New York, N.Y.—As of mid-April, short interest in 2,819 NASDAQ National Market^® securities totaled 4,336,211,644 shares compared with 4,207,678,805 shares in 2,820 National Market issues for the month of March.

The April short interest represents 3.01 days' average daily NASDAQ National Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.39 days in March. Short interest in 773 securities on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market^SM totaled 120,291,121 shares for April, compared with 127,485,570 shares in 765 securities for the month of March. This represents 1.29 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 1.78 days.

In summary, short interest in all 3,592 NASDAQ^® securities totaled 4,456,502,765 shares for April, compared with 3,585 issues and 4,335,164,375 shares in March. This is 2.91 days' average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 3.30 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 March 17 through April 10 and settled as of April 15, 2003.

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