Investing.com -- The Nasdaq exchange has reported a 0.6% increase in short interest in late March. As of March 31, short interest reached approximately 15.754 billion shares, compared to 15.664 billion shares as of March 14.

Short selling is a strategy where investors borrow shares and sell them, expecting the stock price to decrease. They then buy the shares back at a lower price, return them to the lender, and keep the difference. Shorting can also be part of a hedging strategy.

By the settlement date of March 31, 2025, short interest in 3,140 Nasdaq Global MarketSM securities amounted to 13,072,444,217 shares. This was a slight increase from the 13,066,514,117 shares in 3,124 Global Market securities reported for the previous settlement date of March 14, 2025. The mid-March short interest represented 2.64 days, compared to 2.14 days for the previous reporting period.

In terms of the Nasdaq Capital MarketSM, short interest in 1,625 securities totaled 2,682,510,166 shares at the end of the settlement date of March 31, 2025. This was an increase from the 2,598,104,131 shares in 1,634 securities reported for the previous reporting period. This represented an average daily volume of 1.12 days, down slightly from the previous reporting period’s figure of 1.17 days.

In total, short interest in all 4,765 Nasdaq® securities reached 15,754,954,383 shares at the March 31, 2025 settlement date. This was an increase from the 15,664,618,248 shares reported for the previous reporting period. This represented an average daily volume of 2.14 days, up from an average of 1.88 days for the previous reporting period.

The reported short interest positions for each Nasdaq security reflect the total number of shares sold short by all broker/dealers, regardless of their exchange affiliations. A short sale typically involves the sale of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by or for the account of the seller.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.