Hi, I've been trading long-only strategies with IB for months, and am now diversifying into a short strategy. It's a little scary dealing with the extra "power" that IB gives you, in terms of giving you more choices in terms of shortable stocks... but also charging you up the butt in borrowing fees, in some incidences. I think I have a good grasp of the borrowing rates, which you can find by looking under account tools. But how significant is the "shares available" number? If the number goes to zero, does that imply IB is likely to force me to buy-in to cover my short position? If I expect to hold a position for 3-4 weeks... what's a safe minimum threshold for "shares available"? And if I drop beneath the threshold, there's a realistic risk that IB is going to force me to cover? Any anecdotes out there that anyone can share with me? Thanks!
"charging you up the butt" that rate is the going rate for professonals. most firms won't allow u to short where there is a negative rate. stop whining and learn the business
Didn't your momma ever teach you that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all? No whining here. If I didn't like IB's policies, I'd be trading elsewhere. If you have anything useful to add, feel free to share.
"charging up the butt " is a way of saying that they are charging outrageously high rates which is not true. u learned something already. it is almost a guarantee that u didn't know that u couldn't do those kind of shorts at most other places. what difference does it make if you are charged 1 to 2%per month on a difficult to borrow stock if you expect it to drop while holding for a few weeks. the statement stands.
Charging up the butt is a concise, highly technical phrase referring to the 30%+ rate I'm currently paying for a short position. As far as your guarantee that I didn't know that I couldn't do those kind of shorts... what's your interpretation of this sentence from my original post? <i> the extra "power" that IB gives you, in terms of giving you more choices in terms of shortable stocks...</i> If you're done flinging poo around, I'd like to get back to the original topic.
The highest I've seen was at -35% or so. I don't think I've seen anything higher than that, although I know there was discussion of SHLD earlier this year. I would kill for an automated tool that I could use to update my spreadsheet every night, that didn't require me to log in. Sooner or later, people holding long positions will figure out that their broker is making an extra 2-3% from their position every month... and will start buying the SSF instead.
Wait, that just clicked for me. Why *am* I shorting shares, as long as IB has very convenient SSF/EFP support built-in? Anyone know whether there is SSF/EFP support via the API...?
why don't u do research and find out how many ssf contracts trade/day before worrying how much the broker makes off your short position. "Sooner or later, people holding long positions will figure out that their broker is making an extra 2-3% from their position every month... and will start buying the SSF instead." you must have majored in logic to come up that gem of a statement.