A year or so ago, I opened an online brokerage account with Interactive Brokers. Buy and hold investor, mainly investing on US and European ETFs with some small positions in US tech companies. So I would say a couple of trades per quarter. And the reasons I chose IBRK is because of the really low fees and the fact that they are recommended by the majority of people.
I now have a sizeable amount (>150k USD equivalent) with IBRK, and even though I know that they are relatively safe and it is not really that much money for them, I do not feel ok with having all my eggs in one basket. So I was thinking about opening a new online brokerage account for the new deposits, mainly to hold long term EUR denominated US and European ETFs.
- Which alternative is recommended? I was thinking either about Saxo Bank or IG.
- What happens in case a brokerage goes bust? Are your shares/ETFs protected? And how about the cash lying there? I read somewhere that the limit of SIPC protection is $500,000, which includes a $250,000 limit for cash. Does this include residents outside the US and cash deposits in other currencies?
- Would you recommend the UBS/PF brokerage services? I know they have insane fees and maybe a limited selection of products, but I guess security comes at a cost (if you consider them secure, given the recent CS fiasco).