Trades, Basis, and Price Revisions in the S&P Depositary Receipts

Standard and Poor’s Depositary Receipts (SPDRs) are traded like a stock to track the performance of S&P 500 index, and there exists contemporaneous trading of S&P 500 index futures to track the same index portfolio. The basis reveals the instantaneous price difference of the S&P 500 index portfolio observed in index futures and SPDRs. This study finds that the basis conveys more information than trades for the intra-day quote price revisions in the SPDRs, and our findings are consistent with a price revision process that the basis transmits innovative information from futures prices and induces permanent price changes in the SPDRs.