New York, N.Y.—As of mid-October, short interest in 2,765 NASDAQ National Market^® securities totaled 4,429,621,493 shares compared with 4,337,944,691 shares in 2,780 National Market issues for the month of September.

The October short interest represents 2.63 days' average daily NASDAQ National Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.05 days in September. Short interest in 709 securities on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market^SM totaled 154,486,171 shares for October, compared with 183,795,723 shares in 717 securities for the month of September. This represents 0.81 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 1.32 days.

In summary, short interest in all 3,474 NASDAQ^® securities totaled 4,584,107,664 shares for October, compared with 3,497 issues and 4,521,740,414 shares in September. This is 2.44 days' average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 2.90 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 August 18 through September 10 and settled as of September 15, 2003.

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