IBs Stock Yield Enhancement Program

DionysusToast

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Hi All

I've just heard about IBs Stock Yield Enhancement Program.

IB already gives me 'double bubble' - what I do is park all of my cash in ETFs that offer me protection against US currency depreciation and also pay a dividend. As I don't use margin on this, I effectively day trade the same money that is in those stocks.

So - if you have $100k in the account, you can buy $100k in stocks and still day trade futures because of the fact it's a universal margin account.

Now I see they have a stock yield enhancement program where they'll pay you a percentage of the yield they get for people holding shorts. This seems like a no-brainer to me, although the whole 'money for nothing' aspect leaves me a bit suspicious that I've missed something.

Does anyone else participate in this or have any thoughts on the downside potential?

Thanks

DT
 
http://www.interactivebrokers.com/e...tockYieldEnhancementProgram.php?ib_entity=llc

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/...pleView?file=SecuritiesLendingDisclosure.html

The PDF goes into more detail:

1/ Tax disadvantages:
"cash payments in lieu of dividends are not the same as
qualified dividends for tax purposes and may be taxed as normal income (up to 35%) instead of the
preferential qualified dividend rate of 15%
"

2/ No loan rate Guarantee
"There are no rules or mechanisms that guarantee or require that any
given participant in the marketplace will receive the best rate for lending shares, and Interactive
Brokers cannot and does not guarantee that you will receive the most favorable rate for lending your
shares."

3/ No Guarantee that stock will be loaned out:
There is no guarantee that you will be able to lend (or that IB will want to or be able to borrow) your
Fully-Paid shares. There may not be a market to lend your Fully-Paid shares in a particular security at
a rate that is advantageous
, or IB may not have access to a market with willing borrowers.

From what I can see you would be best parking liquid stock with a high demand for day traders / short term swing traders (DOW30 - Nasdaq).
You do appear to be able to sell your stock at any time even if already loaned out - IB then becomes counter party, so there is no minimum duration lock in.

Main things to watch seem to be stock choice and tax disadvantages.
Does look OK actually...:cool:
 
Yeah - I read that and didn't really see a lot of downside in it.

For tax, I'm not worried seeing as you are only being taxed on additional income. I'd rather have 65% of something than 100% of nothing.

Still - there must be a catch....
 
Could be the potential lack of SIPC protection.
Simple way to try it out, swing trade some liquid stock with the longs in this scheme,
Just a couple K's worth and see how it goes...

Maybe they are trying to attract long term holders - not sure if employees / directors with share options could use this scheme?

TBH though - gut instinct says its to solve liquidity issues with IB's market
making affiliate Timber Hill in illiquid stocks...
Why Timber Hill would be looking at IB customers to lend liquid stock is beyond me...

If I am right that means you may only get the most interest and best rates from penny stocks, or at the very least illiquid stock...which come with all the associated risks :)
 
My impression is that IB is pretty good with supply of stocks to short. Certainly much better than Tradestation ever was.

The SIPC is a potential worry:

"When the lending transaction takes place, your securities will be removed from your account. In
return, your account will receive cash collateral to secure the amount of the loan. For example, if you
lend $100,000 of securities, your account will receive $100,000 in collateral. The cash collateral is
intended to protect you in the event that the borrower of the securities fails to return them."

and then

"The provisions of the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 may not protect you as a lender
with respect to securities loan transactions in which you lend to Interactive Brokers your Fully-
Paid securities. Therefore, the collateral delivered to you (and indicated on your account
statement) by Interactive Brokers may constitute the only source of satisfaction of IB’s
obligation in the event that IB fails to return the securities."

I'm not sure I get it. Are they saying that the worst case scenario is you are stuck with the cash value of your shares?

I could live with that - it's no worse than selling options on your shares for income. Which incidentally, you could do alongside this too.

double, triple, quadruple bubble....
 
From what I can see the you are not covered under SIPC customer protection
http://www.sipc.org/pdf/SIPA.pdf - page 20

"the collateral delivered to you (and indicated on your account
statement) by Interactive Brokers may constitute the only source of satisfaction of IB’s
obligation in the event that IB fails to return the securities"

Its the "may" not be covered bit that gets me.
Either there is SIPC protection or not.
WTF is "may" :whistling
IB are supposed to be counter party anyway, not just when you sell stock already on loan.

