What is the Russell 2000?

The Russell 2000 is your snapshot into how small companies are doing…

This index is not only focused on a particular size of company (small market cap valuations, typically under $2B), but it’s also large in its scope compared to other indexes (the Dow tracks 30 companies and the S&P 500 includes 500). Given this specificity and breadth, the Russell 2000 can highlight how smaller company performances compare to the broader market (vs. the S&P 500 index) or even the tech industry (vs. the Nasdaq Composite index).

The year was 1984. That’s when the Russell 2000 came into existence courtesy of the Frank Russell Company. Those 2000 stocks within the index were selected from an even larger index, the Russell 3000 — So the Russell 2000 is actually the 2,000 smallest companies within the Russell 3000. Even though the Russell 2000 makes up the majority of the Russell 3000, by market cap value its companies represent less than 10% of the larger Russell 3000 index.

Later in the 1980s, the company introduced additional small cap focused indexes to provide more perspective on general market movements, like the Russell 1000. Today, the index is maintained by FTSE Russell, which is a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange.

The intention of the Russell 2000 was to isolate and focus on smaller publicly traded companies — They make up the vast majority of publicly traded US stocks: 98% of them. As the Russell Index itself likes to put it, the index is “designed to offer a comprehensive and objective representation of the US small cap market.” In general, given the size of the Russell 2000 (again, 2,000 stocks) and its focus on smaller companies, many of the companies included are likely less well known by investors and by regular people.

Here are some highlights of what companies are included in the Russell 2000 (aka, its components) as of February, 2022:

• Size: The average size (by market cap) of a Russell 2000 company was $1.03B.
• Industry: The top most represented sectors in the index (from highest to lowest) were financial services, healthcare, consumer discretionary, producer durables, and technology.

The “Core 4.” This combo of indexes is among the most common used by investors, referenced on TV, or simply discussed when anyone wants to know what’s up with the markets. We’ve just covered the small cap-focused Russell 2000, but each of the other three has key distinctions you should nail down when you’re dropping the terms:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average (“the Dow”) is a group of 30 large (“blue chip”) companies selected for representing key industries in the US economy. The group is intended to reflect the stock market in general, but it’s not necessarily the same as what happens to the whole market because it’s so narrow.
• The S&P 500 covers 500 of the largest companies publicly traded as often referenced by investors to answer the question “what’s happening in the market?” Given its scope (500 companies) and their size (mainly large cap), these stocks are considered to best reflect the movements of the overall market out of all of the 4 major indexes.
• The Nasdaq Composite is focused on the tech industry, unlike the Dow and the S&P 500, which are more general. It tracks 3,000 stocks that have listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, the 2nd largest exchange in the world (New York Stock Exchange is #1). When investors want to know “how the tech industry is doing,” they’d likely look to Nasdaq over the other index options.

To know how you’re doing at anything, you need a point of comparison — The Russell 2000 is exactly that for plenty of small cap mutual funds. Mutual funds focused on small cap funds need to gauge their performance, so they may use the Russell 2000 as a point of comparison since it’s representative of general movements of the entire universe of small cap public company stocks.

Benchmarking is how you measure your progress, and it’s a common practice for mutual funds. Fund managers earn a management fee for directing investors' money into investments they hope will deliver strong returns. In order to determine if they're doing well, a fund manager needs to know if they're doing better than the stock market overall. Managers of mutual funds focused on large cap stocks might compare their performance against that of the S&P 500. For funds focused on small cap stocks, a fund manager might compare their performance against the Russell 2000.

It is not possible to invest directly in a market index. Indices are not subject to any fees or expenses.

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