E TRADE Financial Corp (ETFC)

[suzyHomemaker]

More foolish thoughts on ETrade

"E*Trade on the rebound?
When the bottom gave out for E*Trade Financial because of its exposure to mortgages last year, I rushed over to CAPS to rate the company an outperform. I believed the discount broker had erred in moving away from its core business of facilitating low-cost trades, but I also thought it had taken steps to rectify the situation and wouldn't need a life preserver from either TD AMERITRADE or Schwab (Nasdaq: SCHW).

Such are the perils of rushing into anything related to investing, even if my CAPS score doesn't reflect the bad timing. Only the overall market's equally bad performance has saved me from what should have been a disaster pick. Still, I find myself agreeing with CAPS member TravisMcGee; he values E*Trade's brand name, and figures it's only a matter of time before the company's situation turns around again:

Etrade has a great brand. The management of Etrade took a very wrong turn several years ago and lost site of their core strategy and started investing in home mortgages, without a default plan. Wall Street has scorned Etrade for doing this and drove its stock price down to near bankrupt levels. Calling the kettle black? … With Etrades new management and the "getting back to basics" philosophy, Etrade will emerge as a market leader in the discount brokerage sector. … Soon Etrade will be in talks, again, with possible merger partners, only this time Etrade will be talking on grounds of [strength] and not bailout."

http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2008/10/03/5-top-stocks-at-half-price.aspx