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Tradier account (and Tradehawk as platform) as a German in Germany was no problem. IB and Tradestation work, too. No such luck with Think or Swim of Ameritrade - they will not let me do credit spreads with reduced margin (bull put spread 95 / 90 would be the full margin as a 95 STO put instead of the 5 in spread-distance.

Thanks @SBatch for the info. You are right for sure. Just as said in the other thread I would like to spare myself the learning curve of how to claim money from SIPC protection or some Lloyds insurance which is even more difficult and costly when you are abroad (and it still rings in my ears that Bear Sterns and Lehman will never go bankrupt. And that Deutsche plans on a long term ROE of 25% per year). The good thing with IB is that they have a share price, so one look at it will tell you much about their situation.

@Christof+ thanks for the update. Germany is trickier for me to establish residence as I don't have friends/family there. I assume the choice to avoid Italy is either due to legislation (as per Australia) or market size. Not sure why they would avoid UK though. If I recall correctly they clear through Apex Clearing Corporation. Just as an FYI for anyone interested, eOption requires an "offline" (paper forms) sign-up for non US residents (so plan ahead re time) and minimal account size is USD 25k (again, for non US residents).

@zxcv64 nope, only German residents have been confirmed so far, Italians are out for now. I am waiting for Tradier to send a list of European countries they do business with and will post if/when I get an answer.