https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/185.asp

> That doesn't mean the investor doesn't own the securities it bought. It's just a formality. As part of the process, the broker will assign all ownership rights to the investor by registering the client as the beneficial owner.

There was a quip about this in one of the moneystuff or bitsaboutmoney but not too sure which one.

You definitely do own them in a legal sense, but in a bookkeeping sense, there is a very real difference between the depository and your broker maintaining ownership records.

Legal ownership is what makes your claims worth anything in a court of law, and protects them against those of other creditors, but without proper bookkeeping, you have no evidence a court could even consider.