Russell indexes are a family of global stock market indices from FTSE Russell that allow investors to track the performance of distinct market segments worldwide. Many investors use mutual funds or exchange-traded funds based on the FTSE Russell Indexes as a way of gaining exposure to certain portions of the U.S. stock market. Additionally, many investment managers use the Russell Indexes as benchmarks to measure their own performance. Russell's index design has led to more assets benchmarked to its U.S. index family than all other U.S. equity indexes combined.[ citation needed ]
The best-known index of the series is the Russell 2000, which tracks US small-cap stocks and is made up of the bottom 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 index.
Seattle, Washington-based Russell's index began in 1984 when the firm launched its family of U.S. indices to measure U.S. market segments and hence better track the performance of investment managers. The resulting methodology produced the broad-market Russell 3000 Index and sub-components such as the small-cap Russell 2000 Index. Using a rules-based and transparent process, Russell forms its indexes by listing all companies in descending order by market capitalization adjusted for float, which is the actual number of shares available for trading. In the United States, the top 3,000 stocks (those of the 3,000 largest companies) make up the broad-market Russell 3000 Index. The top 1,000 of those companies make up the large-cap Russell 1000 Index, and the bottom 2,000 (the smallest companies) make up the small-cap Russell 2000 Index.
The Russell indexes are objectively constructed based on transparent rules. The broadest U.S. Russell Index is the Russell 3000E Index which contains the 4,000 largest (by market capitalization) companies incorporated in the U.S., plus (beginning with the 2007 reconstitution) companies incorporated in an offshore financial center that have their headquarters in the U.S.; a so-called "benefits-driven incorporation". If 4,000 eligible securities do not exist in the U.S. market, the entire eligible set is included. Each Russell Index is a subset of the Russell 3000E Index and broken down by market capitalization and style. The members of the Russell 3000E Index and its subsets are determined each year during annual reconstitution and enhanced quarterly with the addition of initial public offerings (IPOs). The Russell 3000E Index represents approximately 99 percent of the U.S. equity market. Russell excludes stocks trading below $1, stocks that trade on the pink sheets and OTC Bulletin Board, closed-end mutual funds, limited partnerships, royalty trusts, non-U.S. incorporated stocks (other than the benefits driven incorporations described above), foreign stocks, and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).
Russell rebalances its indexes once each year in June, called "reconstitution". The reconstitution consists of updating the global list of investable stocks and assigning them to the appropriate indices. The Russell indexes do not immediately replace a company that merges with another firm or has its stock delisted. However, Russell adds initial public offerings (IPOs) on a quarterly basis, capturing these stocks in a systematic way.
Abnormal trading volumes caused by index fund managers re-balancing their portfolios has a history of significant market impact during the last few seconds before the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ closing prices are determined. [1]
The index rebalance is typically scheduled for the closing price on the last Friday in June. [2]
In addition to the primary indices listed below, Russell publishes Value and Growth versions of each U.S. index. This divides each index roughly in half, separating companies classified as value stocks from those classified as growth stocks. Companies can appear in both the value and growth versions of an index, though the total number of shares between the value and growth versions will equal the number in the main index. The primary indices are:
Russell/Nomura equity indices for Japan (calculated with Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.) offer broad market or style benchmarks for investors in that country. These pioneering, comprehensive, equity style indices offer free-float adjustment in the Japanese market.
The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 of the largest companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and includes approximately 80% of the total market capitalization of U.S. public companies.
The Russell 2000 Index is a small-cap U.S. stock market index that makes up the smallest 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index. It was started by the Frank Russell Company in 1984. The index is maintained by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).
The Russell 1000 Index is a stock market index that tracks the highest-ranking 1,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index, which represent about 93% of the total market capitalization of that index. As of 31 December 2023, the stocks of the Russell 1000 Index had a weighted average market capitalization of $666.0 billion and a median market capitalization of $13.9 billion. As of 8 May 2020, components ranged in market capitalization from $1.8 billion to $1.4 trillion. The index, which was launched on January 1, 1984, is maintained by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group.
The Russell 3000 Index is a capitalization-weighted stock market index that seeks to be a benchmark of the entire U.S. stock market. It measures the performance of the 3,000 largest publicly held companies incorporated in America as measured by total market capitalization, and represents approximately 97% of the American public equity market. The index was launched on January 1, 1984, and is maintained by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group. The ticker symbol on most systems is ^RUA.
The MSCI EAFE Index is a stock market index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets outside of the U.S. & Canada. It is maintained by MSCI Inc., a provider of investment decision support tools; the EAFE acronym stands for Europe, Australasia and Far East.
