Rebate Rate
Definition
The interest a short seller earns on cash collateral posted to borrow shares, less the borrow fee charged by the lender. For hard-to-borrow stocks the rebate can be negative — the short seller pays to hold the position.
Related Terms
Borrow Fee
The annualised cost of borrowing shares to maintain a short position, expressed as a percentage of the position's market value. Highly-shorted or low-float ASX stocks can carry borrow fees of 20-50% or more.
Hard-to-Borrow
Stocks where shares for short-selling are scarce, driving up borrow fees and increasing recall risk. Often coincides with a building short squeeze setup. On the ASX, hard-to-borrow status is broker-defined and not publicly listed.
Securities Lending
The process by which shares are borrowed from institutional holders (like superannuation funds) to facilitate short selling. Lenders receive a fee for making their shares available.
See short selling in action
Explore real-time ASIC short position data for ASX stocks.