Is there a way to use ib_async to check whether a stock is shortable, whether it is easy to borrow, and/or what its borrow rate is?

[6nc0r6-1mp6r0]

To note, IB appears to have a "Shortable Instruments Search tool" or "Shortable Search" which seems to serve as a user interface for IBKR's Securities Loan Borrow (SLB) system. However, it is unclear to me how to access this tool and I doubt it would offer a reasonable route for automated access anyway. I also suspect that shortability, easy-to-borrow status, and borrow rate are available through scanners in Trader Workstation, though automated access seems like it would again be a challenge and I am not sure whether scanners can be used to look up the described parameters for a given stock (and if they would be the preferred approach even if they could).

[gnzsnz]

You can use the tick type 236

https://interactivebrokers.github.io/tws-api/tick_types.html#shortable

And/Or get them using ftp

https://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/it/article/2024

[6nc0r6-1mp6r0]

Like @bobye, I am also getting nan when I run @gnzsnz's code with waits of up to 8 minutes. I omit ib_async.util.startLoop() and change "tws" to 'localhost'. I am using VS Code and IB Gateway.

Could the difference in results be due to a difference in data subscriptions? Currently I have

• CME Event Contracts
• US Mutual Funds (NP,L1)
• US Real-Time Non Consolidated Streaming Quotes (IBKR-PRO)
• US Reg NMS Snapshot
• US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle (NP,L1)
• ZEROHASH Cryptocurrency
• Alternative European Equities (L1)
• IDEALPRO FX (IDEAL PRO)
• US and EU Bond Quotes (L1)

(IB charges me only for the US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle (NP,L1). The fees of the rest are "waived.")

@gnzsnz, if I may ask, do you have any subscriptions beyond the above list that might allow you to receive data for the tsla_ticker.shortableShares calls?

[mattsta]

some notes:

• I think when you send a request for these ticks, sometimes the IBKR server goes out and calculates them on-demand in the background. You'll often notice if you request them once, it returns nothing for anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds, but then if you reconnect and try again, you get almost an immediate answer. This seems to imply they are using cached values with TTLs in their own platform for some of these requests. You also often get faster responses to extra data ticks during market hours than after hours or on weekends.

• Make sure you aren't just globally sleeping once then expecting a result. Ideally you should be using the async interfaces so the data updates can properly arrive in the background. Worst case, sleep in a loop so you're not blocking your entire client the whole time.

• I don't think shortable shares count requires a data subscription? That's just an internal IBKR value.

• sometimes the data fields just don't populate. Try again later. Welcome to IBKR data feeds. Every time I use them, I have a pre-acceptance loop for "is the data there yet?" (just checking for non-empty values everywhere) that tries to read once per second for 5-20 seconds before giving up and trying again later.

[6nc0r6-1mp6r0]

I appreciate these tips, Matt. It saves hours to know what kind of experience to expect. Thank you.

I also just noticed that when I run my version of @gnzsnz's code, IBKR displays the message in the terminal, "Error 10089, reqId 60: Requested market data requires additional subscription for API. See link in 'Market Data Connections' dialog for more details." If I immediately check my IBKR Gateway window before the code reaches ib.disconnect(), there is a link "Click here to subscribe to API-specific market data packages" highlighted in yellow in this window. When I click the link, I am directed to an IBKR page where I am encouraged to subscribe to the "NASDAQ TotalView-OpenView EDS (NP,L2)" package. When I try to do so, IB automatically loads all of the packages below into my cart:

• NASDAQ TotalView-OpenView EDS - North America (USD 1.00/mo)
• NASDAQ TotalView-OpenView - North America (USD 16.50/mo)
• NYSE (Network A/CTA) - North America (USD 1.50/mo)
• NYSE American, BATS, ARCA, IEX, and Regional Exchanges (Network B) - North America (USD 1.50/mo)
• NASDAQ (Network C/UTP) - North America (USD 1.50/mo)

Perhaps the last four are necessary for the first? Can anyone confirm that these subscriptions are actually necessary for shortable shares ticker data as IB suggests? I agree with @mattsta that shortable shares data seems like it would not require a data subscription.

[bobye]

I still couldn't get the shortableShares from the API. I can see these values in TWS Market Data UI, but somehow not loadable from API. I am using the Linux version, not sure if it matters.

[6nc0r6-1mp6r0]

Thanks, @bobye. Same on my end. I am running the Windows version (on Windows 10 on a PC, nothing fancy).

