The Money Man Behind Rick Santorum: Who Is Foster S. Friess?
Savings Experiment: Snow RemovalE Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC), which competes with TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) and Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW), is doing splendidly today. As I write this, the stock is up well over 15%. But I would not touch this one with a ten-foot pole, as they say.
According to this article, E*Trade reported a quarterly loss on Tuesday of $0.50 per share. While that was a lot better than the $3.98 per-share loss reported in last year's Q4, it wasn't enough to beat expectations. Wall Street was hoping for a loss of $0.24 per share. E*Trade said in its press release that daily average revenue trades increased 18% and that 97,000 new accounts were captured. While both of those stats are impressive to a certain degree, an investor must keep in mind that E*Trade is a complicated story. The company really screwed itself by exposing its shareholders to so much financial risk; sure, that might be hindsight now, but it nevertheless is true. And with all the loan provisions and all the issues with the company's involvement with applying for the government's TARP initiative, etc., I can tell you that I absolutely would not want to play around with this stock.
Of course, it might be tough to say that on a day like today. Not only is there momentum with E*Trade, but the rest of the market is also doing well with reports about how the new administration might offer further help for our disastrous economy fueling improved sentiment. Plus, E*Trade's stock has been a good performer so far this year, rising over 8% for the year-to-date time frame according to AOL Finance. Jamie Dlugosch back in December made an interesting case for the broker. I think I'll avoid the stock, though. There's just way too much risk not only with the company itself but with the financial system as a whole. We are not out of the woods yet, my friends, and while the government is doing its best to help (I think it is, at any rate), you can bet that the powers that be are still struggling to come to terms with the sheer size of the monetary quagmire that is rampaging through the system like an out-of-control, frightened Cloverfield beast.
Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.
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