What does indicative rate mean?

ACCESS SHORT SECURITIES (SLB) AVAILABILITY TOOL

When you short sell a stock, IBKR must locate and borrow shares to make delivery to the purchaser at settlement. Whether or not there is a cost to borrow those shares depends upon the supply of shares available to borrow and the demand from other short sellers to borrow shares…

The Fee Rate represents the indicative rate (generally expressed as an interest rate) that the lender assesses to the borrower of the shares. This is the indicative borrow fee rate that clients will pay IBKR to short a stock. It is a debit from the account…

Interactive Brokers’ interest rates are based on the benchmark rates for each currency and may change daily. These benchmarks use a combination of internationally recognized reference rates (such Fed Funds), bank deposit rates, and dynamic interbank rates determined from foreign exchange and money markets to calculate an IBKR Reference Benchmark rate…

No. The rates displayed in TWS are indicative and subject to change. In certain instances the intraday change can be substantial for hard to borrow stocks. The effective rate for the day will be posted to your statements…