As of mid-September, short interest in 2,730 NASDAQ Global MarketSM securities totaled 7,209,431,128 shares compared with 7,112,973,390 shares in 2,718 Global Market issues for the month of August.

The September short interest represents 4.39 days average daily NASDAQ Global Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 3.72 days in August. Short interest in 564 securities on The NASDAQ Capital MarketSM totaled 144,343,205 shares for September, compared with 155,133,038 shares in 568 securities for the month of August. This represents 3.33 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 3.06.

In summary, short interest in all 3,294 NASDAQ® securities totaled 7,353,774,333 shares for September, compared with 3,286 issues and 7,268,106,428 shares in August. This is 4.36 days average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 3.70 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 14th 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 from August 10, 2006 through September 12, 2006 and settled as of September 15, 2006.

The total NASDAQ short positions for the preceding 12 months and current month follow: