It doesn't appear the increase in margin debt is due to shorting. Found this in my rummaging and it looks like short interest remain just about unchanged from June to July. Yes, there is some increase in short interest since the beginning of the year, but nothing to justify this increase in margin debt. It could be a good indicator for what is to come, even if some of the amount is from shorting. In April, short interest rised, while margin debt decreased as well.
Edited to reflect August information I found... a somewhat sizable decrese in short interest.. will be interesting to see what margin debt is in August.
The NASDAQ Stock Market Announces Open Short- Interest Positions In NASDAQ Stocks For August 2003 New York, N.Y.—As of mid-August, short interest in 2,760 NASDAQ National Market® securities totaled 4,253,616,217 shares compared with 4,535,616,667 shares in 2,776 National Market issues for the month of July.
The August short interest represents 2.63 days' average daily NASDAQ National Market share volume for the reporting period, compared with 2.69* days in July. Short interest in 712 securities on The NASDAQ SmallCap MarketSM totaled 150,856,007 shares for August, compared with 147,880,403 shares in 728 securities for the month of July. This represents 1.14 days average daily volume, compared with last month's figure of 0.99* days.
In summary, short interest in all 3,472 NASDAQ® securities totaled 4,404,472,224 shares for August, compared with 3,504 issues and 4,683,497,070 shares in July. This is 2.51 days' average daily volume, compared with last month's average of 2.55* 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 July 16 through August 12 and settled as of August 15, 2003.
The total NASDAQ short positions for the preceding 13 months and current month follow:
Settlement Date Total Short Interest Number of Securities August 15, 2002 4,105,634,585 3,758 September 13, 2002 4,108,308,913 3,737 October 15, 2002 4,152,454,217 3,623 November 15, 2002 4,062,892,810 3,670 December 13, 2002 4,043,183,358 3,666 January 15, 2003 4,053,387,295 3,686 February 14, 2003 4,190,132,904 3,668 March 14, 2003 4,335,164,375 3,585 April 15, 2003 4,456,502,765 3,592 May 15, 2003 4,386,454,785 3,566 June 13, 2003 4,604,557,148 3,569 July 15, 2003 4,683,497,070 3,504 August 15, 2003 4,404,472,224 3,472
For more information on NASDAQ Short-Interest positions, visit the www.nasdaqtrader.com Web site.
*Days-to-cover figures from June have been updated to correct a minor irregularity in the calculations.
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