What Is The Short Rebate?
The Short Rebate refers to the income a short seller can obtain from shorting a stock. When a short seller shorts a stock, he borrows the stock and sells it in the market; in the process he obtains cash from the sale. Some brokers will pay interest on that cash. On the other hand, and especially for stocks that are hard to borrow, there’s a cost to borrow shares. The short rebate will reflect that cost, which means it can be negative. When the short rebate is negative, this means the short seller is paying an interest rate to remain short.
The short rebate can be as high as 100% per year, so staying short that kind of stock is incredibly expensive. That’s the main reason why this site exists, so that traders can have an approximate idea of how expensive any given short position is. This site can only give a general idea; the true cost can vary from broker to broker.