Utilization in the Securities Lending Market

Utilization is defined as loaned shares divided by available shares in the securities lending market, expressed as a percentage. Utilization can be interpreted as a ratio of demand to supply. For example, Apple Inc. (AAPL) may have utilization of less than 1% because lenders have vast inventory relative to the demand of borrowing AAPL shares for shorting. A less liquid stock may have utilization above 90% because lenders’ available inventory to satisfy borrower demand is limited.

For accounts enrolled in the Stock Yield Enhancement Program (SYEP), high Utilization may increase the likelihood that we are able to lend the shares. Inversely, stocks with low Utilization are generally in lesser demand in the securities lending market, reducing or eliminating our ability to lend shares. More infrormation on SYEP, including the risks of participating, can be reviewed here.

Utilization is available on various platforms of ours. For example, it can be added as a column in Trader Workstation (TWS) and used as a filter in several market scanners.

Please note that the Utilization metric is provided by a data vendor and is not specific to IBKR. The metric does not include loaned and available positions for the entire securities lending market because the vendor does not collect data from every market participant. In addition, although the source is believed to be reliable, we do not warrant its accuracy.