That is why I came to the conclusion its to provide liquidity in penny stocks for Timber Hill - high risk of said stock going to the wall, hence IB cover themselves with some SIPC clause.

Not having a pop at IB as such, but the "may not be protected by SIPC" is rather vague TBH.
 
I don't see how that could be a wipe out....

"The cash collateral is intended to protect you in the event that the borrower of the securities fails to return them."

I guess I need to call them.
 
No I agree, just edited that out, what I meant was total wipeout if the stock is suspended.
The collateral would apply on loan default.
 
Hi All
Now I see they have a stock yield enhancement program where they'll pay you a percentage of the yield they get for people holding shorts. This seems like a no-brainer to me, although the whole 'money for nothing' aspect leaves me a bit suspicious that I've missed something.

Does anyone else participate in this or have any thoughts on the downside potential?
DT

Short answer: DON'T (unless you like loosing your money)

Long answer: This is a first time I write such feedback but experience w/ IB triggered me to share my observations so others won’t fall into the same trap.
I am an experienced investor that had accounts with multiple brokers. Moved into IB some time ago attracted by their lowest in industry margin rates, trade commissions, etc. My overall impression is mixed, while above still holds their clunky interface (that I can live with) and the fact that sometimes it takes customer support days to get back to (in several cases never, I had to call after opening tickets online w/o any follow up for several weeks) is a big turn off. Overall I am still moderately optimistic (if SYEP is considered it makes overall experience negative BUT you don’t have to use it).
Now as to SYEP (stock yield enhancement problem) – to put bluntly it borders the scum or at minimum suffers from very unsuccessful implementation, software algorithm or whatnot. My real practical experience w/ SYEP is below.
While all the concerns quoted on this thread are true but IMO they are unlikely to materialize. The key problem is in following; IB doesn’t promise to segregate dividends but rather will attempt to do so:
http://ibkb.interactivebrokers.com/node/1839
“Participants may not receive actual dividends on loaned shares but instead a cash payment equivalent to the full dividend to be paid on the same date as the dividend (referred to as a 'Payment in Lieu'). As a Payment in Lieu is treated differently than a dividend for U.S. tax reporting purposes, certain taxpayers may not receive the more favorable tax treatment afforded to dividend payments deemed 'qualified'. IB generally seeks to avoid this consequence for SYEP participants by recalling shares 10 days prior to record date, so the actual dividend is paid, but this is not guaranteed.”
As a result I have received about %40 of my dividends as PiLs (payments in lieu that are taxed at ordinary income level). Also keep in mind that some brokers will even compensate you (like Fidelity for occasional PiLs that happened due to them loaning stock in your margin account and I never seen that reaching 2 digit percent number). Let’s do some math (this is close to real numbers rounded for simplicity).
Without SYEP: $10,000 dividend - %15 tax = $8500 your net income after tax
With SYEP:: $10,000 dividend w/ some portion paid as PiLs due to the fact that some stocks were loaned out when dividends paid. I.e. $6,000 dividends + $4000 PiL before taxes lend in your account. After tax: ($6,000 – %15) + ($4,000 - %35) = $7700. Assuming %35 ordinary income tax bracket, you might be better or worse depending on your income situation.
Conclusion: participation in SYEP was a net loss of $7700 - $8500 = -$800. Not worth it. Not even close. Expect PiLs to wipe out any gains generated by SYEP.
I contacted IB challenging them about unsuccessful nature of their program (I am hoping it is not intentional misleading of customers) based on what they wrote online “IB generally seeks to avoid this consequence for SYEP participants by recalling shares” – since that recalling resulted in the loss. The answer was that they were thinking about improving their program.
 
For example, if you lend $100,000 of securities, your account will receive $100,000 in collateral. The cash collateral is
intended to protect you in the event that the borrower of the securities fails to return them."


So what happens after IB pays you the cash value of the stock and lends it out, the stock doubles in value over the next few days? Now the collateral is only 50% of your shares value. And if the stocks don't get returned, you lose out?
 
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