Although I agree with the basic tennents of Sarbanes-Oxley I still think there is room for a junior market in the US much like AIM in the UK.
The Rus2k lagged when the Nasdaq was booming, one of the signs that allowed me to sidestep the post March 2000 dot-com disaster. It's the only non-industry-specific index that hit new highs in this cycle, though. There's probably a good reason for that. The Nasdaq is weighted towards big tech and big but new companies in general, and I've always found it to be almost completely untradeable by any of the methods I use. The Rus2k, though, is as tradeable as it gets.
US exchanges imo look pathetic,desperate and they are a true state of US economy.. just got off the phone with IB. we were talking about CUSIP service(not free anymore). this is a great example,how exchanges are desperate for any stream of revenue and how unfriendly US markets are for retail customers. IB now charging $1 a month for displaying security CUSIP #(main identifier for bonds for example) not sure,how much revenue it will bring to exchange or IB(according to IB they just passing the charge to the customer), but it's just pathetic,since all info is available for free on FINRA website. along with current rating(also $1 charge for IB retail customers) it's a sad,sad picture...back in 2000 pretty much everything use to be for free. even the internet..now those exchanges are scratching the pennies off the floor.. http://cxa.marketwatch.com/finra/BondCenter/BondDetail.aspx?ID=MjkyNzNSQU45IA==