Broker with most available shares to short?

A week ago my broker did not have shares of apple to short during a large move. This is unacceptable for my strategy.

Can anyone recommend the broker with the best percentage odds of being able to execute a short order of a large cap stock like Apple?

 

Name of broker? Seems absurd.

 

Thanks, Optionsxpress.

 

Are you looking for a retail relationship or an institutional one? For a retail relationship, I hear IB is very good. If you are looking for a institutional clearing firm I can make other suggestions privately based on other criteria.

 

it could have been a temporary glitch in their system. i would not draw any conclusion from a one time occurrence.

 

Assuming you're a swing trader -- if your brokers supports 1Chicago (not all do) you could trade SSFs and forget about borrow worries.

 

If you happen to want to trade the very few stock futures with the very few expirations that have a bid/ask quoted. On IB it appears that there is no one making a market on the vast majority of SSFs, and even if there is a market its only for the near month. Would love to have someone tell me I'm looking at the wrong thing though.

 

I tried 4 times over 5 minutes roughly, they did not have shares.

 

I am just looking for recommendations on the best retail firm - Interactive Brokers, Trade Station, etc. etc. - I just need the best odds for short order execution, so I want the largest firm or firm with most shares to lend on average, thanks.

 

Fidelity has one of the biggest "box" of shares to loan. IB would be very good too.