Poll: Is E-Trade Toast?

Posted by Mr. B

November 13, 2007

If only I traded individual stocks - yesterday I would have bought shares in E-Trade! Their stock sank about 60% upon worries that they might actually go bankrupt. E-Trade’s President also posted this message:

This is a challenging time for the financial services industry. Bad news in the credit, housing, and stock markets continues to dominate and E*TRADE is not immune to these market conditions.

However, you, our customers, should know that we continue to be well capitalized by regulatory standards. As a matter of fact, we could absorb an immediate write down in excess of $1 billion and still remain well capitalized. Nobody knows for certain what the ultimate impact will be from these markets, but it is our expectation that news in the market will get worse before it gets better and, armed with these expectations, we are taking prudent measures to effectively manage the company’s balance sheet.

We will continue to earn your confidence, providing state-of-the-art asset protection, including E*TRADE’s Complete Protection Guarantee, SIPC Protection for E*TRADE Securities customers and FDIC Insurance for E*TRADE Bank customers.

We appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you and your investing needs.

While the message may be interpreted as a warning, it can also be interpreted as a “hot deal” for shares of their stock! We may not know for a while, but what is your intuition? Is E-Trade toast, or should people who scoop up their stock be toasting?