Well, at least if one can get the residency in Monaco and don't mind the cost, life would probably be nicer than in Gibraltar as there is no border check between Monaco, Italy and France. Life would be as much or more convenient than in the other small cities in the same area .One can even avoid traffic jams going in and out through trains.
There is a but for french citizens as they are supposed to keep on paying their tax to french authorities, but met a couple of french expats there, and it seems pretty hard for french authorities to know how much a Monaco resident is making.
I don't have the stats in hand, but would feel safer in Monaco than in HK, some of the chinese to chinese crime goes unreported in HK, plus the nights get a bit rougher in HK - yet HK does feel rather safe.
As of Symbian explaining a EU resident could trade tax deffered through an offshore corporation, if this company is an tax haven with 0% tax on cap gains, I doubt it would work legally in most EU countries, from memory some countries would tax their resident heftily on their corporate offshore profit even before they remit any money. It's worth looking into trading through a HK Ltd as it signed a bunch of tax treaties with european countries which might avoid some hassle, at least it does work for some businesses I'm familiar with - not sure abt equity trading.