I have a fairly diversified portfolio in a cash account and I'm buying a little something everyday. I wonder how much I can make by making my portfolio available for stock loans. If I can make even an extra 2% a year that would be amazing. What has been your experience with IB's stock yield enhancement program? What kind of returns are your getting? Also, is cash in lieu of dividends guaranteed? So far I don't see any downside, it sounds too good to be true.
You can run a program on their website that will give you an estimate based on your holdings. I'm not sure where it's at as I only ran it when the program was initiated. But you won't get much. Perhaps .02% rather than 2%. I have a large portfolio and the potential gain is so small, along with a slight risk of ending up with a dividend payment that wouln't be treated as "qualified" with associated favorable tax treatment, that I didn't bother. I do applaud IB for having this program in place but I just couldn't justify it.
You could make a lot, but you'd have to hold a bunch of hard to borrow stocks, which are going to be dogs.