UPDATE: I’ve done 1 trade with Interactive Brokers so far, yes, they had shares to short of JSDA while Thinkorswim didn’t, but they screwed up the executions–I put in limit orders to short sell at $1.18, $1.15, $1.10, but all were canceled…I tried their chat window, but after 30 minutes, nobody answered…I tried calling in, but no new orders can be placed on the phone….LOL…almost magically, I tried again on the web with a limit order to short at $1 and it was accepted…pathetic, cost me $500+ on a poor execution…but I still made $400 on the trade so IB is a gift and a curse.
To find more shares to short of hard-to-borrow-names of course!
I actually had been meaning to open an account for a very long time, but no matter how many times I emailed or called to get some sort of affiliate business together–as I do with the customer-support/helpfulness/tools superior broker I still use and recommend Thinkorswim (TOS)–I never heard anything back. Perhaps more importantly, IBKR doesn’t work with Covestor due to some extra security precautions.
So screw it–you guys know I’ll tell the truth about my trades (and just in case I’ll probly suck up taking screenshots to prove it) and I’ll get that affiliate deal working eventually (so don’t sign up yet!), but for now, I just need another source for hard-to-borrow shares.
I’m still obsessed with TOS, but as I’ve said repeatedly, it’s best to have accounts with multiple brokers if you’re going to try to short these hyped up/manipulated penny stocks.
And unlike TOS’s handy chat function (the process which I detail HERE) for which I awake early each morning, IBKR doesn’t even have reserving shares to short, you just gotta check their availability list–they either have it when you want to short or they don’t.
So, now I’ve got $30,000ish with TOS and $12,000 even with IBKR. Let’s see which one grows faster…to infinity and beyond! One small gain from piece of crap companies at a time…
UPDATE2: My IB account is now $12,405 after my gain on JSDA and I’m up 243% since I started TIM in November 07…I’m finally up in 2009 after being in the hole 3% in early February…
