After I’ve been nagging you for a week, today it’s finally here: the annual reconstitution of the Russell indices, when hundreds of NYSE- and NYSE Amex-listed issues go in and out of the indices. If you’ve been in a cave the last few days, here is our post with links to the relevant procedures and policies. We’re not anticipating a problem, but better to be over-prepared, yes?

That also means today is the final installment in our little Great Russells in World History series. I’ve saved my personal favorite for last. Today’s Great Russell is…..

Bucky Dent.

Bucky Dent? Yes, Bucky Dent, born Russell Earl O’Dey. Yankee shortstop of the 1970s who in 1978 hit the decisive home run to lead the Yanks to a comeback win over the Red Sox in a one-game playoff for the pennant. The game capped a miraculous comeback pennant drive and opened the path to another World Series championship for the Yanks. In short, the kind of performance Yankee fans haven’t seen in October since, um, far longer than I care to remember. Here’s a recent piece in the New York Times with Bucky reflecting back on that time.

How did I remember that his given name was Russell? Your humble blogger has an amazing capacity for retaining absolutely useless, trivial nonsense, as Mrs. Humble Blogger reminds him with some regularity.

Forgive my bringing all that up, Sox fans. It’s been kinda tough for us Yankee faithful recently. Anyway, hope you’ve enjoyed our little runup to Russell. Have a good Friday and weekend.

I’ve been a little too busy to post today but the Closing Bell has clanged, tomorrow’s Russell Indices recomposition draws nigh (draws nigh? Where did that come from?), and I did promise you a daily installment of Great Russells in World History. Here’s one you probably didn’t expect, unless you were really paying attention in school:

Bertrand Russell.

Who, you say?

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (b.1872 - d.1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His most influential contributions include his defense of logicism (the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic), and his theories of definite descriptions and logical atomism. Along with G.E. Moore, Russell is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytic philosophy. Along with Kurt Gödel, he is also regularly credited with being one of the two most important logicians of the twentieth century. …

Over the course of his long career, Russell made significant contributions, not just to logic and philosophy, but to a broad range of other subjects including education, history, political theory and religious studies. In addition, many of his writings on a wide variety of topics in both the sciences and the humanities have influenced generations of general readers. After a life marked by controversy (including dismissals from both Trinity College, Cambridge, and City College, New York), Russell was awarded the Order of Merit in 1949 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Also noted for his many spirited anti-war and anti-nuclear protests, Russell remained a prominent public figure until his death at the age of 97. …

Russell’s contributions to logic and the foundations of mathematics include his discovery of Russell’s paradox, his defense of logicism (the view that mathematics is, in some significant sense, reducible to formal logic), his development of the theory of types, and his refining of the first-order predicate calculus.

Russell discovered the paradox that bears his name in 1901, while working on his Principles of Mathematics (1903). The paradox arises in connection with the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself. The paradox is significant since, using classical logic, all sentences are entailed by a contradiction. Russell’s discovery thus prompted a large amount of work in logic, set theory, and the philosophy and foundations of mathematics.
– (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

“The paradox arises in connection with the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself.”

And you didn’t think you were going to learn anything today!

Tune in tomorrow for the final episode of Great Russells. Can you stand the suspense?

Your humble blogger was vaguely aware that NYSE Euronext was cobbling together a pretty big roster of indices, oh. probably, say, 20 or 30 of them, and then this press release came out last week announcing the 2008 performance of some of our 300 indices. Three double-oh, three hundred indices.

Please forgive my appalling lack of knowledge on this subject. Which is not a surprise given my appalling lack of knowledge on most subjects, but please forgive me anyway.

So now we have a Global Index Group, comprising index specialists from NYSE Arca, NYSE Euronext and the newly acquired American Stock Exchange. They provide design, real-time calculation and dissemination services for NYSE Euronext, third-party customized indices and Exchange Traded Products intra-day indicative values, the press release says. And we have these 300 indices.

To which you might respond: so what? Or more specifically, what do all these indices tell us?

The answer is: pretty much anything you want to know about the markets in which NYSE Euronext operates, including the main indices of continental Europe: AEX, BEL, CAC 40 and PSI-20. We have indices of stocks of various sizes and industries, denominated in dollars or euros; plus indices focusing on various strategies including leverage and short selling.

And obviously there’s more to tell, because the list is growing. Recently we announced a new global airline index and an index of European companies with low carbon footprints.

You can learn more at the home page for our Global Index Group. And certainly, I myself can learn more. Should learn more. Will learn more — new year’s resolution. OK, enough beating up on myself for one day.