S&P 500 SPDR ($SPY) weekly puts trade completed.
For those new to options, a call is a bet that a certain stock will go up and a put is a bet that it will go down. So by buying a put option in this post I was looking for a move lower.
At the time of this writing I have taken a 56% profit after commission on some weekly SPY 127 puts that expire today. Entered in at 0.16/contract and exited at 0.28.
As you will see in the chart included, I have placed my entry and exits with yellow stars and my ideal target exit with a green star. The yellow dots in between some of the candles are times where I created an order to exit the trade and cancelled. I wanted to exit twice when I had generated 20% profit and once when I had over 25% loss.
(Click Chart to Enlarge)
My Entry (first yellow star) was just where I wanted it (below the daily pivot). I am still working on my exit execution and controlling of emotions. I usually write out how I feel about the market action or trade via either sharing with another trader via text, chat, twitter etc. When those aren’t my preferred choice I write it down on a notebook. It’s not foolproof but it helps me personally stick to my strategy and most of the time a trade.
I will provide more info about the chart for the curious ones… The purple dots represent the daily pivot point. The red dots represent resistance levels and the grey dots are support levels. The two red lines represent yesterday’s highs and lows so I would have an idea when that tight trend that developed yesterday would be broken. Also the chart is 5 minute to show the entries better but I prefer to use 15 minutes when day trading.
This is mainly on here for me to reflect on as an online public journal, they say when you publicly share something you are more committed to keeping it (in this case sticking to my strategy that works for me and just working on getting better at exits and emotions).
Update: As of 11:35AM Eastern it looks like my ideal exit has been hit and the put options were worth 0.49 a contract. Had I executed that the profits would have been 187% after commission but that’s in an ideal world. Another influencer in my premature exit (pun intended) was that Obama was set to speak around 11:35AM and I wanted to avoid any spikes that would ruin my trade.
As of 12:50PM SPY hit lower than the second support line in my chart. Emotions got the best of me and I did exit too early indeed (would have been 400% since my entry). Its hard to think of it that way. If i had exited at -25% loss (as mentioned earlier) I would be devastated for the day.
As the new InvestingFreak tag says: See it, Call it, Trade it, Bank it.
I Saw the potential for a down day, Called it by texting a fellow trader (will work on tweeting realtime to share ideas), Traded it, and well... Banked it.
Make some moneyyy!! 
-K
A Tale of two Companies: Netflix ($NFLX) and Blockbuster (BLOAQ)
If you are reading this blog that means you are part of the online revolution which has sped up the way we conduct business and also the way we spend our leisure time.
The recent years have brought user generated videos, tv episodes and even full movies to the web. Gone are the VHS and DVD days where it cost $6-7 to rent a movie and in are the $10-15/month to watch unlimited movies. The company that revolutionized this was Netflix a few years back and that caused dear ol' brick and mortar Blockbuster to go belly-up.
Well Gentlemen and Ladies the beast is awakening from its two year sleep. In what might turn out to be a lengthy blog post I will be evaluating both Netflix and Blockbuster because in another week (December 15th) Blockbuster is expected to file its reorganization plan.
Lets start with Netflix $NFLX king which Since January 2010 alone is up a whopping 245% from $55 to $190 a share. Being a technical analysis freak I always look at the chart to see how the stock has done in the past and whether its shot up too far from the ground (my moving averages trio) and as you can see below the real ground is the 110 ema which right now stands at 151.37. I also use two shorter term averages in case I don't want to wait for a stock to go that low but with Netflix being $40+ above ground I am willing to wait. (Click Image to Enlarge)
Sure sure technicals are one thing but I also like to look under the hood at fundamentals. I plug balance sheet, income statement and other data into my system and what I get is an all in one visual of different ratios. The profit margins have increased over the years and that is a positive thing but Netflix's equity multiplier has increased from 1.78 to 3.41 which is basically doubled within the year and that signals to leveraging, all the profitability ratios are also good, but when we get to Liquidity ratios such as current and quick ratios we see a different story, Netflix has become more illiquid for better or worse. Lastly Long term debt to total assets has gone up significantly from 6% to 35% within a year so that might be a warning shot. And Finally the past few day Netflix has been under the influence of mostly negative news and especially tonight's after-hours news of its CFO "retiring".
Netflix receives a score of 57% (out of 100 of course) based on my hybrid system of technical analysis, fundamental and news and on we move into Blockbuster.
