the russell indexes

What Are The Russell Indexes?

The Russell 3000™ 2000™ and 1000™ are US stock indices put together by the Frank Russell Company of Tacoma Washington.

The Frank Russell Company constructs these three flagship stock indices by first constructing the Russell 3000. The Russell 3000 is comprised of the stock prices of the 3000 US companies with the highest market capitalization (share price times number of shares outstanding). From the Russell 3000 the top 1000 highest market capitalized companies are culled to construct the Russell 1000. The 2000 companies left over with the lower market capitalizations are used to construct the Russell 2000.

The Russell 3000 is a measure of a broad range of stocks and is a broad market index (measures the market as a whole). The Russell 1000 is a measure of the larger market capitalized stocks (or large cap) and the Russell 2000 is a measure of the smaller market capitalized stocks (or small cap). Thus looking at the three indexes side by side you can tell what the market as a whole is doing (Russell 3000) or if the market is doing well for larger stocks (Russell 1000) or smaller stocks (Russell 2000).

The Russell 3000 represents approximately 98% of the investable US stock market. The Russell 1000 represents approximately 89% of value of the Russell 3000 while the Russell 2000 represents the other 11%.

The stocks are selected each May 31st for inclusion or exclusion from the Russell 3000 from most stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange American Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

Links to the lists of the companies which make up each stock index can be found below. These lists are provided in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat so you will need to have this plug-in with your browser or as a separate program to be able to view these lists. The Russell 3000 list is a 30 page PDF file.

Russell 3000
Russell 2000
Russell 1000