of one to three years and are rated investment grade (Baa3/BBB-/BBB- or higher using the middle rating of Moody's Investor Service, Inc., Standard & Poor's, Inc. and Fitch Inc., respectively). Each of the component securities in the Index is a constituent of the Barclays Capital Global Treasury ex-US Index, screened such that the following countries are included: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and United Kingdom. In addition, the securities in the Index must be fixed-rate and have certain minimum amounts outstanding, depending upon the currency in which the bonds are denominated. The Index is calculated by Barclays Capital using a modified market capitalization methodology. This design ensures that each constituent country within the Index is represented in a proportion consistent with its percentage with respect to the total market capitalization of the Index. Component securities in each
constituent country are represented in a proportion consistent with their percentage relative to the other component securities in the constituent
country. Under certain conditions, however, the par amount of a component security within the Index may be adjusted to conform to Internal Revenue Code requirements. The securities in the Index are updated monthly, on the last business day of each month. As of September 30, 2009, there were approximately 232 securities in the Index and the modified adjusted duration of securities in the Index was approximately 1.78 years. FUND STRATEGY: The Fund uses a passive management strategy designed to track the total return performance of the Index. In seeking to track the performance of 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. It is generally expected 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. 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 is determined to have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of the securities that comprise the Index. In addition, the Fund may invest in securities that are not included in the Index, futures, options, swap contracts and other derivatives, cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds. FUND MANAGEMENT: SSgA FM serves as the investment adviser to the Fund.
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