Russell indexes are a family of global equity 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.
The most well known index of the series is the Russell 2000 which track US small-cap stocks and is made up of the bottom 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 index.