Tired of unavailable shorts at IB

I've traded at IB for years, and complained about the short list over the last 18 months.

But I've noticed about a 10-15% increase in shortables since some of the deals were done. Still not as good as they were, but pretty damn good considering SHO regulations now......and still a great short list considering others. :(

Keep up the good work, we need a TON more shorts.
 
I noticed in a couple of situations, I tried to short through IB, and I got the message that the stock was on the Reg SHO list and couldn't be shorted. But I was able to short it through a backup broker. Does this make sense? Shouldn't it be impossible to short through any broker?
 
Re-read the message. It basically says it's unavailable OR is on the SHO list.

Since you could short it elsewhere, means IB didn't have it available & that it wasn't on the SHO list.
 
Quote from MR.NBBO:

Re-read the message. It basically says it's unavailable OR is on the SHO list.

Since you could short it elsewhere, means IB didn't have it available & that it wasn't on the SHO list.
More...

No, I'm certain the message said it was on the SHO list and couldn't be shorted.
 
Just looks at a couple of SHO etf's , IWM and SMH. They both had HUGE increases in short interest over the last month or two.

Seems some group(s) put on huge shorts and sucked up all the supply. Or is there another explanation.
 
You can see the current threshold lists at the relevant market sites (e.g. www.nyse.com). If a stock is on the list, and you can short it at a particular broker, that means they have done a locate for it and made it available.

Keep in mind that these are supposed to be single-use locates. That is, if they locate 50K shares, and 5 traders short and cover 10K shares each, they must again locate shares in order for traders to short the stock again*. This is why it is unlikely that any broker will lawfully make threshold securities available to short unless they have implemented some sort of automatic process to do locates (has anyone done this?).

*Source: Answer 4.4 at http://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mrfaqregsho1204.htm
 
Well I just checked a random 10 stocks that I would have had to short at one time or another with my new system and Ib showed 6 out of 10 were available.

The stocks were

alxn, agtx, btrx, cra, dusa, enz, glbc, mnkd, nabi, rigl

Ib had..... btrx, cra, dusa, enz, nabi, rigl

I'm waiting to see how many are available at Redsky securities.

Will let you know if I get a reply. Been 2 days so far .

NKNY
 
"I'm tired of unavailable stocks at IB"

Ah! tell me about it, today SPY ( yes, the S&P500 ) is
not available to borrow and/or restricted from short selling.

that's ludicrous



maybe it's time to go long
 
Quote from NKNY:

Well I just checked a random 10 stocks that I would have had to short at one time or another with my new system and Ib showed 6 out of 10 were available.

The stocks were

alxn, agtx, btrx, cra, dusa, enz, glbc, mnkd, nabi, rigl

Ib had..... btrx, cra, dusa, enz, nabi, rigl

I'm waiting to see how many are available at Redsky securities.

Will let you know if I get a reply. Been 2 days so far .

NKNY
More...

Ok out of the above stocks the following are available to short with at least 1000 shares at Redsky.

ALXN, BTRX, CRA, DUSA, ENZ, NABI, RIGL thats 7 out of 10 to IB's 6 out of 10

they have ALXN that IB didn't have.

I was also told that all 7 stocks were available with both of their clearing firms, SW securities and Merrill.

I wish they had their list on there website so I could check stocks without bothering the redsky people. But in any event I have a feeling they beat IB in the shorting department.
 
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