There's much ado made over street name vs your name, but the reason margin and hypothecation agreements are so long and you need to sign them to open a margin a

There's much ado made over street name vs your name, but the reason margin and hypothecation agreements are so long and you need to sign them to open a margin account is so they can even take steps such as lending out your shares, because unless you have, they can't actually touch them, per your agreements with a cash account. Street name is primarily so that when you go to sell they don't have to go find YOUR shares (adding time and cost) to sell, but can simply find shares of the particular stock that you have in your account which they have a quantity on, to sell. Basically, it maintains fungibility to streamline the process. But you're right, if you care to not trust that, you do have the ability to either get certificates (if they're issued for the stock in question) or do a direct registration (DRS) so they're held directly in digital form at the Transfer Agent. Just of course bear in mind that if you're NOT intent on holding these shares forever, selling at this point can become a multi-day process, so you become a bit less able to react quickly to market activity.