3SOF

Quote from: stock.gold on November 24, 2007, 10:43:12 PM
Be careful with ETFC.  It could go either way in a blink of an eye.  I can't figure it out myself.

Just wanted to give my opinoin on ETFC. What I use to determine buy and sell alerts shows this stock should go up soon. Buy alert was given on it Friday but it made a gap also. what I see,, it has to make a move up because it willn't go down much further without some kind of move up which will allow it to go further down. Volume is starting to come back in,,that has to be good
Also I use 20 MA for the bounce to go back down if it does. Right now 20 MA is 7.56 but this changes on a daily basis which wouldn't be a bad trade since it ended @5.33.
This is" just my opinoin"
I have no position

I have been a long time E Trade client and I can tell you from experience why they are losing loyal customers.

Greed.

I had well over 400 trades last year and had 100 plus trades this year when E Trade decided it would be a good business move for them to withhold my cash transfers so they could make a couple dollars interest off it. I have always been able to transfer money and trade immediately which translated into more commissions for E Trade. This is not good enough for them, they are alienating good customers by pressuring them to  use their banking service against their will.

I have lived up to my brokerage agreement for years and have paid thousands in commissions.

E Trade has lost my trust and a substantial portion of my business, they will need to backtrack and then some to regain my trust.

Screw E Trade- At one time I recommended them and the stock, no more!

I don't think I am alone.

Quote from: boatguy on November 25, 2007, 07:14:24 PM
I have been a long time E Trade client and I can tell you from experience why they are losing loyal customers.

Greed.

I had well over 400 trades last year and had 100 plus trades this year when E Trade decided it would be a good business move for them to withhold my cash transfers so they could make a couple dollars interest off it. I have always been able to transfer money and trade immediately which translated into more commissions for E Trade. This is not good enough for them, they are alienating good customers by pressuring them to  use their banking service against their will.

I have lived up to my brokerage agreement for years and have paid thousands in commissions.

E Trade has lost my trust and a substantial portion of my business, they will need to backtrack and then some to regain my trust.

Screw E Trade- At one time I recommended them and the stock, no more!

I don't think I am alone.

Hi boatguy
I'm not recommending ETFC. I just look at a stock by the signals it might be giving as a potential trade and possibly make some money off it.
I'm a position,,swing trader not long term.
Don't blame you for hard feelings towards this company and would feel the same way if it was me.

This stock is crazy.  It seems to have turn around prospects though with the recent citadel deal and this wsj article I saw.   Through all this mess their accounts have increase?   Trades are up?   They did lose 7 billion in accounts though.  This new BofA downgrade might be an over-reaction.  Maybe the treasury secretary's announcment soon will be the catalyst. 

I'm contemplating adding more today.  But don't go off what I say, I've had some terrible entry points lately.   

E*Trade Boosts Some Rates
Move to Lure Deposits Follows Capital Injection
By JANE J. KIM
December 1, 2007; Page B2

E*Trade Financial Corp., eager to further stabilize its businesses after receiving a capital injection from outside investors, bumped up rates on several of its banking products in an effort to attract more consumer deposits.

The increase of as much as half a percentage point on E*Trade Financial's savings account and certificates of deposit comes even as many other lenders have been lowering rates on consumer deposits, in line with an overall decline in short-term market rates. E*Trade is known mainly for its discount-brokerage business. But the company also runs a federal savings and loan, whose ventures into mortgage securities have taken a steep toll on E*Trade. On Thursday, the firm received a $2.55 billion cash infusion from Citadel Investment Group, the Chicago hedge fund, to shore up its capital position.

E*Trade's move is similar to that of some other financial firms that have been facing a credit crunch and have sought to restore consumer confidence. Banking units of mortgage lenders Countrywide Financial Corp. and IndyMac Bancorp Inc. also recently boosted rates in an effort to attract more customer deposits. Since Countrywide raised rates in August, each month since then has been its best month for new deposit growth, said Pierre Habis, managing director at Countrywide Bank.

E*Trade this week raised the yield on its Complete Savings Account to 5.05% from 4.70%. It also increased the yields on its short-term CDs. The firm's six-month CD, for example, is now yielding 5.25%, up from 4.75%.

For savers, E*Trade's move presents an opportunity to take advantage of rates that are among the highest available on short-term deposit accounts and are several percentage points above national averages. Average rates on six-month, one-year and five-year CDs are 3.31%, 3.51% and 3.87%, respectively, according to Bankrate.com.

"Basically, short-term [interbank] rates were up, and that's something we look at," says Jarrett Lilien, E*Trade's acting chief executive. In addition, "it was a great opportunity to give a thank you to our loyal customers in the face of a difficult time like the last couple of weeks," he says.

In recent months, the Federal Reserve has trimmed short-term rates by a total of three-quarters of a percentage point, and many market watchers predict another rate cut in December. Treasury yields also have dropped steeply. As a result, rates on many deposit products have followed suit. Last month, for example, Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank dropped the yield on its e-Savings account to 4% from 4.25% while also dropping the yield on its Ultimate Money Market account to 4.5% from 5%.

Still, consumers have been spared much of the decline in market rates, partly because of the continued tightness in credit markets and banks' eagerness to attract consumers' deposits. Average yields on money-market mutual funds have dropped to 4.57% from 5.06% in mid-September, says Peter Crane of Crane Data LLC. By contrast, with a federal-funds rate at 4.50%, average yields on money funds would typically be around 4.25%, he says.


Despite the above-average rates offered by E*Trade and some other lenders' banking arms, some customers may still have concerns about the companies' financial health. Concerns over E*Trade's asset-backed-securities portfolio, for example, helped prompt a steep slump in the company's stock.

