Hello, Please be advised, due to a buy-in you need to cover the following short position(s): [TICKER: HLF] [QUANTITY: -150] The deadline to cover your position is 9:30 AM EST on Friday, February 08, 2013. The trade desk will attempt to borrow shares to allow you to hold your short position(s). After the deadline, if shares cannot be borrowed and if you have not covered the position(s), we will cover the position(s) for you without further notice. In addition to the regular commission, a surcharge of $45 (in the currency of the trade) will apply for each trade. Note: The trade desk may be able to borrow shares at an additional cost, it is 7.00% per year for HLF on the book value of the position(s) (we can lock this rate for you until the deadline mentioned above). For more information, contact us directly at 1.866.980.9590 or send an e-mail to neg@questrade.com. We encourage you to give this notification your immediate attention. Be advised, there is no guarantee that Questrade will cover the position on your behalf. It is your responsibility to determine your current holdings. The deadline stated above is subject to change as circumstances dictate. Best regards, I have gotten same massages on First Solar, Yelp and Groupon in the past. Cant short NOK for the past month! How many people get this? Due to a buy in? What does that mean? Can people at IB short HLF? I want to play short side. Ideas are welcome. perhaps buying puts?
I've been using Scottrade since 1996 and I've never received a buy-in notice on a short position. In fact, I've rarely had the problem of not having any shares available to short. Perhaps your broker doesn't have a large enough client base with margin accounts or doesn't have the ability to borrow from other firms. It does seem as though you are getting excessive notices. I really can't think of anything other than switching brokers to handle the problem.
interesting i've found HLF shorts.... the options are priced... from my understanding.. you'll be paying up for them.. look at the the synthetic short.. short call & long put. the cost will be the cost of the short carry etc..
Did IB make you cover your HLF short? It seems like they have 700K shares to short. I was just wondering if they made you cover because I am thinking about shorting more but dont want to if they are only going to make me cover. QUOTE]Quote from slavduja: Hello, Please be advised, due to a buy-in you need to cover the following short position(s): [TICKER: HLF] [QUANTITY: -150] The deadline to cover your position is 9:30 AM EST on Friday, February 08, 2013. The trade desk will attempt to borrow shares to allow you to hold your short position(s). After the deadline, if shares cannot be borrowed and if you have not covered the position(s), we will cover the position(s) for you without further notice. In addition to the regular commission, a surcharge of $45 (in the currency of the trade) will apply for each trade. Note: The trade desk may be able to borrow shares at an additional cost, it is 7.00% per year for HLF on the book value of the position(s) (we can lock this rate for you until the deadline mentioned above). For more information, contact us directly at 1.866.980.9590 or send an e-mail to neg@questrade.com. We encourage you to give this notification your immediate attention. Be advised, there is no guarantee that Questrade will cover the position on your behalf. It is your responsibility to determine your current holdings. The deadline stated above is subject to change as circumstances dictate. Best regards, I have gotten same massages on First Solar, Yelp and Groupon in the past. Cant short NOK for the past month! How many people get this? Due to a buy in? What does that mean? Can people at IB short HLF? I want to play short side. Ideas are welcome. perhaps buying puts? [/QUOTE]
This is very common when you are on the same short side as major institutions, hedge funds are preferred over you because they are shorting millions of shares and paying borrowing fees to your hundreds or thousands of shares, nothing unethical brokerages want to make money, just like you. Another stock very hard to short is X. I don't care which broker you are with you would have gotten the same notice on HLF.
I understand that this happens I was just wondering if anyone that is short HLF with IB was forced to cover
I've found that to be true in the very short term, but it's definitely a manip for longs to take possession of the paper they own. I personally wouldn't short it, but I would in the synthetic if I were interested.