SSO unavailable for shorts at MB Trading

A

abattia

My broker (MB Trading) has not had SSO available for shorting for the last 4 days ....

SSO is one of the "top 20" most actively traded ETFs, Average Daily Value Traded over $1 billion. Hard to believe it's difficult to get hold of for shorts!

Anybody else had difficulty getting SSO for shorts?

Who has got all the SSO?
 
Quote from qixiq:

If you only hold intraday, go long SDS. Effectively the same thing as being short SSO.
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They behave approximately the same, but the "equivalence" (if you see what I mean) is not "-100%" (again, if you see what I mean).

Some things work on one, and not the other ...

Have you been able to short SSO over last 4 days?
 
Yes, I noticed that short shares even for the SPY were not available, and the SSO is simply the double-long of the SPY. Like qixiq mentioned, the SDS is the double-short of the SPY, same as going short the SSO. You can also look at the SH, which is simply the inverse of the SPY.

However, these double (and triple) ETF's have a daily "reset" feature, that works similar to an option with time decay, so if you're holding overnight and the market gaps against you, it's possible to get burned. These ETF's are mainly used for intraday only, unless the market is trending, then the inverse ETF's can work over a longer period.

Also, the short interest (percentage of shares shold short as part of total shares in float) on the SPY is around 252 million, from total outstanding of around 670 million, which is a huge 37%.

It was almost 40% a few weeks ago, so the shorts are slowly having their "uncle moment" and throwing in the towel...
 
Its not MB, is the clearing firm Penson. The SPY's went hard to borrow a few times last week, but they we easy to locate with no fee.

SSO probably falls under the prelocate category for penson because someone failed to deliver in the past 4 days. I dont know if MB will even attempt this for you at penson.
 
looks to be on the reg SHO list, although one broker out of 3 i checked claimed to have shares (didn't actually place the order)
 
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