In the Invest accounts we now have lending demand data. This is really useful but if you don’t yet hold shares it involves a search for the company to get the company info and the lending demand is then displayed.
The lending demand information is really important in other accounts - ie ISA. For example, today ASML has shot up on excellent results but this will impact lots of tech stock today and some AI stocks. There are a couple of companies that I hold in my ISA that have large share lending demand at the moment but I don’t hold the shares in my Invest account. Thus to get the info I have to switch from ISA to Invest, then search for the company, get the demand info and then switch back to ISA where I hold the stock. There is potential for a short squeeze on a couple of companies so in my ISA I want to know the level of share lending demand to make good decisions because it indicates the level of shorting, is an indicator of short-term market sentiment (for part of the market I’m not saying it reflects overall sentiment) and the lending demand gives an indication of short squeeze potential. Thus, even though I will never get lending interest in my ISA I really really want to know lending demand for the stocks that I hold in my ISA.
With Benzinga I can look at the short interest for US stocks which is great but the data is generally two weeks old. Can you get other lending stats from IBKR to display. At the moment the data is very course (in granularity) and it would be good to have a better feel for the actual level of short interest
Sorry if my post wasn’t clear. Yes I understand shares in ISA cannot be lent out. In Invest they can and when looking at a company’s info in Invest T212 tells you the level of lending demand and what interest you’ll get. I’d like to be able to see that as part of the company info in ISA - not wanting to lend in ISA that’s impossible but I want to know the short interest in a company while looking at that company in my ISA.
To explain.
If I am reviewing my ISA holdings and going down my list of holdings the level of short interest in a company is important information even if I am not going to short and cannot lend (ie my ISA). The short interest tells me a lot of information so even if I am not shorting or lending I still want to know the short interest. At the moment I have a couple of shares that have high lending demand (and Benzinga says they have very high short interest) but both have the potential for substantial news in the next month or two (one has results in a couple of weeks and expecting 60% increase in sales) so if substantial news does come there is a significant chance of a short squeeze that could cause a massive rise in the share price. Thus as I am reviewing my ISA holdings I would like to know the lending demand because it feeds into my fundamental and chart analysis and indicates the potential for a short squeeze and gives me info about the current market sentiment.
I agree that for institutional shorting there are big pools of stock available. However, my understanding is that the T212 lending demand data isn’t from T212 alone but is the lending demand for IBKR overall which is a major US brokerage widely used by traders. Thus lending demand within IBKR is a significant indicator (just imo)
edit: and if the lending demand (which is updated daily) reflects the two week old short interest listed on Benzinga then it is probably indicative of the market as a whole including institutional
Sure, if T212 data is that of IBKR makes a lot difference. T212 data on it’s own is still a useful data but not sufficient for me to make a strategy play.
I don’t use this directly to make decisions but it is a factor in my analysis of what I might expect in the future. Simple example, if a price is suddenly increasing and I know there is large short interest it could be shorts closing, news coming… but also I can factor short interest into what I might expect in terms of price volatility if there is news. Thus it gives me context to look at price movements and the chart
and confirmed that it is updated daily. Thus it is a much more up-to-date indication of short interest than Benzinga which is the market data that’s often 2 weeks or more old
I’ve passed your feedback to the team, but I believe the decision to exclude this information from ISA accounts is intentional. It helps prevent confusion and ensures clients don’t think their ISA shares are being lent out.