Tracking short interest

[TheTalkingMule]

The pressure builds!

What happens if the TSLA merger becomes a near certainty and SCTY squeezes up past 40? I can't imagine there are many longs in the stock right now that are willing to sell at $35.

What does the "covering process" look like for shorts if the stock is at $25 and the sale is set to take place at $31?

This is all very confusing.

 

[esk8mw]

D'OH! Of course - I wasn't thinking about short-term hedging, even though I did a bit of exactly that around 10 years ago. Do you know what difference there is (if any) between buying one of these short ETFs and shorting a long ETF? Seems like you wouldn't need both.

I'm not exactly sure, but I'm guessing certain account types have shorting restrictions, plus I think people would rather go long shares as opposed to taking on the increased risks/interest rates associated with shorting. Just my speculation.

 

[neroden]

I don't know how to see the short rates at Schwab (without, you know, actually selling stock short, which I won't do). As for the lending side:
Lend TSLA: 6%
Lend SCTY: 30%
I guess I would get a better deal at Fidelity, but it's a pain to open new accounts...

 

[Yonki]

I don't know how to see the short rates at Schwab (without, you know, actually selling stock short, which I won't do). As for the lending side:
Lend TSLA: 6%
Lend SCTY: 30%
I guess I would get a better deal at Fidelity, but it's a pain to open new accounts...

At Fidelity, if you fill out the trading form as if you wanted to short, it will tell you what the rates are. You don't actually need to short. Don't know if that works anywhere else.

I think IB has even better rates than Fidelity but I haven't changed either...

 

[Yonki]

I'm not exactly sure, but I'm guessing certain account types have shorting restrictions, plus I think people would rather go long shares as opposed to taking on the increased risks/interest rates associated with shorting. Just my speculation.

Of course, that makes sense. With the bear ETF your losses are limited to what you invest.

 

[jvonbokel]

Following up on that IB table, what is the difference between the rebate and the fee? I notice that they are very similar in the mean (although one is negative and the other positive).

I read this article, but I'm still not sure I understand it. I would assume the fee is what the borrower pays, and the rebate is what goes to the lender. The spread would then be pocketed by the broker. But the spread seems to be <1%, which is much lower than the spread in those rates that @Yonki has reported from Fidelity.

 

[esk8mw]

What is everyone else seeing as far as SCTY borrowing rates? IB just jumped up to 211%, which seems insane. It was nowhere near this recently.

 

[SBenson]

I double checked IB. Yes, it is shocking.

TSLA jumped to 44.55% as well.

 

[esk8mw]

I double checked IB. Yes, it is shocking.

TSLA jumped to 44.55% as well.

Odd, my IB is still showing 33.86% (and no jumps to 44% on the day in the chart).

 

[Yonki]

What is everyone else seeing as far as SCTY borrowing rates? IB just jumped up to 211%, which seems insane. It was nowhere near this recently.

Fidelity's still 70% for SCTY and 16% for TSLA. I hope Fidelity starts keeping up with IB!

 

[SBenson]

From what I understand, IB published rates are for new borrowers. Apparently there is a distinction between existing borrowers and new borrowers. In case of IB though, when my shares are lent out, they are only lent out for a few days at a time. So pretty much all those folks should be getting reset into higher rates every few days. I wonder how it is at other places... I think we see widely varied rates because different places report differently.

 

[Rarity]

Fidelity seems to do a pretty good job of keeping my shares lent out for both TSLA and SCTY. If my shares are returned, they must be re-lent out on the same day, because I don't see the lent shares popping in and out of my account.

That said, I do have an odd lot of two TSLA shares that Fidelity hasn't yet found a use for.

 

[adiggs]

All these comments about lending out shares and getting a nice interest rate in return - anybody know if Ameritrade has a program for taking advantage of this? A quick google search for ameritrade fully paid lending program didn't net me something useful.

Thanks

EDIT: just chatted with somebody at Ameritrade. The simple answer seems to be no - there is no ability for me to get paid interest for my shares that get loaned out. In a margin account, if there is a debit, then Ameritrade as the ability to lend out the shares with no compensation, though I continue to receive dividend payments.

 

[SBenson]

Fidelity seems to do a pretty good job of keeping my shares lent out for both TSLA and SCTY. If my shares are returned, they must be re-lent out on the same day, because I don't see the lent shares popping in and out of my account.

That said, I do have an odd lot of two TSLA shares that Fidelity hasn't yet found a use for.

IB does it too. But I can see in the account statement, many transactions where each time it is lent out, it is only for a few days, then they are lent out again almost immediately.

When S3 publishes articles they explicitly differentiate new borrow rates vs existing borrow rates. That caused me to to think the borrow period varies and IB generally keeps it very short.

 

[SBenson]

Following up on that IB table, what is the difference between the rebate and the fee? I notice that they are very similar in the mean (although one is negative and the other positive).

 

[SBenson]

Odd, my IB is still showing 33.86% (and no jumps to 44% on the day in the chart).

 

[SBenson]

SCTY hitting north of 200%

 

[Yonki]

All these comments about lending out shares and getting a nice interest rate in return - anybody know if Ameritrade has a program for taking advantage of this? A quick google search for ameritrade fully paid lending program didn't net me something useful.

Thanks

EDIT: just chatted with somebody at Ameritrade. The simple answer seems to be no - there is no ability for me to get paid interest for my shares that get loaned out. In a margin account, if there is a debit, then Ameritrade as the ability to lend out the shares with no compensation, though I continue to receive dividend payments.

Yep - I moved accounts from Ameritrade and Scottrade to Fidelity because neither offered Fully Paid Lending programs...

 

[Yonki]

Tesla rates getting a little bump at Fidelity:
Lend TSLA: 9.75%
Short TSLA: 16%, 0 shares available to short

Lend SCTY: 35.0%
Short SCTY: 70.0%, 0 shares available to short

At Fidelity:
Lend TSLA: 8.5%
Short TSLA: 16%, 0 shares available to short

Lend SCTY: 35.0%
Short SCTY: 70.0%, 0 shares available to short

BTW, if anyone wants to do this for Interactive Brokers or others with a fully paid lending program, feel free. Would be interesting to see how the different brokerages track over a week or two...

 

[jvonbokel]

It seems there must be a minimum share threshold in order to access these lending programs. Does anybody know what that threshold might be for either Schwab or Fidelity? I have accounts with both (as well as Vanguard), but only own 100-300 shares in any one single account.