Online brokerage firm E*Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) hasn't escaped the financial-sector pain this week. The shares plunged 4.7% on Wednesday after E*Trade warned that it expects three-year cumulative losses on its home-equity portfolio to exceed the top end of its previously forecast range of $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Additionally, the firm confessed that its total pretax realized loss on its preferred equity holdings in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac amounted to $150 million, net of hedges, for the third quarter.

In response to the news, Fox-Pitt Kelton widened its third-quarter loss estimate for E*Trade. The analysts now expect a per-share loss of 42 cents rather than 27 cents. In comments accompanying the revised outlook, Fox-Pitt noted that ETFC's efforts to patch up its damaged balance sheet haven't been sufficient to eliminate doubts regarding its home-equity line of credit losses.

Yesterday's headlines probably came as an unpleasant surprise to the new crop of ETFC bulls. The International Securities Exchange (ISE) is experiencing a surge in call volume on the stock, which has now racked up a 10-day call/put ratio of 6.51 on the exchange. In other words, traders have purchased about 6.5 calls to open on ETFC for every 1 put during the past couple of weeks.

When E*Trade Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: ETFC) had its meltdown, I considered buying but I was too chicken. I mean, can you really blame me? When it got caught up in the financial crisis, the term "falling knife" never felt so accurate. A 52-week range between $2.08 and $25.79 is a pretty scary thing; to see what I mean in graphic format, feast your eyes on the chart.

Lately, though, I've been warming up to the idea ever so slightly of taking a shot on E*Trade. I can't say I possess strong conviction yet, but I'm not necessarily afraid of owning financial stocks. In fact, as an example, I own Newcastle Investment (NYSE: NCT), an idea that Sheldon Liber talked about recently, one that has a pretty frightening yield. E*Trade is a significant name in the online-brokerage industry, and its brand is valuable. When I saw the company falling off a cliff last year, my instinct to buy started to kick in, insisting that it isn't going to go the way of the dodo. Plus, takeover theories began, further fueling my fascination. In the end, I took no action.

Now, though, the stock has bounced nicely off its lows. And it reported January data yesterday that had a couple of good data points. Daily average revenue trades are up 18.8% for the month-to-month timeframe, and they increased 21.5% year-over-year. End-of-period retail accounts were flat month-to-month, and were up 6.2% year-over-year. Total retail client assets did decrease, however -- year-over-year, they declined over 12%. And, hey, for whatever this is worth, its Super Bowl "Talking Baby" ads apparently were a hit.

At any rate, I'm a bit more sanguine on E*Trade's stock potential. I may not buy just yet, but the closer it gets to $6 or $7 a stub, the better the chance it has, in my mind, of going to double digits again. Sure, Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) and TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) are the safer broker bets, but I can't help looking at E*Trade.