Nasdaq's latest settlement report showed short interest rose 62.7 million shares by Oct. 15, while the average daily volume measure reached 2.93 days, up from the prior period.
The total was 23,156,400,993 shares across 5,544 securities, compared with 23,093,743,842 shares in 5,552 securities at the Sept. 30 settlement. The average daily volume measure had been 2.49 days. It expresses short interest in relation to average daily volume, rather than giving another count of shares.
The Nasdaq Global Market recorded 18,609,329,855 shares in short positions across 3,885 securities, down from 18,657,486,300 shares across the same number of securities. Its average daily volume measure rose to 3.49 days from 3.19.
On The Nasdaq Capital Market, short interest increased to 4,547,071,138 shares across 1,659 securities. At the previous settlement, the market had 4,436,257,542 shares across 1,667 securities. Its average daily volume measure rose to 1.76 days from 1.30.
Nasdaq said its totals combine positions reported by broker-dealers without regard to the firms’ exchange affiliations. The exchange describes a short sale as generally involving the sale of a security the seller does not own, or delivery using a security borrowed for the seller’s account.
Short interest counts positions that remain open at a settlement date. Broker-dealers submit short-interest reports twice a month; daily short-sale volume is a separate measure, as EconoTimes’ earlier coverage of short interest in U.S.-listed critical-minerals stocks explains.
The settlement figures do not identify the investors behind the positions or show whether they were hedges. They also do not reveal whether investors later changed or closed those positions.