The FTP route described in the link in @gnzsnz's initial comment does seem to work for me. Here are three options in Python that fetch any of the files in the FTP location. (Once downloaded, these can be stashed in a database, loaded into memory, or whatever.)

file_name = 'usa.txt'
remote_path = 'ftp://shortstock: @ftp2.interactivebrokers.com/' + file_name
local_path = 'C:/Users/.../' + file_name

# Option 1
from urllib.request import URLopener
import shutil
opener = URLopener()
with opener.open(remote_path) as r, open(local_path, 'wb') as l:
    shutil.copyfileobj(r, l)

# Option 2
from contextlib import closing
import urllib.request as ur
import shutil
with closing(ur.urlopen(remote_path)) as r, open(local_path, 'wb') as l:
    shutil.copyfileobj(r, l)

# Option 3
import ftplib
ftp = ftplib.FTP('ftp2.interactivebrokers.com') 
ftp.login('shortstock', '')
ftp.set_pasv(True)  # optional
ftp.retrbinary('RETR ' + file_name, open(local_path, 'wb').write)
ftp.quit()

[gnzsnz]

I have the humble value bundle

I just did a test during market hours

import ib_async
ib_async.util.startLoop()

def on_shortable(time,price,size):
    logger.info(f"on_shortable: {time}, {price}, {size}")

def shortable_shares(self) -> "Tickfilter":
    """Emit shortable share ticks."""
    return ib_async.ticker.Tickfilter((46,89), self)

# monkey patch
ib_async.ticker.TickerUpdateEvent.shortable_shares = shortable_shares

ib = ib_async.IB()
ib.connect('tws',7499,clientId=543) # use whatever works for you

tsla_contract = ib_async.Stock('TSLA','SMART','USD')
ib.qualifyContracts(tsla_contract)

tsla_ticker = ib.reqMktData(tsla_contract,genericTickList="236")

shortable = tsla_ticker.updateEvent.shortable_shares()
shortable.connect(on_shortable)

tsla_ticker.shortableShares,tsla_ticker.hasBidAsk()
(66555313.0, True)

ib.sleep(10)
shortable.clear()

log output

INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:29,486:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:29.486054+00:00, 3.0, 0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:29,487:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:29.486054+00:00, 3.0, 0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:31,156:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:31.156686+00:00, -1.0, 66544738.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:33,205:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:33.204920+00:00, -1.0, 66545238.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:33,387:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:33.387177+00:00, -1.0, 66545138.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:35,072:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:35.071950+00:00, -1.0, 66545148.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:36,571:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:36.570897+00:00, -1.0, 66545146.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:36,934:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:36.934368+00:00, -1.0, 66545346.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:37,119:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:37.119772+00:00, -1.0, 66545246.0
INFO:2025-03-31 16:41:37,313:on_shortable: 2025-03-31 14:41:37.313484+00:00, -1.0, 66545146.0

I don't have to wait much to get data working.

@mattsta after running this test, I have some... new ideas 🤗

from types import MethodType

class TickerUpdateEvent(Event):
    __slots__ = ()

    # Existing methods
    def trades(self) -> "Tickfilter":
        """Emit trade ticks."""
        return Tickfilter((4, 5, 48, 68, 71), self)

    # New method to dynamically create filter methods on the instance
    def create_filter(self, tick_list: tuple, name: str) -> None:
        """
        Dynamically create a filter method on this instance with the given name and tick list.
        
        Args:
            tick_list (tuple): Tuple of tick identifiers to filter.
            name (str): Name of the new method to create.
        
        Raises:
            ValueError: If the name conflicts with an existing attribute.
        """
        if hasattr(self, name):
            raise ValueError(f"Cannot create method '{name}': name already exists on this instance")
        
        # Define the dynamic method
        def dynamic_filter(self) -> "Tickfilter":
            """Emit ticks based on a custom tick list."""
            return Tickfilter(tick_list, self)
        
        # Bind it to this instance only
        setattr(self, name, MethodType(dynamic_filter, self))

# Usage example
tsla_ticker.updateEvent.create_filter((46,89), "shortable_shares")
shortable_handler = tsla_ticker.updateEvent.shortable_shares()  # Works on this instance only

this is the concept, the implementation can be different. we might have create_filter(self, tick_list: tuple, name: str, class_type:Any) and

        def dynamic_filter(self) -> class_type:
            """Emit ticks based on a custom tick list."""
            return class_type(tick_list, self)

so we can go beyond Tickfilter.

with this we can get a handler for any tick type, which can greatly improve what it's available today. of course we will always have monkey patching.

[mattsta]

Update: so there is a bug in the next branch where shortableShares isn't being populated. oops.

I was testing again and it never showed up. Tracked it down to a refactor bug. Updated the next branch with the fix (if that's what you were using).

THe ohter details could be interesting, will add to the list of things to look into. Still need to run through the eventkit updates, package that along with the next refactors, and sync a new version release plus the dataclass efficiency fixes where possible (some of those are tricky because slots=True dataclasses can have different caching or serialization behavior, so just have to check they aren't being used in weird ways).

[bobye]

I am using the pip installed version (v1.0.3?) Does it have the bug "where shortableShares isn't being populated" you mentioned?