I have my account with lightspeed. Currently in cash in case of a penson default will I be protected under SIPC
At the TBTF banks, I suspect it would never be made public and would be a backdoor bailout. Perhaps a few bloggers would be able to sniff it out, but as we all know if the MSM doesn't run the story, they can create an aire of disbelief and call it "baseless speculation". The only profit center these days seems to be the implied bailout. Moral hazard as a business model.
Penson has a market cap of $33m. Stock price is down from $35 to $1.20 since 2007. Net income 2010 was -$19.85m. Estimated net income 2011 is -$19.20. Analysts are looking for a turnaround in 2012-13... but how lucky do you feel. I was actually surprised they didn't go before MF. WSJ is reporting that they will receive some bulk account transfers from MF! That means they'll be some people that have gone from Refco to MF, to PNSN, ouch...