When was the last time you heard about Blockbuster? My educated guess would be around 2007 when they stopped advertising (started going belly-up). Well I do have some news for you and the news is that the Yellow and Blue logo is making a comeback but first lets keep the layout somewhat organized (neat freak) and start off with a chart.
Below is a chart using the exact averages as above but this one isn't as pretty and Blockbuster (BLOAQ) former $BBI has been "under ground" for quite some time. Even with the recent doubling of its price from 5 cents to 10 cents the ground hog hasn't been able to stick its head above the 12 cent ground for long. Back in May the ground hog (Blockbuster) poked its head, didn't see a shadow and that resulted in 6 more months of winter. So technically speaking, 12 cents has to be broken before the stock goes anywhere gooood. (Click Below to Enlarge)
Just because Blockbuster stock is yet to break out, that doesn't mean that the company isn't making steps into a re-emergence from bankruptcy. As mentioned in the beginning of this article Blockbuster should be submitting its plan on December 15th, meanwhile they have just closed 18 more physical stores in a move from offline to online media. For those of you that like purchasing dvds at a physical location, NCR Corp operates RedBox-like kiosks with Blockbuster logo and movies. Tests on about 900 kiosks are being run now in San Francisco, Miami etc to see if people would pay $3.99 for the first night to rent a new movie 28 days before it comes out to Netflix. Going into bankruptcy it had $1 billion in debt and coming out it is expected to have $100 million or less.
Just a few weeks ago Blockbuster received court approval for $20 million in advertising, it had not advertised since 2007 and they have already begun with a few ads showing their competitive edge of providing movies 28 days earlier than Netflix the ad campaign is called "Less Waiting. More Watching."
Another thing i noticed while looking website statistics and info is that when you search "new releases" on Google Blockbuster.com is #3 ranked and Netflix is #10.
Ok so why would I (or You) as a consumer want to pay $11.99/month for the 1 Dvd plan when Netflix is $9.99/month right now?
Well there is a big reason why I highlighted "right now" because it is the main reason Blockbuster is the only one to offer movies 28 days earlier since it costs $3.99/movie.
With Netflix's recent fame in the stock market more companies such as the movie studios will want to suck more money out of them and they (Netflix) will pay higher prices for the movies. At this moment either Net profit margins will begin declining if the $9.99 price is still valid or Netflix will be forced to charge $10.99, 11.99 12.99 etc and that will drive users to other competitors since the price advantage is no longer valid.
With the new campaign, Blockbuster's ad spending next month is to be three times as high as it was last December. The final month of the year is traditionally one of the most lucrative for the company, as summer event movies come out on DVD and families watch movies together over the holidays.
I will leave you with Blockbuster's new ad campaign that came out less than a week ago.
What a crook I would be if I didn't disclose my holdings. Short NFLX via option puts and long Blockbuster.
When ETF’s don’t work ($VXX, $VIX)
We are all caught up in the new bubble that I would like to call the Great "Enron Task Force" (ETF).
Basically ETF's are usually set up to mimic indices that we cannot directly buy. That is a great way to stay invested and diversified if you believe the stock market in general will do good or bad. The number of Enron Task Forces is now reaching the gazillions and "investors" are so drawn into them that they are getting bigger and bigger and bigger (can you guess already?).
Here is SPY ETF compared to the index that it tries to replicate. (Click To Enlarge)
As you can see the mirroring effect is almost so perfect that by owning SPY shares you will make nearly the same percentage as how the S&P 500 has performed. Thats GREAT! It takes pain away from doing individual stock research. Of course if you still want to invest in specific stocks with minimal effort and AMAZING returns I would recommend Bear Sterns. After you have made millions in Bear Sterns get your attention back to this useless post.
Hey I have an Idea! I believe Volatility will increase and VIX index will keep going higher again. Hmm "Google Google on the wall whats the best ETF of them All?" Google: VXX for the win! So there you have it, if you want volatility there is an ETF for that. Alright time to cut to the chase because its nearing midnight. Click Below to Enlarge the Comparison between VIX and VXX.
Notice a Difference between the SPY comparison and the the VXX comparison? Gosh I hope so or get the FREAK out of here! They don't mirror each other AT ALL. They Barely did before last august and from then on its a whole different story. Speaking of stories... Thanks Dan for the heads up in the comments about the "VXX Reverse Split 1:4" story.
