I currently have a account with IB already, but since I am not 21 I can not trade on margin. I also lack the funds needed for a CenterPoint or SpeedTrader account as well, so those are out of the question as well. My question is what broker would be best for borrowing stocks to short from 1$-10$ range. From what I have Read/Heard E-Trade and Charles Schwab are decent, but I want to make sure I have not over looked any other brokers and that I pick the best one. Thanks for the help guys.
What is the size of the account? From most states we can offer Margin trading if you are 18, some states 19.
Noticed today the interests charged by IB on european currencies short sales proceeds. It s benchmark rate +2.25 over 100k euro and equivalent. That s nasty and probably a recent development , cheaper to go with cfds in that case. Actually can t figure out why There is such a discrepancy between shares and cfds. Will check again the link on IB s website when i get near a computer. Lightspeed wouldn t help much in that case as they don t offer europeam stocks and the margin rates they advertise are worse than BM+2.25.
I also have a margin account with TD Ameritrade and thus far they aren't good at borrowing. They never have any shares 10 grand at max and 2grand at a minimum the issue isn't getting a margin account. I need to know the broker i choose is good at finding shares to borrow. I opened a account with TD ameritrade and they are pretty bad at borrowing stocks. They hardly have anything when I need it. I would just stick with interactive since they are good at finding shares but they require you to be 21 to have a account on margin for whatever reason...
Etrade h E-Trade has a better locate book than Charles Schwab from my experience. Have you looked into Merrill Lynch? I don't know their account minimums but they have very good borrows.
We can offer margin trading but our minimum account size for Web Trader is $10,000 and $25,000 for our Direct Market Access software. We offer the locates and short box from Wedbush Securities and third party locates from Velocity Capital.