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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lindend who wrote (2753)	8/3/1999 3:18:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10293

Linden, When you sell stocks short, cash is paid into an account at your brokerage firm. The firm holds it in money market securities as part of your margin for the short sale until you cover the position. In the meantime, that account earns interest at money market rates. Most firms just steal all of it. However, large accounts receive rebates of the major portion of this interest. After all, the short seller is taking the risk, not the broker, and deserves the interest. Hedge operations like the Bass Brothers and Soros get from 95-97% of the interest earned. Individuals such as myself can occasionally get 70-90% of the rebate if we hold our breath until we turn blue and flash a concealed hand gun in the brokerage office. <g> Merrill and Pershing tend to give the most generous rebates as they have the largest vaults full of stock certificates in street name. Other firms often have to borrow from financial institutions and pay them a part of the interest, usually fairly minor fractions of the total. But they try to hog the majority for the firm.