For those that are new to stock splits a quick search can yield a lot of information but I will spare that for you by explaining in my own words what will happen here.
When VXX reverse splits in the first week of November (lets assume its at $13 on that day) it will start showing up as a $52 instead. How can they just change the price? Well If you owned 4 shares of VXX now you will own just 1 later thats how.
Ok finally getting to the finish. A reverse split is bad because instead of increasing the amount of shares outstanding, the company is making this move to make the stock look like it has more value when in fact is the same crappy thing. I will not be playing VXX but seeing the "oh so perfect" mirroring effect it has done so far I congratulate those who will keep shorting it via whatever method works for them and reaping profits until VXX slashes in half once again.
Thats it for now and I hope that helped clear your question Dan. Volatility will not get a spark just because Barclays "Enron Task Force" will have a "higher price". If you're still confused or stumble upon other interesting things that you would like to share, the boxes are right below the post most of the time.
Happy Trading all and to all a good night!
-K
The Perfectly Timed Vacation
It's been six weeks and the stockless and unwired vacation has wound down. To my surprise I see that BP bottomed right when I covered my July puts at a profit and since its nearly 39% up. Euro went from 1.22's to 1.33's and so on. Its time for me to find the reigns and take control of the market once more.
It will be a week or two until I get my trading groove on but for now i've updated the Current Pick's page on top.
here are the main indices.
Market Indices
| Symbol | Description | Buy Date | Sell Date |
|---|---|---|---|
|
$SPX
|
S&P 500 INDEX
|
7-7-2010
|
|
|
SPY
|
SPDR S&P 500 ETF
|
7-7-2010
|
|
|
$INDU
|
Dow Jones Industrial Average
|
7-7-2010
|
|
|
$COMPX
|
NASDAQ Composite
|
7-8-2010
|
|
|
QQQQ
|
PowerShares QQQ (ETF)
|
7-8-2010
|
|
|
IWM
|
iShares Russell 2000 Index (ETF)
|
8-6-2010
|
Hope its been a profitable 100 point market move for my fellow readers and here's to more fun swings to come.
-K
Tropical Storm Alex to BP’s Rescue
I Want my life back! I am not the only one as plenty of fishes, birds, and people also want their life back that BP plc (ADR) has taken away. Not to Worry because BP feels sorry, so sorry that it is donating oil spill revenue to charity (the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation). BP said it would provide $5 million to the group immediately, Based on a current futures price of $77.83 a barrel, the collected oil is worth about $1.2 million. BP hopes to cap the well by August.
With the CEO now out of the picture time to get back to work and stop this drilling insanity. Hmm maybe not thanks to a federal judge who has overturned the Obama administration’s 6-month moratorium on new deepwater offshore drilling projects. What's the reason for overturning the decision?
The Interior Department said it needed time to study the risks of deepwater drilling but U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman said in his ruling the Interior Department assumed that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.
Come on there has to be more to this story and thankfully there is. Like many judges presiding in the Gulf region, Feldman owns lots of energy stocks, including Transocean, Halliburton, and two of BP’s largest U.S. private shareholders — BlackRock (7.1%) and JP Morgan Chase (28.3%). Here’s a list of Feldman’s income in 2008. How can he stop drilling when his heart is fully soaked in oil? He can't because Industry ties among federal judges are so widespread that they are beginning to endanger the courts’ ability to conduct routine business.
More great news! We don't need to head to Italy to see the amazing Leaning Tower of Pisa because BP pipe is tilting more.
The Deepwater Horizon riser package that sits on the seabed a mile below the ocean surface weighs over 450 tons, including the 48-foot-tall failed blowout preventer. National Incident Commander Thad Allen announced that the riser package is tilting “10 or 12 degrees off perpendicular (On June 10 it was only tilting by about 2 or 3 degrees). Engineers and geologists fear the stack atop the well could tip over if the well integrity further degrades, leading to the “unlikely, but not implausible” scenario of “oil gushing through the sea floor.”
Hey you say, its unlikely and worst case scenario and BP will get things rolling before something worse happens. What else coulg go wrong? everything is already factored for the worse.
Oh wait! More Great news just arrived! Tropical Storm Alex comes to the rescue (or not) of BP. The ECMWF model is the most aggressive in developing this system, taking it into the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane next week. The NOGAPS model keeps the storm weak and farther south, predicting that 93L will bring heavy rains to northern Honduras as a tropical disturbance or tropical depression on Friday and Saturday. But either way this will be fun to watch.
