reduce financing costs by encouraging more aggressive bidding relative to multiple-price auctions. Multiple-price auctions suffer from a so-called "winners curse" problem because the winner of the auction (i.e., whoever pays highest price/bids the lowest yield) pays a higher price than the market consensus. Conversely, in a single-price auction, all successful bidders pay the same price and have less incentive to bid conservatively. Exhibit 3.2 presents a Bloomberg screen that contains the results of the 4-week Treasury bill auction on March 12, 2002. These bills were issued on March 14, 2002. The screen provides the relevant data for the     4Until the move to single-price auctions, Treasury bills had been sold using multiple- price auctions since 1929. 5Paul F. Malvey and Christine M. Archibald, "Uniform-Price Auctions: Update of the Treasury Experience," Washington, D.C., U.S. Treasury, October 1998.     current auction and the previous weeks auction. Two terms that appear in this exhibit require some explanation. The bid-to-cover ratio is simply the ratio of the total par amount of securities bid for by the public divided by the total par amount of securities awarded to the public. The bid-to- cover ratio excludes any bids or awards for accounts of foreign and inter- national monetary authorities at Federal Reserve Banks and for the account of the Federal Reserve Banks. The investment rate is simply the bond-equivalent yield (discussed later) for the Treasury bill in question. Between the auctions announcement and the actual issuance of the securities, trading of bills takes place in the when-issued or wi market. Essentially, this when-issued market is nothing more than an active for- ward market in the bills. Many dealers enter a Treasury bill auction with large short positions and hope to cover these positions with bills obtained at the auction. Dealers make commitments with their custom- ers and other dealers to make/take delivery of bills for an agreed upon price with settlement occurring after the bills are issued. In fact, all deliveries on when-issued trades occur on the issue day of the security traded. When-issued yields serve as important indicators for yields that will prevail at the auction.   EXHIBIT 3.2 Bloomberg Screen for 4-Week Bill Auction Results       Source: Bloomberg Financial Markets     PRICE QUOTES FOR TREASURY BILLS