Savers wanting a guarantee can make sure to keep their deposits under the limits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which covers deposits for as much as $100,000 per depositor, per institution. Those who want to insure more than that can set up other types of accounts -- such as individual retirement accounts, joint accounts or revocable trust accounts -- or spread out their deposits across different banks.

E*Trade's Mr. Lilien says that, on a month-to-date basis through Nov. 27, customers removed some $7 billion of cash from the firm -- across the bank and brokerage businesses. Despite the cash outflows, margin balances and trades were higher, he says, and the company still saw 70,000 new accounts opened during the month.

And while the company saw some customers move some of their cash to other firms "just so they felt safer," they have started to move their money back, he says. "Even before [the Citadel announcement], we had been able to contact 65% of people who had moved assets in cash, and we had already had 10% of those contacted move their cash and assets back," says Mr. Lilien.

Lots of volume over the last couple of weeks.

Looks to be pretty over sold, imo.

Opinions?


Jody

Quote from: 422fwhp on December 07, 2007, 10:43:59 AM
Lots of volume over the last couple of weeks.

Looks to be pretty over sold, imo.

Opinions?


Jody

If I was to try and play this stock I would play the sideway channel it's been trading in. JMO

E*Trade Fails to Sway the Skeptics
The troubled online broker offered some rare good news Jan. 9, but analysts and investors are looking for more details on the company's health
by Ben Steverman

At first glance, a Jan. 9 report from troubled online broker E*Trade Financial (ETFC) looked like good news. The upbeat press release came one day after E*Trade stock hit an 11-year low, with the firm saying its turnaround plan was finding "early success."

The stock opened 15.6% higher on Jan. 9, but then the rally fizzled. Investors and analysts, trained by the credit crisis to be suspicious, started worrying they were only getting half the story. Key questions about E*Trade's future remained unanswered. Among the news released by E*Trade: It sold off $3 billion in asset-backed securities over the past month and lost less than $5 million on the transactions. That compares well with the sale of $3 billion of more toxic debt in November. The online bank and broker, which has seen its balance sheet demolished by the credit crisis, netted just $800 million from that transaction — in effect losing $2.2 billion.
After worries about its financial situation surfaced last fall, the firm lost customers, who pulled billions of dollars out of E*Trade accounts. On Jan. 9, E*Trade implied the bleeding had stopped. Customers opened 87,000 new accounts in December, the firm says. Total client assets fell modestly, from $192 billion on Nov. 29 to $190 billion at the end of the year, but cash held steady at $33 billion.

"We have taken important steps in the execution of our turnaround plan by reducing balance sheet-related risk and maintaining strong bank capital levels," E*Trade's acting chief executive and president R. Jarrett Lilien said in a statement.

E*Trade is providing "partial information," says Standard & Poor's equity analyst Jason Willey. "There are just not enough details." (S&P, like BusinessWeek, is a unit of the McGraw-Hill Companies.)

For example, E*Trade said it signed up 87,000 new accounts in December, but didn't say how many accounts had been closed. And several analysts said they were worried E*Trade is offering expensive incentives to attract those clients' assets. Bank of America (BAC) analyst Michael Hecht wondered how much the firm is paying in advertising, promotion, high-interest rates on deposits and free trading and bonus offers. Until recently, E*Trade was a leader among online brokers, attracting thousands of new clients and posting record trading volume. But worries about toxic debt, including subprime mortgages, on E*Trade's balance sheet shook clients' confidence. While most of the worst debt has been unloaded, investors are still closely watching the $12 billion in home equity loans that E*Trade owns. As home prices around the country fall, the quality of these loans is in question. E*Trade said its home equity balance had fallen a bit, from $12.7 billion to $12 billion in the past quarter, a sign borrowers are paying off their debts, but provided no other information on credit quality.
E*Trade has enough strength to survive financially, says Morningstar (MORN) analyst Jaime Peters. A bailout from Citadel Investment Group may have been expensive — investors had to give up 18% of the company to Citadel — but it put E*Trade's risky balance sheet on firmer footing. However, Peters adds, "The question is: Are customers going to lose confidence in them?"

E*Trade's web- and investment-savvy customers are aware of E*Trade's plight, and are already considering moving their money elsewhere, she says. And E*Trade's rivals are doing whatever they can to win them away. A large-scale defection would be disastrous. As Peters wrote recently, "Keeping client assets is the number-one priority for the company, because without clients, E*Trade has no business."

E*Trade made other announcements Jan. 9, including the decision to close its small institutional trading business and lay off 30 employees.

But the big focus of investors will be Jan. 24, when E*Trade releases its full quarter results. Then, investors will get key information they were looking for on Jan. 9: How many customers have really left E*Trade? How expensive are the incentives being used to keep and attract client money? How is the quality of the home equity portfolio holding up?

By the early afternoon on Jan. 9, E*Trade's stock had given up the day's gains, putting the stock briefly below its 11-year low again. In the late afternoon, as the rest of the market rallied, E*Trade did, too. It ended the day up 15 cents, or 6.7%, to $2.40 per share. Since the beginning of the year, the stock is still down 32%. Since July, it's off almost 90%.

The Jan. 9 release might have stopped E*Trade's fortunes from sliding even further, but it looks like the company will have to provide a second helping of positive news later in the month to ease the market's worries.

ETFC - Volume Alert.......

52wk Range: 0.59 - 4.50
Volume: 45,090,201
Avg Vol (3m): 12,671,200

Technicals
Last Price Quote is:
41.34%above 13-day MA
60.11%above 50-day MA
RS Rating: 92 

Fundamentals
Key Data:
Market Cap (M): $772.26 
P/E Ratio: 2.79 
PEG Ratio: N/A 
Next Earnings: 04/28/2009
Last Analyst Rating: Mkt Perform