House Majority Leader: Pay owner of stock to borrow his/her shares to short sell.

Quote from OneChicago:

Kingofshorts is correct. Brokerages cannot lend out fully paid for securities. They generally don't. However Pension Funds do and they get very little in return for the loan while taking on considerable risk and it doesn't have to be.

Let's ignore the Pension Funds for now and focus on the retail customer.

Let's consider a margin account where the customer borrows the maximum of 50% of the value of Sears Holding (SHLD) trading today at roughly $70. Lets use a round number of 1000 shares.

Customer borrows 35K at 3.5% which is 1225/yr and 102/mth in interest charges. That is the real cost of trading...not 9.95/trade.


Because he bought on margin the brokerage firm can loan 1/2 the shares out. Today SHLD was being lent at 28% annually. 35K x .28 = $8750/yr or 729/mth. So they make on the interest on the loan AND on loaning the stock out.

So the math works out that by just buying 35K worth without borrowing the customer SAVEs the 102/mth in margin cost and could lend the stock synthetically to capture the 729/mth instead of ceding that to the brokerage.

Buying on Margin and allowing the brokerage to lend it out also exposes the customer to a couple of risks. First any dividends paid are actually received as 'dividends in Lieu' which are taxed at the higher ordinary income rate and not as dividends. This is a significant difference.
Additionally positions that are out on loan may not be covered by SIPC coverage. Given that brokerages have shown they can fail this is very troubling.

What everyone should understand is Sec Lending is an important part of the profit center at brokerages. That is how the brokerages make money. Customers can't loan their own stocks the traditional way but they can using the EFP and Single Stock Futures.

Best

So David,

how is your business doing ? :)
 
The question of OneChicago's volumes is a fair one.

Single Stock Futures at OneChicago compete directly with the Stock Loan/Borrow (SLB) process at brokerages. The SLB is a non-transparent and extremely profitable part of their business.

These brokerages are OneChicago's customers and they do not allow their customers...perhaps some of you....to have access to the product. They defend their profit centers quite well.

So in short business is difficult but not dead.

Our Open Interest has risen more than 500% in the last six months. We now list for trading more then 1300 individual stock futures and 117 ETF futures.

We have added two new market-maker groups with two more expected to begin operations very soon.

The explosion of the credit markets the focus on regulation to bring OTC markets onto regulated, centrally cleared and transparent exchanges will bring the SLB process into the light. At that time
the true value of SSF and the EFP trade should be realized.

Best.
 
Quote from OneChicago:

Kingofshorts is correct. Brokerages cannot lend out fully paid for securities. They generally don't. However Pension Funds do and they get very little in return for the loan while taking on considerable risk and it doesn't have to be.

Let's ignore the Pension Funds for now and focus on the retail customer.

Let's consider a margin account where the customer borrows the maximum of 50% of the value of Sears Holding (SHLD) trading today at roughly $70. Lets use a round number of 1000 shares.

Customer borrows 35K at 3.5% which is 1225/yr and 102/mth in interest charges. That is the real cost of trading...not 9.95/trade.


Because he bought on margin the brokerage firm can loan 1/2 the shares out. Today SHLD was being lent at 28% annually. 35K x .28 = $8750/yr or 729/mth. So they make on the interest on the loan AND on loaning the stock out.

So the math works out that by just buying 35K worth without borrowing the customer SAVEs the 102/mth in margin cost and could lend the stock synthetically to capture the 729/mth instead of ceding that to the brokerage.

Buying on Margin and allowing the brokerage to lend it out also exposes the customer to a couple of risks. First any dividends paid are actually received as 'dividends in Lieu' which are taxed at the higher ordinary income rate and not as dividends. This is a significant difference.
Additionally positions that are out on loan may not be covered by SIPC coverage. Given that brokerages have shown they can fail this is very troubling.

What everyone should understand is Sec Lending is an important part of the profit center at brokerages. That is how the brokerages make money. Customers can't loan their own stocks the traditional way but they can using the EFP and Single Stock Futures.

Best

Thanks. Will look into it
 
Quote from ang_99:

another idiot who has no idea how the market functions.

this is getting really old, all these politicians who have never traded a stock are all of a sudden, experts.

Reality is just a minor inconvenience when it comes to populism.
 
Solution is very simple....

Requires de-fragmentation....

Requires simple electronic tag which does not allow shorts > outstanding float.....eliminates locates....

No uptick rule....

Limit size participation per account....

First come first served....

All price discovery on the exchange....


Done....

Letting a politician make these types of decisions....?????

Why not ask Elmer Fudd ?????
 
Quote from OneChicago:

Kingofshorts is correct. Brokerages cannot lend out fully paid for securities.

Wrong. They aren't supposed to, but they do. Before becoming an apologist for the Industry, think about it. You will be embarrassed.

They lend out legended securities. And everybody knows it. I've told officers of several small companies to pull all stock from them.

It will come out. And people will pay dearly. You cannot complain about politicians in the fray. We invited them there, like spreading sugar n the picnic blanket.
 
Quote from ang_99:

another idiot who has no idea how the market functions.

this is getting really old, all these politicians who have never traded a stock are all of a sudden, experts.


next.

Nice lol! :D Couldn't agree more!
 
Quote from libertad:

Solution is very simple....

Requires de-fragmentation....

Requires simple electronic tag which does not allow shorts > outstanding float.....eliminates locates....

No uptick rule....

Limit size participation per account....

First come first served....

All price discovery on the exchange....


Done....

Letting a politician make these types of decisions....?????

Why not ask Elmer Fudd ?????

Get with the times, my friend. If it can't be done without a 1900-page bill, weekend vote and shocking display of non-transparency, it just ain't worth doing.
 
Quote from tommyp123:

A retail client can sign a hypo agreement which would allow them to lend fully paid

15c3-3 Will not allow a broker to loan out excess margin equity.

They can loan out up to 140% of what is borrowed. The rest is excess margin.

So some fully paid securities could be lent out as per SEC regulation permits. I should have cleared it out a little better earlier.

So if you have 100K of stock and you buy 10K in stock (Borrowed 10K) now you have a margin debt of 10K and that means 14K on loan max(if they hypothecate to the max permitted which would be 140% of margin loan)

The rest is excess margin.

10K of securities you do not technically own since you borrowed (just like when the bank owns the auto until you pay it off)

But the twist obviously is they can remove an additional 4K worth of securities to lend out. (These would obviously be fully paid)

hypo agreement cannot supersede the SEC maximum, The agreement you sign is just stipulating
what happens.


NOW if any broker is violating this, they would not pass muster on an audit.


If a broker does a payment in lieu of dividend you might receive a differential (usually the differential would reflect the 35% max tax rate) to make up for that PIL being treated as ordinary gain. You would need to check with your broker obviously.


When borrowing on margin you do expose yourself to counter party risk if the firm fails and you have a number of shares out on loan. You would need to arrange to pay off your margin debt.


Always print and store your records. And commissions are cheap because of stock loan departments.

Once you try and make all these rules, then trades would end up costing more.

And do not borrow on margin if you do not agree with this.
 
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