| The NASDAQ Stock Market Announces Open Short-Interest Positions In NASDAQ Stocks For December 2004
New York, NY —As of mid-December, short interest in 2,761 NASDAQ National Market ® securities totaled 4,938,311,312 shares compared with 4,881,995,911 shares in 2,756 National Market issues for the month of November.
The December short interest represents 2.72 days' average daily NASDAQ National Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.03 days in November. Short interest in 632 securities on The NASDAQ SmallCap MarketSM totaled 156,694,922 shares for December, compared with 142,319,197 shares in 635 securities for the month of November. This represents 1.24 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 1.22 days.
In summary, short interest in all 3,393 NASDAQ® securities totaled 5,095,006,234 shares for December, compared with 3,391 issues and 5,024,315,108 shares in November. This is 2.62 days' average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 2.91 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 9 through December 10 and settled as of December 15, 2004.
The total NASDAQ short positions for the preceding 13 months and current month follow:
| Settlement Date |
Total Short Interest |
Number of Securities |
| December 15, 2003 |
4,713,016,555 |
3,440 |
| January 15, 2003 |
4,687,305,136 |
3,454 |
| February 13, 2004 |
4,593,580,829 |
3,463 |
| March 15, 2004 |
4,855,579,913 |
3,443 |
| April 15, 2004 |
4,993,345,137 |
3,443 |
| May 14, 2004 |
4,958,452,082 |
3,416 |
| June 15, 2004 |
5,170,987,973 |
3,430 |
| July 15, 2004 |
5,109,696,729 |
3,405 |
| August 13, 2004 |
5,157,706,325 |
3,400 |
| September 15, 2004 |
5,248,399,985 |
3,398 |
| October 15, 2004 |
5,130,673,030 |
3,413 |
| November 15, 2004 |
5,024,315,108 |
3,391 |
| December 15, 2004 |
5,095,006,234 |
3,393 |
For more information on NASDAQ Short-Interest positions, visit the www.nasdaqtrader.com Web site.
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