Here is the graph of Invest93 (Tropical Storm Alex)
Check out some previous BP Posts:
BP Cares about the small people June 17
BP now stands for Bad Publicity June 14
Thats all Folks,
-K
First Day of Summer
Its June 21st and officially first day of summer. With that being said a summer vacation is in the works which might result in some inactivity on here.
But until then I will not stop improving and updating the blog. Last week I managed to get the blog running from 7 second load page to less than 2 which is 3x faster.
Next up was the much neglected Current Picks page that wasn't updated since May 15th. That is now checked off the list and also an improvement in the look of the current picks page was done. Here is a before and after shot.
Next up on that page is to have a visual chart for at least the main indices but don't expect it anytime soon.
Getting away from general information and into market talk. It seems like 6-10-2010 was a turning date for the majority of the symbols that my system tracks. The S&P is up 31 points (nearly 3%) since then. One thing i noticed is that 1139 is strong resistance if it the market gets that high.
Seeing this i decided to have some fun by plugging in BP stock into the system and i'll let the chart speak for itself. Keep in mind BP rig exploded April 20th.
The Futures are up 13 points (1%). Only scheduled news is for Bennies counterpart Trichet to speak at 12:30pm. Unscheduled news? well the US navy moving around in the Red Sea and the Israeli crafting a new "do not bring into Gaza" list.
Update: Oh and what's this? Far offshore, crews drill into Gulf to stop oil (AP) Relief well? Ay Dios Mio!! The only little people left after this will be BP shareholders and pension funds. They dont know how much oil is underneath there... oh wait one relief well might not be enough because the aim has to be precise so lets drill about 50 and deplete the oil ASAP and when the bottom of the gulf becomes an empty cavity without the oil and collapses on itself it'll look like a humongous version of the Guatemalan Sinkhole and lets not mention the Mega Earthquake a crashing of the seafloor would create but wait lets add some tsunami for a topping 
. I realize i'm being a bit unrealistic as this takes time but lets put it this way,I might still be alive when it happens and it will not be pretty.
Make Money!!
-K
BP Cares about the small people
As you might have figured out by now, BP plc (ADR) Chairman and the CEO met with President Obama ONLY two months after the oil spill disaster.
Of course as I mentioned in the previous post BP now stands for Bad Publicity so nothing was unexpected on my end when the Chairman said: "I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people." Bad publicity this time will cause BP to buy google ads for keywords such as petite, small, midgets, oompa loompa. They needed a leprechaun to give them some lucky charms but now they insulted the small guy.
Did you hear that? BP cares about you so much that if you are in the Gulf of Mexico and for the next century your fishing or tourism business is doomed.. BP has put together $20 billion dollar fund for your damage It is truly truly truly sorry. Oh and If you weren't affected by BP but are part of US pension funds – including Calpers, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and Ohio Public Employees Retirement System then BP is truly truly truly sorry for you as well because the 12% dividend yield that you saw a few days ago will be reduced to 0% so they can spread that wealth to the victims. You can enjoy your -50% gain in BP stock now.
But wait I forgot to mention one benefit of this disaster. BP has hired cleanup workers to clean things up and this good news for the people of the Gulf. Hey you just got promoted from fisherman to fish rescuer, Congrats!! Just sign here on the dotted line ........... and just make sure to not get sea sick from the delicious fumes because your complaints and health information will never be part of BP's record.
BP attempted to deny and conceal links of its oil spill to illnesses, after initial reports of oil cleanup workers who were getting sick due to extended exposure to oil and dispersants. Fishermen have complained of “severe headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing” after working to clean up the spill, and one said BP did not provide protective equipment. But BP CEO Tony Hayward brushed off illness concerns, suggesting “food poisoning” might have been the culprit.
Although Louisiana state records indicate that at least 74 oil spill workers have complained of becoming sick after exposure to pollutants, BP’s own official recordkeeping notes just two such incidents.
You all should feel sorry for BP Because it will take anywhere from 100 days to 365 days for BP to make back the $20 billion in profit while the victims sit at home and receive checks.
Ok fine that's less than a year's worth of profits... But this is just a fund for economic damage, and won't protect it against all sorts of other legal costs. According to NYT legal costs and criminal fees could hit at least $63 billion. WHOOPS! Hey NYSE:BP stock... you will be missed when you hit $19 but on the bright side! You'll be a teenager again full of energy (pun intended) !
