why IB is kind of special?

yep..they are motivated

Stock Yield Enhancement Program

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=shortableStocks&p=stockYield-default

 

Is that true, will etrade really loan you a hard to borrow for free? I kinda doubt it, they would lose their shirts.

 

You fail to note in the above market cap that only 10% of IB is floated. So roughly multiply the market cap above for IB by 10 and you get 6.6B.

 

What does the 3.5 Billion figure refer to in this advertisement?

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/IB08-102.pdf

 

Second to last line on this balance sheet.

http://financials.morningstar.com/balance-sheet/bs.html?t=IBKR&region=USA&culture=en-us