Highest Borrow-Fee Stocks Today: October 2, 2026 — Hard-to-Borrow Rates
JZ carries the costliest borrow on October 2, 2026 at 527.6% annualized, with 16 names on the market-wide list sitting in Tapeboard's hard-to-borrow or extreme fee tiers.
TL;DR: As of 10:50 PM ET on October 2, 2026, JZ carries the highest borrow fee in Tapeboard's market-wide ranking at 527.6% annualized. TOPS is #2 at 373.5% annualized, and XPON is #3 at 134.3% annualized.
The costliest name to borrow on a market-wide basis is JZ at 527.6% annualized as of October 2, 2026. Fees on today's list span 2.6% to 527.6% annualized; the median is 17.3%. Context matters here: a triple-digit borrow fee typically flags a distressed issuer, a very-low-float stock, a recent IPO, or a post-reverse-split name where shares are nearly impossible to locate in the lending pool — not a conventional short squeeze setup. TOPS, for example, is a well-known serial reverse-splitter, and names in that tier often carry extreme fees precisely because lendable supply is structurally thin.
Today's Hard-to-Borrow Rate Table
| Rank | Symbol | Annualized Borrow Fee | Rebate Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JZ | 527.6% | −523.7% |
| 2 | TOPS | 373.5% | −369.6% |
| 3 | XPON | 134.3% | −130.4% |
| 4 | PARA | 52.1% | −48.2% |
| 5 | SES | 51.6% | −47.8% |
| 6 | CETX | 44.7% | −40.8% |
| 7 | KITT | 42.9% | −39.1% |
| 8 | WKHS | 29.7% | −25.8% |
| 9 | FNGR | 28.1% | −24.3% |
| 10 | BYND | 25.8% | −22.0% |
| 11 | BBIG | 21.5% | −17.6% |
| 12 | OPTT | 19.1% | −15.2% |
| 13 | ABUS | 17.3% | −13.4% |
| 14 | BIRD | 17.0% | −13.2% |
| 15 | GRRR | 16.6% | −12.7% |
| 16 | VVOS | 16.5% | −12.7% |
| 17 | AISP | 4.8% | −0.9% |
| 18 | ACB | 4.4% | −0.5% |
| 19 | DNA | 4.3% | −0.5% |
| 20 | CHPT | 3.6% | 0.2% |
| 21 | IMPP | 3.4% | 0.4% |
| 22 | RUM | 3.4% | 0.4% |
| 23 | HIVE | 2.9% | 1.0% |
| 24 | XRX | 2.7% | 1.2% |
| 25 | EVTL | 2.6% | 1.2% |
*Source: Securities Lending rates as compiled by Tapeboard, October 2, 2026 10:50 PM ET. Market-wide ranking across all tracked securities. Not investment advice.*
Borrow-Fee Tiers
Tapeboard categorizes annualized borrow fees as normal (under 2%), elevated (2-10%), hard-to-borrow (10-50%), and extreme (above 50%). On October 2, 2026, 16 names on today's market-wide list fell in the hard-to-borrow or extreme tier. Five of those sit in the extreme band above 50% — JZ, TOPS, XPON, PARA, and SES — while the remaining eleven, from CETX down through VVOS, occupy the 10-50% hard-to-borrow range as of October 2, 2026.
What a High Borrow Fee Signals
An annualized borrow fee is the stock-loan cost a short seller pays to maintain a short position. A high fee reflects scarcity in the lendable pool: when few shares are available to borrow, lenders charge more. Critically, a high fee does not by itself predict a squeeze. Names with triple-digit fees are often distressed, very-low-float, post-reverse-split, or recently IPO'd stocks where shares are almost impossible to locate — high cost-to-short is not the same as squeeze potential. That is why borrow fee is weighted only 25% in Tapeboard's composite squeeze score, which also incorporates short interest, price momentum, volume, and other factors per the methodology. If you track short trades, logging the borrow fee you actually paid alongside each entry in a journal — whether in Tapeboard or a tool like TradeZella — makes it much easier to see how carrying costs affected your realized returns over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which stocks have the highest borrow fees today?
As of October 2, 2026, the top three are JZ at 527.6% annualized, TOPS at 373.5%, and XPON at 134.3%. All three sit deep in Tapeboard's extreme tier above 50%.
What is considered a high stock borrow fee?
Tapeboard defines annualized borrow fees as normal (under 2%), elevated (2-10%), hard-to-borrow (10-50%), and extreme (above 50%). Anything at or above 10% is meaningfully expensive to hold short on an ongoing basis.
Where do these borrow rates come from?
Tapeboard compiles Securities Lending borrow fees daily and refreshes them each evening across the full market universe. These are daily rates, not real-time intraday figures, and they may differ from the rates quoted by other brokers.
Data and Methodology
Borrow fee: broker-dealer stock-loan data, updated daily each evening, covering the full market-wide universe of tracked securities. Rebate rate: Securities Lending data, where available; negative rebates represent additional cost to the borrower. See today's full squeeze analysis for the 7-factor composite ranking, or the hard-to-borrow leaderboard for the live pillar.
This post is for educational and informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Borrow fees reflect securities-lending conditions reported in the daily stock-loan data; they are not real-time intraday rates and may differ from rates at other brokers. A high borrow fee does not constitute a buy or sell signal. Short selling carries unlimited downside risk. Editor: Marcus Reilly.