Trying to figure out the true cost of shorting at Interactive Brokers

C

conley1

Hey everyone,

I'm confused about shorting at IB and hoping someone can help. Using TWS, I can see the fee rate (which I assume is annual). Also, I believe the rate can change at IB's discretion at any time.

The part that gets me is that you are not able to see any charges until the end of the month statement, and even then, everything is just lumped into one sum.

On my statement, I have something like this:

Interest Accrued: -$481.20

That's it. There's no breakdown by date, symbol or anything. Surely there is some way to see more detail in these charges? I've looked around and can't find anything. Thanks in advance!
 
Robert Morse said:
This is typical at many brokers but some charge the fee daily.
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Thanks for your reply. My impression is that the fee at IB is in fact charged daily, but only shows up on a monthly statement.

I take it from your reply that it is typical to not provide any details regarding interest charges. That's disappointing.
 
No, it's different from from firm to firm. I believe Wedbush charges these fees on a daily basis so you can see with clarity as to what the charges are. At my old firm, our accounts were at another clearing broker and they also charged the fee daily. Debit interest at both firms are charged at month end.
 
It's there. Create a statement with all options selected, and you will see the daily fees under Hard to Borrow Fees section (or some similar name). Note that they round all positions up to the next highest dollar/share. So 1,000 shares of a $1.01 stock will be billed for $2,000 notional. Also, note that borrow fees accrue by the calendar day -- not trading day. So a weekend hold will cost you three days of fees. Hope this helps.
 
Shadetree42 said:
It's there. Create a statement with all options selected, and you will see the daily fees under Hard to Borrow Fees section (or some similar name). Note that they round all positions up to the next highest dollar/share. So 1,000 shares of a $1.01 stock will be billed for $2,000 notional. Also, note that borrow fees accrue by the calendar day -- not trading day. So a weekend hold will cost you three days of fees. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the help and additional information. I think I've seen most of that on IB's website, but it's hard to navigate.

Unfortunately, even selecting all the options doesn't provide me with the Non-Direct Hard to Borrow Details. IB mentions that section here, and says it appears in the Default Statement and Legacy Full Default Statement:

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/...reportguide/non-directhardtoborrowdetails.htm

On my statement, all I have is this (I'm not using margin so I assume all interest is due to hard to borrow interest):

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OK, it looks like the borrow fees do appear in my actual account, but not in the paper trading account where I was taking a few more risks. :D

Thank you all very much for the help!
 
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