Blowing up a margin account

Quote from businessstaxes:

and if you don't pay the court can freeze your bank account..court order. anything over $10,000 is NOT small claim.

one reason, the swiss banks have bank secrecy laws...gov't and courts can freeze your bank account for whatever reason or debt or taxes owing. or debts owing whether the debit is legit or not.

if you owe money and the court orders seizure of assets and bank account or brokerage account,,nowadays there is nowhere to run or hide for dead beat debtors, not even swiss banks.

Correct. But when you say "gov't and courts can freeze your bank account for whatever reason or debt or taxes owing. or debts owing whether the debit is legit or not." The courts have already determined that the debt is legit, hence a court order implies that the debt is legit. Therefore it would be considered legit.
 
Quote from Lawrence Chan:

A position loss, can be broken up into parts, and resulting in multiple small claims and no judgement wins for the brokerage.

So a total loss of 20K = 6K ontario small claim on 4 counts.

Giving the brokerage the right to freeze your bank accounts and charge to max on your credit cards and go after your regular income, car, etc.

The firm that failed to do that should fire their firm lawyers. =)

I come from Toronto.

I wish what you said is true, but it is not true. No, it can not be broken into parts. After the decision is signed by the judge, it is settled.
 
Quote from businessstaxes:

and if you don't pay the court can freeze your bank account..court order. anything over $10,000 is NOT small claim.

one reason, the swiss banks have bank secrecy laws...gov't and courts can freeze your bank account for whatever reason or debt or taxes owing. or debts owing whether the debit is legit or not.

if you owe money and the court orders seizure of assets and bank account or brokerage account,,nowadays there is nowhere to run or hide for dead beat debtors, not even swiss banks.

There are better jurisdictions for asset protection than Switzerland. Having said that, people who want to protect their assets offshore should really study their situation. Perhaps they would find that keeping it onshore suit their needs better.
 
Quote from Lawrence Chan:

A position loss, can be broken up into parts, and resulting in multiple small claims and no judgement wins for the brokerage.

So a total loss of 20K = 6K ontario small claim on 4 counts.

Giving the brokerage the right to freeze your bank accounts and charge to max on your credit cards and go after your regular income, car, etc.

The firm that failed to do that should fire their firm lawyers. =)

I come from Toronto.

They cannot go after your credit cards.
 
Quote from torontoman:

Because the broker would need a personal guarantee anyway.

That was what I was thinking. Only a foolish broker would let someone trade margin without a personal guarantee. Anytime a tiny LLC/S corp owner wants to go out and borrow a lot of money, or get credit cards, or get supplies from a supplier, that company is going to ask him/her to cosign, personally.
 
I didn't sign any personal guarantee for my LLC margin account with IB and TOS.

Some firms are confident in their own risk management (or forced liquidation) and so they are taking the chance.
 
Putting aside the question of whether a $20k claim is worth a broker's followup legal action, the important question is whether you're opening an account in your personal name, with open-ended liability, or wrapping yourself in a liability-resistant structure and using that name. Of course, brokers aren't eager to accept such names, but that's negotiable, as with everything else in life.
 
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