And now for a mini change of subject. Senate has now accepted an expanded Fed audit. The House proposal allows repeated future audits of discount window and open market transactions, whereas the Senate proposal had only allowed a one-time audit. Of course this is just a grain of salt and even when it's passed it might be years before we see any audits.
Germany Tries to save the day AGAIN -2008 Part 2 Begins-
So today Germany's Merkel decided to pull a good trick over the nekkid shorts.
There is much surprise that the German government has declared a ban on naked short selling, including CDS, as of midnight tonight, with no prior notice or the niceties demanded by the banks when government chooses to act. This action seems to have perturbed some and confused many.
Germany is claiming that this move will stop the Speculators
The ban will also apply to naked short selling in shares of 10 banks and insurers that will last until March 31, 2011, German financial regulator BaFin said today in an e-mailed statement. The step was needed because of “exceptional volatility” in euro-area bonds, the regulator said.
HMMM Where oh Where Have I heard this story before... Oh Yeahh.. September 20, 2008 German regulator bans short-selling in financial stocks
Germany on Saturday halted short-selling in financial shares, when investors borrow company stock to sell it, following the example of Britain and the United States. The ban affects 11 shares including those of AAreal Bank, Allianz, AMB Generali, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Boerse, Deutsche Postbank, Hannover Re, Hypo Real Estate, MLP and Munich Re. BaFin, said short sales were banned with immediate effect until the end of the year, underscoring that they could lead to huge losses in the current global financial turmoil.
Roll Back to May 18, 2010....
Allianz SE, Deutsche Bank AG, Commerzbank AG, Deutsche Boerse AG, Deutsche Postbank AG, Muenchener Rueckversicherungs AG, Hannover Rueckversicherungs AG, Generali Deutschland Holding AG, MLP AG and Aareal Bank AG are covered by the short-selling ban. “Massive” short-selling was leading to excessive price movements which “could endanger the stability of the entire financial system,” BaFin said in the statement.
I wonder what happened last time they tried protecting the banks? Well I will examine it below but what's that I hear you say? This Time is Different? It sure is!!
During the last Crisis we had Lehman go bankrupt and Bear Stearns collapse. Two years later we don't have any financial institutions going down. We Have Countries that are crumbling and their "shareholders" (taxpayers and citizens) revolting. Greece is Bear Stearns because of the trillion dollar bailout and Portugal might as well become Lehman because unless Europe is willing to print a trillion for every country they bail (which I know they can if they want) and euro dropping to parity and beyond with the dollar.... someone will have to hold the bankruptcy stick.
Anyways Lets look at how the last short selling ban affected the financial institutions they tried to protect.
I'm using Dow Jones Germany Index for a Benchmark as to compare returns.
| Company | Sept to Dec 2008 | May 2010 – March 2011 |
| Dow Jones Germany Index (USD) DEDOWD | -23% | TO |
| Allianz SE AVL | -30% | BE |
| Aareal Bank AG ARL | -64% | FILLED |
| Commerzbank AG CBK | -61% | OUT |
| Deutsche Bank AG DBK | -50% | ON |
| Deutsche Boerse AG DB1 | -15% | APRIL |
| Deutsche Postbank AG DPB | -65% | 2011 |
| Hannover Rueckversicherung AG HNR1 | -18% | WHEN |
| MLP AG MLP | -26% | BAN |
| Muenchener Rueckversicherungs-Ges. AG MUV2 | +7% | ENDS |
Oh myyyyyy Germany Saved the day as speculators were on the sidelines watching and missing out on 18 to 65% gains (its what you do when you short and if you're not familiar just Google "selling stocks short")
The Previous ban was 3 months and the protected stocks crashed an average of 46%. The New Ban will be around 11 months and will crash how much? It will crash aplenty so I will not make an exact percentage call on this one. But I will be doing one thing this time around though. I'm putting German Financials on a Bank Watch List that I will check back on April 1st 2011.
Make plenty of money these next few weeks even if my blogging is sporiadic at best. (Offline life always comes first)
-K
Current Stock Signals 5-15-2010
Due to my time constraints in the next two weeks I will be posting more sporadically. Here are the current signals for symbols I follow.
You can also find this at the top on Current Picks Page.. I hadn't updated it in two weeks but as you can see the major signals are from late April so nothing was missed.
