E TRADE Financial Corp (ETFC)

[bullcents]

Etrade is a tough cookie to crack if anybody is thinking of a take over. Prior to Q3 earnings report, Citadel increased its position in Etrade by about 10mil shares. Etrade's brokerage business is gaining strength, especially with Layton's "back to the basics" strategy. Not to mention the fact that Etrade is leveraged a lot more than any of it's competitors, which isn't a bad thing. The only reason it's dragging the company down is because the rest of the market is in the toilet right now.

When it comes to this stock, you have to look beyond the market price, imo, to the actual book value of $4.74. The company is terribly undervalued. And if you compare book values, Etrade is pretty high compared to other discount brokers including AMTD.

If you consider Layton's strong background, I think he would have already filed for Chapter 11 if he thought Etrade didn't have a future.