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If you are worried about that wait until you learn about Cede & Co. On US listed stocks there is a very good chance you don’t own them at all. You just have ce

• dmw_ng 6y ago
  You can order physical delivery of certificates from them if you want, but absolutely nobody actually wants this, not least because you'll have to pay for all the silly labour involved, and pay for it all over again if you ever intend to sell what you own. It's exactly like worrying about Visa/Mastercard trying to fuck you when paying for gas in a foreign currency, while ignoring the massive convenience and cost efficiencies you receive in return. Failure of the depository system is no more likely than failure of the bond market -- and even if it did fail, the paper trail means you'd have extremely strong and obvious claims to whatever it is you happen to own. If you're worried about such critical infrastructure failing, just go live in a cave or renovated nuclear bunker, because that means cash is dead to you too. Cede & Co conspiracy theories are a non-issue, and absolutely nobody wants the alternative, which involved fleets of bicycle couriers carrying actual physical certificates between brokers, and caused so much overhead that the US market system reached the point of total collapse prior to introduction of the depository, resulting at one point in the stock exchanges closing for one business day per week simply to allow brokers time catch up on all the paper mess.