I have found SWS has the biggest inventory for shorts ( usually 50k shares plus without even asking for additional, but usually youcan get more)....Penson firms have to relay on not only Penson but also wexford, because Penson gets a lot of their stock form them...where does IB get their stock from?
a bunch....a lot of the same ones listed on this board.....I once used Penson and was given a daily list of stocks we could make available to traders..often having amounts ranging from 500 shares to 25k.., but when I switched to SWS i was amazed that i was told ' if it;s marginable, your good for 50k shares and if you need more , just give a call"...never had a problem.
We clear thru Computer Clearing Services (CCS) based out of California. They provide us a daily short list for majority of stocks on Nasdaq, NYSE, AMEX priced $5 and above. When there is a stock priced above $5 with no shares shortable they are quick at finding available shares shortable for that stock. XoomTrade Customer Support www.xoomtrade.com
Could you provide example ? What is your list for ETF (sector based) shares for today (08.10.2003)? You can send it by email to me.
Maybe you actually got lucky in not being able to short considering the stock is up. Looks like your signal would've gotten you short at the very bottom?
For example, here is today's (oct. 8) daily list of certain ETF's and the current shares shortable available on our Direx Trading Platforms..... QQQ: 20,000 shares DIA: 10,000 shares SPY: 10,000 shares SMH: 10,000 shares BBH: 10,000 shares HHH: 10,000 shares ....upon a trader's request, we can contact our clearing firm immediately to increase the amount of available shares shortable. XoomTrade Customer Support www.xoomtrade.com