Which of those brokers seems to be more reliable, safe and secure? I don't have much bigger choice as I am from Europe and most US brokerage companies(like Schwab or Fidelity) are not allowing non-US customers. I am primarily into buy and hold ETFs with some extra trades/options on stocks only as secondary.
Yes, sadly. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/...stment-and-insurancebased-products-priips.asp Obviously, no matter what kind of explanation they give, this whole ruling only goal was to cut US competition from EU market.
I have a small account at Firstrade but in the U.S. we have SIPC insurance which provides protection from losses up to $500,000 (which includes $250,000 cash). If you have any securities protection in EU then don't worry so much about the financial stability of the broker.
SIPC protection covers all customers of SIPC covered broker, not only US ones. As for EU broker protection, they do have like EUR20,000(except UK where it's GBP85,000). But beside such protection, there are other things that matter like broker honesty, order execution and filling, customer service or general reliability, ie. those values where big US brokers are unmatched.
Reliability, safety and security for a broker can neither be defined or measured; you might as well asf if they serve snacks. Pick something else.