How Do iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker Work?

A few free resources you might have heard of if you’re interested in short selling of stocks are iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker. Both of these stock-related websites appear to be run by individuals who are interested in stocks. Neither of the websites is connected to a financial institution.  

First, iBorrowDesk is an online tool that provides borrow rates on stocks for those who want to short sell securities. It also provides the number of shares available for borrowing, but only from Interactive Brokers and no other brokers.  

Meanwhile, Stonk-O-Tracker also has its limits. It only provides data on two stocks—GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings, (AMC). 

At times, iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker are referenced in comments on Reddit threads like WallStreetBets. For example, a commenter several days ago brought up the fact that iBorrowDesk only shows available shares to borrow from Interactive Brokers, not from any other brokers.  

The user said, “Relying solely on IBorrowDesk is incomplete data at best, and confirmation bias at worst.” This wasn't a comment to deter people from using iBorrowDesk, but to urge them to search other sources for information on borrow rates and availability. 

iBorrowDesk is a database created to monitor borrow rates on stocks. Using data from Interactive Brokers, the site shows stocks, ticker symbols, borrow fee rates, and availability. The creator of iBorrowDesk says that the data updates every 15 minutes during open stock trading hours. 

For each stock, iBorrowDesk shows the borrow rates (fees traders must pay when borrowing shares needed for a short sale). It also shows the available shares from Interactive Brokers. 

Stonk-O-Tracker is also a website that aggregates certain information about stocks. It's limited to data on GameStop and AMC Entertainment. There's information that might be helpful for options traders like borrow rates and available shares to borrow (from Interactive Brokers only). 

The Stonk-O-Tracker includes GameStop's and AMC's latest stock price and trading volume. The creator pulls call contracts from Yahoo Finance and displays the sum of contracts in the money.  

Stonk-O-Tracker notes whether a short sale restriction is being enforced for the security, as well as shares available to borrow and the number of ETF shares available. Like iBorrowDesk, Stonk-O-Tracker only uses Interactive Brokers data on shares available. Other data included are Fails-to-Deliver, borrowed shares, and shorted volume per day.  

iBorrowDesk and Stonk-O-Tracker perform very similar functions that could be helpful to investors interested in options trading. Both websites update their information frequently throughout the stock market’s open hours. 

iBorrowDesk includes data on other stocks besides GameStop and AMC. The two sites are maintained by individuals who “like the stocks.” iBorrowDesk’s creator has worked in finance and as a software developer, while there isn't any indication of the Stonk-O-Tracker creator's career or training.  

It’s important to realize that most of the data for borrow rates for both of these websites only applies to Interactive Brokers. Therefore, investors looking to perform short sales or options trading need to do more thorough research including other credible resources.