FTSE International Limited trading as FTSE Russell ( "Footsie") is a British provider of stock market indices and associated data services, wholly owned by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and operating from premises in Canary Wharf. It operates the well known UK FTSE 100 Index as well as a number of other indices. FTSE stands for Financial Times Stock Exchange.
The Russell Midcap Index measures performance of the 800 smallest companies in the Russell 1000 Index. As of 30 November 2022, the stocks of the Russell Midcap Index have a weighted average market capitalization of approximately $22.64 billion, median market capitalization of $9.91 billion, and the market capitalization of the largest company is $54.74 billion. The index, which was launched on November 1, 1991, is maintained by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group.
Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) is a stock exchange based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was previously known as the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) before its name changed in 2007 after merging with the Surabaya Stock Exchange (SSX). In recent years, the Indonesian Stock Exchange has seen the fastest membership growth in Asia. As of 2023, the Indonesia Stock Exchange had 833 listed companies, and total stock investors were about 6.4 million, compared to 2.5 million at the end of 2019. Indonesia Market Capitalization accounted for 45.2% of its nominal GDP in December 2020. Founded on 30 November 2007, it is ASEAN's largest market capitalization at US$744 billion as of 15 December 2023.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is a market-capitalization weighted and float-adjusted stock market index of stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The index is maintained by Standard & Poor's and is considered the benchmark for Australian equity performance. It is based on the 200 largest ASX listed stocks, which together account for about 82% of Australia's share market capitalization.
A capitalization-weightedindex, also called a market-value-weighted index is a stock market index whose components are weighted according to the total market value of their outstanding shares. Every day an individual stock's price changes and thereby changes a stock index's value. The impact that individual stock's price change has on the index is proportional to the company's overall market value, in a capitalization-weighted index. In other types of indices, different ratios are used.
In business and investing, term microcap stock refers to the stock of public companies in the United States which have a market capitalization of roughly $50 million to $250 million. The shares of companies with a market capitalization of less than $50 million are typically referred to as nano-cap stocks. Many micro-cap and nano-cap stocks are traded over-the-counter with their prices quoted on the OTCBB, OTC Link LLC, or the Pink Sheets. The larger, more established micro-caps are listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market or American Stock Exchange (AMEX).
Fundamentally based indexes or fundamental indexes, also called fundamentally weighted indexes, are indexes in which stocks are weighted according to factors related to their fundamentals such as earnings, dividends and assets, commonly used when performing corporate valuations. Indexes that use a composite of several fundamental factors attempt to average out sector biases that may arise from relying on a single fundamental factor. A key belief behind the fundamental index methodology is that underlying corporate accounting/valuation figures are more accurate estimators of a company's intrinsic value, rather than the listed market value of the company, i.e. that one should buy and sell companies in line with their accounting figures rather than according to their current market prices. In this sense fundamental indexing is linked to so-called fundamental analysis.
The Swiss Performance Index (SPI) is a wide total-return index that tracks equity primarily listed on SIX Swiss Exchange with a free-float of at least 20%, and excluding investment companies. The index covers large, mid and small caps and is weighted by market capitalization. Most constituents, although not all, are domiciled in Switzerland or the Principality of Liechtenstein.
The S&P/ASX 300, or simply, ASX 300, is a stock market index of Australian stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The index is market-capitalisation weighted, meaning each company included is in proportion to the indexes total market value, and float-adjusted, meaning the index only considers shares available to public investors.
A frontier market is a term for a type of developing country's market economy which is more developed than a least developed country's, but too small, risky, or illiquid to be generally classified as an emerging market economy. The term is an economic term which was coined by International Finance Corporation’s Farida Khambata in 1992. The term is commonly used to describe the equity markets of the smaller and less accessible, but still "investable" countries of the developing world. The frontier, or pre-emerging equity markets are typically pursued by investors seeking high, long-run return potential as well as low correlations with other markets. Some frontier market countries were emerging markets in the past, but have regressed to frontier status.
The S&P SmallCap 600 Index is a stock market index established by S&P Global Ratings. It covers roughly the small-cap range of American stocks, using a capitalization-weighted index.
In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.
The Russell Microcap Index measures the performance of the microcap segment of the U.S. equity market. It makes up less than 3% of the U.S. equity market. It includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the Russell 2000 Index based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership and it also includes up to the next 1,000 stocks. As of 31 December 2016, the weighted average market capitalization for a company in the index was $535 million; the median market cap was $228 million. The market cap of the largest company in the index was $3.6 billion.
Invesco PowerShares is an American boutique investment management firm based near Chicago which manages a family of exchange-traded funds or ETFs. The company has been part of Invesco, which markets the PowerShares product, since 2006.