Financial Markets   Bids are submitted in the form of yields on a bank discount basis out to three decimal points and are accepted between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m Eastern time. The submitted bids are ranked from lowest to highest. As noted previously, this is equivalent to arranging the bids from highest price to the lowest price. Starting from the lowest yield bid, all competitive bids are accepted until the amount to be distributed to the competitive bidders is completely allocated.3The highest accepted bid is called the stop out discount rate and all accepted bids are filled at this price (i.e., a single price auction). Exhibit 4.4 presents a Bloomberg news report of the results of a September 19, 2001 auction of 3-month and 6-month Benchmark Bills. Non-competitive bids are also executed at the stop out discount rate and are allocated on the basis of when the bids were received (i.e., first-come, first-serve). Although the Benchmark Bills program is a subset of their well- established discount notes program, Fannie Mae has taken steps such that the two programs do not interfere with one another. Specifically,     3The total amount of each auction that can be distributed through non-competitive bids is limited to 20%.     Fannie Mae does not issue discount notes in any given week with a maturity date within one week on either side of a Benchmark Bills maturity date. For example, in a particular week, Fannie Mae will not issue a discount note with a maturity between two months, three weeks to three months, one week. The maturity lockout is in effect for 6- month and 1-year Benchmark Bills as well. However, the two programs are also complementary in that a 3-month Benchmark Bill with two months until maturity may be "reopened" as a 2-month discount note with the same maturity date and CUSIP as the bill. Exhibit 4.5 presents a Bloomberg DES (security description) screen for a 1-year Benchmark Bill issued on August 28, 2001 and matures on August 23, 2001. As can be seen from the "ISSUE SIZE" box in the cen- ter of the screen, $2 billion of these securities were issued. Further, the minimum face value is $1,000. The day count convention-like virtually every security discussed in this book-is Actual/360.   Benchmark Bills trade at a spread over comparable maturity U.S. Treasury Bills due to the modicum of credit risk that investors to which