How do both iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker work?

---

Are you interested in short selling on stocks?

If yes, iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker are two free services you might have heard of during your short selling on the stock journey. Both of these stock-related websites seem to be managed by investors who have spent several years in the field. Besides, neither website is linked to a bank. But, what exactly is stock short selling?

Short selling is a trading or investing technique that bets on the price of a stock or other security dropping. This is a sophisticated approach that should only be used by seasoned traders and investors.

Short selling may be used by traders as a form of speculation, and it can also be used by investors or portfolio managers as a hedge against the downside risk of a long position in the same or similar securities. Speculation is a sophisticated trading strategy that bears a high risk of loss. Hedging, or taking an offsetting position to decrease risk exposure, is a more typical transaction.

A position is formed in short selling by borrowing shares of a stock or other asset that the investor believes will depreciate in value. The investor then sells these borrowed shares to market-rate bidders. The trader is wagering that the price of the borrowed shares will continue to fall before they must be returned, allowing them to acquire them at a reduced price. Because the price of any asset might rise to infinity, the risk of loss on a short sale is theoretically endless.

Let’s look at what iBorrowDesk is now that we’ve established what short-selling on stocks means.

IBorrowDesk is a system or a tool for monitoring borrow rates and availability using freely available data from Interactive Broker. One of the services that IBorrowDesk relied on frequently is Interactive Brokers’ Stock Loan Availability Database, particularly for difficult-to-borrow equities. Meanwhile, Stonk-O-Tracker refers to a website that gathers stock information. It only includes information from GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Borrow rates and available shares to borrow are examples of information that may be useful to options traders (from Interactive Brokers only)

Both iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker on WallStreetBets

iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker are occasionally mentioned in comments on Reddit topics like WallStreetBets. For example, a commenter a few weeks ago pointed out that iBorrowDesk only displays available shares to borrow from Interactive Brokers and not from any other brokers.

“Relying entirely on IBorrowDesk is inadequate data at best, and confirmation bias at worst,” the user stated. This was not meant to discourage consumers from utilizing iBorrowDesk, but rather to encourage them to go elsewhere for information on borrow rates and availability.

What Does iBorrowDesk Show?

iBorrowDesk is a database designed to track stock borrow rates. The site displays equities, ticker symbols, borrow charge rates, and availability using data from Interactive Brokers. According to the owner of iBorrowDesk, the data refreshes every 15 minutes during open stock trading hours.

iBorrowDesk shows the borrow rates for each stock (fees traders must pay when borrowing shares needed for a short sale). It also displays the shares that are currently available from Interactive Brokers, as you can see above.

What Does Stonk-O-Tracker Show?

As we have mentioned earlier, Stonk-O-Tracker is another website that gathers stock information. It only includes information from GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Borrow rates and available shares to borrow are examples of information that may be useful to options traders (from Interactive Brokers only).

The Stonk-O-Tracker shows the most recent stock price and the trading volume for GameStop and AMC. The author obtains call contracts from Yahoo Finance and displays the total value of the contracts.

Stonk-O-Tracker tracks if the asset has a short sale limitation in place, as well as the number of shares available for borrowing and the amount of ETF shares accessible. Stonk-O-Tracker, like iBorrowDesk, solely uses Interactive Brokers data on available shares. Fails-to-Deliver, borrowed shares, and shorted volume per day are also provided.

iBorrowDesk VS Stonk-O-Tracker

iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker provide services that are extremely similar and may be useful to investors interested in options trading. Throughout the open hours of the stock market, both websites update their information regularly.

Aside from GameStop and AMC, iBorrowDesk contains information on additional stocks. The two websites are run by people who “enjoy the stocks.” The owner of iBorrowDesk has worked in banking and as a software developer, but, there is no information on the Stonk-O-Tracker founder’s employment or training.

It’s vital to note that the majority of the borrow rate data on both of these websites only relates to Interactive Brokers. As a result, investors who are interested in performing short sells or options trading should conduct more comprehensive research, including using additional trustworthy sites. At the end of the day, I feel that you must recognize that short selling is one of the most fundamental branches of finance, and both iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker are unquestionable resources for stock short selling.