In theory, a LNKD stockholder should get paid the borrow interest rate. However in practice not all brokers will pay this to the customer (or they might only pay a small fraction of the full borrow interest rate).
Hence why for some customers it makes sense to create the synthetic long.
The borrow has loosened up considerably in LNKD. Still 20-30% though.
I am not aware of any arrangements for small traders that allow them to lend out the stock. Does anyone know a broker that pays a portion of the lending income to the holder? I figured that would only apply to very large accounts.