Learn · Leverage and risk
The securities lending program
Offering shares, having them borrowed and receiving settled income are three different stages.
Last updated: 2026-09-20
Shares are borrowed through a pool
A short seller in MockTradeCity must borrow shares before selling them. The company's lending pool supplies that quantity from eligible platform and participant holdings. The optional securities lending program lets players contribute part of their own eligible long positions. Enrollment is off by default. Joining changes which shares can be offered to the pool; it does not immediately create a borrower or a stream of income for every share you hold.
The pool aggregates a company's shares rather than exposing a private transaction between a named lender and a named borrower. You cannot select a particular short seller to fund or target. Borrowers pay charges under the city's settlement rules, and the lender share is distributed to attributable contributions. The currency is City Coin (CC), with no real-money yield or real security loan. Your program page shows the parameters that apply within the simulation.
Enrollment leaves limits in place
After enrollment, the system considers unreserved holdings when the borrow rate reaches the program's threshold. Contribution limits and a minimum retained quantity keep the entire position from automatically entering the pool. Market rules states the current proportions. Shares already committed to another use are not simply counted a second time. A player can therefore be enrolled while offering no shares, depending on holdings, reservations and the program's eligibility conditions.
Contributed shares remain part of your economic holdings and continue to change in value with the stock. The portion committed to lending is not immediately available for an ordinary sale. It must first return through the supported release or recall process. Lending is therefore different from selling: the stock-price exposure remains, while the ability to dispose of the committed quantity is temporarily constrained. A fee receipt does not remove that exposure.
Only an attributable borrow earns income
The program distinguishes shares actually borrowed, idle contributions and shares awaiting return. Idle means offered but unused, so it does not generate a lending charge. At the daily settlement snapshot, outstanding eligible borrows determine the charge using the applicable quantity, reference value and annual rate. A borrow opened and returned before the snapshot does not create that day's fee merely because the shares were briefly used earlier in the period.
Attribution also depends on which contributions were present when a borrow originated. Eligible player contributions receive attribution before the platform's pool, with proportional allocation within the relevant group and finite contribution limits. Joining just before settlement does not retroactively capture income from older borrows that your shares never backed. The estimated-income display uses the current state to project settlement; returns or changed borrowing before the snapshot can alter the eventual credited amount.
Leaving is a process, not instant retrieval
Leaving the program stops new contributions. Idle shares can return promptly, while shares already supporting a borrow must be released through the recall rules. The engine first looks for replacement backing before requiring borrowers to return shares. Where a recall is needed, it applies the defined grace period and controlled covering process. An exit request can therefore succeed as a request while some shares remain visibly pending return afterward.
Recall constraints prevent one lender from selecting a borrower or using a sudden withdrawal to dictate a particular forced trade. Allocation across outstanding borrowers, minimum holding conditions and execution-price protections all matter. A controlled repurchase still needs market liquidity. The program exposes pending quantities and timing so an unfinished return is visible rather than silently treating every share as available. Exiting does not rewrite the historical loans or the fees already settled.
Where to inspect lending in the city
Account contains the securities lending entry and your enrollment state. The detailed view separates actually borrowed quantity, idle shares and amounts awaiting return by company. It also shows a reference annual rate, projected income and cumulative credited income. The annual rate is a pricing input, the projection is conditional on future snapshot state, and the cumulative total is settled history. Those three values cannot be substituted for one another.
The next-settlement time identifies when a projection will be evaluated. If an exit is still in progress, the pending-return information explains what remains committed. The company borrow panel supplies a market-wide view of availability and utilization, while your program view supplies personal attribution. Reading both avoids mistaking a busy aggregate pool for income on every share you offered. Actual credited CC and account records establish the result once settlement has completed under the city's rules.