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Old 07-16-08, 11:46 PM
aquaswim47 aquaswim47 is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 392
As long as they are protected by SIPC, $500,000. Now if you happen to own stock in the broker, you'll lose everything. Depositor, lose nothing below $500K. Stockholder, lose your entire investment.

Think of the broker as the custodian. If the custodian goes bankrupt and is protected by SIPC, you are protected for $100,000 in cash and up to $500,000 in securities. If you own stock in that entity, than nothing is protected. It's that the securities in the company that become worthless. The custodian has a trust responsibility, thus to be responsible, it should at least have $500,000 in coverage.
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