New York, N.Y.—-As of mid-December, short interest in 2,923 NASDAQ National Market^® securities totaled 3,918,789,927 shares compared with 3,967,706,706 shares in 2,941 National Market issues for the month of November.

The December short interest represents 2.47 days' average daily NASDAQ National Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 2.35 days in November. Short interest in 743 securities on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market^SM totaled 124,393,431 shares for October, compared with 95,186,104 in 729 securities for the month of November. This represents 0.95 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 1.66 days.

In summary, short interest in all 3,666 NASDAQ^® securities totaled 4,043,183,358 shares for December, compared with 3,670 issues and 4,062,892,810 shares in November. This is 2.35 days' average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 2.32 days.

The open short-interest positions reported for each NASDAQ security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale is generally understood to mean the sale of a security that the seller does not own or any sale that is consummated by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.

The monthly NASDAQ short-interest figures are current as of the 15th of the month and are released to the media after the market close on the seventh business day following that date. The figures this month include all short-interest positions reported November 18 through December 10 and settled as of December 13, 2002.

The total NASDAQ short positions for the preceding 13 months and current month follow:

Settlement Date	Total Short Interest	Number of Securities
December 14, 2001	4,206,146,735	4,044
January 15, 2002	4,023,953,114	4,047
February 15, 2002	3,978,074,188	4,013
March 15, 2002	4,085,825,647	4,018
April 15, 2002	4,124,763,193	3,954
May 15, 2002	4,246,945,373	3,926
June 14, 2002	4,261,435,815	3,831
July 15, 2002	4,335,747,422	3,784
August 15, 2002	4,105,634,585	3,758
September 13, 2002	4,108,308,913	3,737
October 15, 2002	4,152,454,217	3,623
November 15, 2002	4,062,892,810	3,670
December 13, 2002	4,043,183,358	3,666

For more information on NASDAQ Short-Interest positions, visit the www.marketdata.nasdaq.com Web site.