My System caught onto the downdraft about a week before the "fat finger" occured and from what I just observed going through these charts is that the "fat finger" was very skinny and precise... nuff said because I need to keep this one a secret. Enjoy
Market Indices and other important Quotes
(Note: I understand you can’t purchase an index so bear with me these are just signals)
| Symbol | Buy Date | Sell Date |
| $SPX | 4-27-2010 | |
| $INDU | 4-30-2010 | |
| $COMPX | 4-30-2010 | |
| QQQQ | 4-30-2010 | |
| IWM | 5-12-2010 | |
| SPY | 4-27-2010 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rest of the Symbols (More will be added per request)
| Symbol | Buy Date | Sell Date |
| IYR | 5-14-2010 | |
| AAPL | 5-4-2010 | |
| DRYS | 4-19-2010 | |
| SDS | 4-30-2010 | |
| SRS | 5-14-2010 | |
| SSO | 5-14-2010 | |
| SKF | 4-30-2010 | |
| JNK | 5-14-2010 | |
| HYG | 5-14-2010 | |
| REW | 4-27-2010 | |
| QID | 4-30-2010 | |
| QLD | 4-30-2010 | |
| XLF | 4-26-2010 | |
| DIG | 4-28-2010 | |
| DUG | 5-14-2010 | |
| SMN | 4-30-2010 | |
| VXX | 4-27-2010 | |
| BBT | 5-10-2010 | |
| BID | 5-11-2010 |
Make Some Money... Ok A Lot of Money!
-K
Special: Best Lesson Ever On How To Find Shares To Borrow of Stocks at Different Brokers
Let me just warn you that short selling is even more dangerous than buying (aka going long) stocks.
Why?
If you buy a 1000 shares of MCGI at 2.3, you will pay $2300 + commission. Thus, most you can lose is $2300 and there is no limit on your reward-- it could go as high as $4, or $100 per share.
If you short sell a 1000 shares of MCGI at 2.3, you will pay $2300 + commission. Here is the catch: you bet that the price will go down, so THEORETICALLY you can only make 100% of your investment if the price will go down to $0 (zero, null, nada, nic, vlere). THE PROBLEM: the price of the stock can go up infinitely, so you can lose the value of your whole account if you are not being careful. I recommend to never, ever, under no circumstance, leave the short position open without you looking at the price action and being ready to pull the trigger within seconds. If you still do not understand what short selling is or are confused about something, please leave a comment with your question and I will do my best to answer it.
If you understand the risk of short selling, you are half way there. In order to short a stock, you need to borrow shares from your broker. Below is the list of some brokers and how I go about borrowing shares from them.
Thinkorswim: their platform will tell you whether given stock is easy to borrow or hard to borrow by showing you ETB or HTB in the top right corner of the quote window. If it is ETB, you can just execute sell order which is equivalent of shorting. If it is HTB, you have two options: call them or chat with them live on the website. I generally prefer to chat with them as it is the easiest and most convenient for me. I connect with Trade desk, and say "Hi, do you have a 1000 shares of MCGI to borrow?." If they do not have shares, the person will say "none" or "none available." If they are available, the person you are speaking with will ask you for your account # and the price you want your order to be placed. I usually would reply with "Set sell lmt order at $x.xx"" -- I recommend to ALWAYS set your order higher than it is now at as sometimes it could take them 10 seconds and sometimes 2 minutes for your order to start working.
TD Ameritrade: there is no way to know whether the stock is short-able or not. You can try executing the sell order and it will either get executed or not. If not, you will be simply given an error message saying: rejected. Note that TD has implemented Thinkorswim's software recently so it might be possible to know whether it is short-able or not. I personally have not used TD for a while; I never liked TD and their high commissions.
E-trade: tired them in the past. My experience has been negative (but maybe they changed since then?). Just like with TD, you can't know whether it is short-able. You can try executing sell order and it will either be successful or rejected.
Sogotrade: You can know whether given stock is available to borrow by using this URL: http://www.gndt.com/support/shortlist.htm or simply calling them. The list is updated only once during a day so it is possible that shares of desired stock might be already borrowed and not available anymore. Generally speaking, in my experience, Sogotrade usually has shares to borrow of stocks you can't find with other brokers. Don't ask me why, I don't know...
I will add more brokers if anyone is interested.
- Kamil