They will be able to do this as YOU do NOT OWN your stocks if they are held at Fidelity, Merrill Lynch etc. They are held at DTCC and owned by the DTCC. Our shares work much like IOU's in those institutions. They have the right to cancel your trades and shares. If you have shares of any company that you like, you need to direct transfer shares in your name. Those shares will then be taken out of circulation and out of the DTCC and into your transfer agent account. A quick google search will tell you which transfer agent a company uses. The process is quite simple, say at fidelity you can DRS your shares through virtual chat and a few days later they will be moved out of say Fidelity and into your new account with such transfer agent. This can be donw with IRA's as well but I believe comes with penalties, but could be wrong here.
Edit: Check out this doc from a couple decades ago, it was banned for a long time. The Wall Street conspiracy. These people are fucking neferious
They will be able to do this as YOU do NOT OWN your stocks if they are held at Fidelity, Merrill Lynch etc. They are held at DTCC and owned by the DTCC. Our shares work much like IOU's in those institutions. They have the right to cancel your trades and shares. If you have shares of any company that you like, you need to direct transfer shares in your name. Those shares will then be taken out of circulation and out of the DTCC and into your transfer agent account. A quick google search will tell you which transfer agent a company uses. The process is quite simple, say at fidelity you can DRS your shares through virtual chat and a few days later they will be moved out of say Fidelity and into your new account with such transfer agent. This can be donw with IRA's as well but I believe comes with penalties, but could be wrong here.