Securities account

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A securities account, sometimes known as a brokerage account, is an account which holds financial assets such as securities on behalf of an investor with a bank, broker or custodian. Investors and traders typically have a securities account with the broker or bank they use to buy and sell securities. [1]

Securities accounts can be of different types, such as a share account, options account, margin account or cash account. [2] Securities accounts are typically treated as client funds, keeping them separate from the firm's funds. This separation meets the financial regulations of most countries.

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Credential Qtrade Securities Inc., operating as Qtrade, is a stockbrokerage firm based in Vancouver, Canada. It runs the online investment platform Qtrade Direct Investing and robo-advising service Qtrade Guided Portfolios. As of November 2016, it claimed to have $11.5 billion in assets and partnerships with over 150 Canadian credit unions, as well as insurance companies including Sun Life and Great West Life. Like all brokerages and investment dealers, they are members of Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and as such, the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF) protects investors should the brokerage become insolvent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Securities market participants (United States)</span>

Securities market participants in the United States include corporations and governments issuing securities, persons and corporations buying and selling a security, the broker-dealers and exchanges which facilitate such trading, banks which safe keep assets, and regulators who monitor the markets' activities. Investors buy and sell through broker-dealers and have their assets retained by either their executing broker-dealer, a custodian bank or a prime broker. These transactions take place in the environment of equity and equity options exchanges, regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or derivative exchanges, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For transactions involving stocks and bonds, transfer agents assure that the ownership in each transaction is properly assigned to and held on behalf of each investor.

References

  1. Joshua Kennon (March 21, 2018). "How Brokerage Accounts Work and The Types of Investments They Can Hold". the balance.
  2. "Account Types". Investopedia.