Does anyone know out of 10 short trades using one of the following brokers Interactive Brokers or Virtual Brokers how often will it go thru? I am just amazed that my current broker almost has no shares to short on almost every symbol I come across without having to locate them for extra fees.
I am not looking for anything particular. I just wanna know the chance of success for random active stocks.
There's a random chance you might be successful shorting random stocks at a random broker of your choice on a random day at a random time.
Yeah, like @Tim Smith says... you would have a random success rate... Usually, low cap stocks are not shortable... for the rest, it all depends on how much is already held short. If the short strategy is very interesting, like in a takeover/merger etc... likely not easy to short anymore... or at high rates... because every HFT/hedgefund is doing it as well.
At high rates do you mean it allows you to locate shorts like my broker does? Usually I get charged 1-3 cents per share basis which often eats up my profits.
No, with high rates I mean high % rate you pay over the amount short... nothing to do with regular interest rate but short stock rate. Can go to extremes, like 30% annualized... however usually you only hold for shorter terms. If 1-3 cents /share eats your total profits, are you looking at low price / penny stocks? Because otherwise... if that's your profit goal you'd better find a different strategy....