MERRILL LYNCH SERIES FUND, INC.
Supplement dated January 8, 2001 to the
Statement of Additional Information dated April 4, 2000
Effective today, the Balanced Portfolio, the Capital Stock Portfolio,
the Global Strategy Portfolio and the Multiple Strategy Portfolio may invest in
Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts ("SPDRs"). SPDRs are units of beneficial
interest in an investment trust sponsored by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the
American Stock Exchange, Inc. (the "Exchange") which represent proportionate
undivided interests in a portfolio of securities consisting of substantially all
of the common stocks, in substantially the same weighting, as the component
stocks of the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index (the "S&P 500 Index"). SPDRs are
listed on the Exchange and traded in the secondary market on a per-SPDR basis.
SPDRs are designed to provide investment results that generally
correspond to the price and yield performance of the component common stocks of
the S&P 500 Index. The value of SPDRs is subject to change as the values of its
component common stocks fluctuate according to the volatility of the market.
Investments in SPDRs involve certain inherent risks generally associated with
investments in a broadly based portfolio of common stocks, including the risk
that the general level of stock prices may decline, thereby adversely affecting
the value of each unit of SPDRs invested in by a Portfolio. Moreover, a
Portfolio's investment in SPDRs may not exactly match the performance of a
direct investment in the component common stocks of the S&P 500 Index.
Additionally, the investment trust may not fully replicate the performance of
the S&P 500 Index due to the temporary unavailability of certain index
securities in the secondary market or due to other extraordinary circumstances,
such as discrepancies between the investment trust and the S&P 500 Index with
respect to the weighting of securities or the number of, for example, larger
capitalized stocks held by the S&P 500 Index and the investment trust.
