Russell 2000

Russell 2000

The Russell 2000 Index is a small-cap stock market index of the bottom 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index.

The Russell 2000 is by far the most common benchmark for mutual funds that identify themselves as "small-cap", while the S&P 500 index is used primarily for large capitalization stocks. It is the most widely quoted measure of the overall performance of the small-cap to mid-cap company shares. The index represents approximately 8% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 3000 Index. The average market capitalization for a company in the index is around $1.26 billion. The median market cap is around $528 million. The market cap of the largest company in the index is around $5.0 billion. As of early November 2012, the index trades at the 818 level, still down nearly 4% from its highs around the 855 level in July 2007.

There is the competing S&P 600 from Standard & Poor's, which is not commonly used, along with other indexes from other financial information providers.

The ticker symbol on most systems is ^RUT.