After the stock market meltdown of 2008, Wall Street brokerages aren't anyone's favorites in 2009.

But some customers said they're still happy with their online broker.

A December ChangeWave survey of 3,051 consumers found that despite the extremely difficult financial market, two online brokerages still capture high customer satisfaction ratings -- Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) and archrival, Scottrade.

If there is a silver lining in the disaster that has been investing in the markets in 2008, it's that increases in volatility made it possible to generate huge returns moving in and out of stocks in a very short period of time.

Day trading had all but disappeared after the dot-com crash. And while the strategy is making a comeback in a major way this year, investors have yet to catch on.

Think about it for a moment. What businesses were at the forefront of this investment strategy?

Discount online brokers, led by E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC), were some of the biggest winners during the boom in day trading.

With everyone and their mother trading stock tips in the 1990s, brokers made increases in customer accounts and trading commissions that led to big profits.

Now, with fertile ground for day trading back in play, are the discount brokers worth owning in this environment?

Well, one would think that now would be an excellent time to be owning the discount broker stocks, but that hasn't borne itself out as of yet. What gives?

MAJOR PAPERS:

• A memo sent by Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE: DAL) to the company's employees regarding Delta's merger talks with Northwest Airlines Corporation (NYSE: NWA) stated that that no "potential transaction meets all [of Delta's] principles." The memo, the Wall Street Journal reported, is seen as a sign that merger talks between Delta and Northwest have stalled.
• A group of 14 hospitals and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a Wall Street trade group, asked the SEC to buy back the debt they had issued, the Wall Street Journal also reported.
• German lender HSH Nordbank has filed a lawsuit against UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) for allegedly maneuvering to saddle the German bank with troubled securities. HSH Nordbank contends that UBS sold it $500M in complex investments, which a UBS hedge fund later used as a receptacle for troubled subprime-mortgage securities, according to the Wall Street Journal.

WEB SITES:

• According to FAO Newsroom, world fertilizer production is expected to outstrip demand over the next five years and will support higher levels of food and biofuel production.

Professional investors like to use conference call transcripts as a valuable tool in their research toolbox. These are transcribed versions of an actual conference call, usually held publicly over the phone. Instead of listening to the full call, investors can get their hands on these things and read them at their leisure. They're generally full of information asked by both analysts and professional investors.

Beyond the jargon, they're just really useful.

So, what did TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) have to say recently about ailing rival, E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC)?

Parsing the transcript, here are a few nuggets:

Prashant Bhatia - Citigroup Global Markets

Okay, and then, just finally, so far in January, the asset intake from E*Trade, is that still running at elevated levels versus historical trends and can you share any TFA data there versus history?

Joe Moglia, CEO, Ameritrade

I think again, for you to have clarity, I think it is appropriate for me to share that, we are not going to give specific numbers, but the numbers that we continue to see with regards to the inflow from them is significantly higher than anything we have ever seen historically.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) is expected to cut 15,000 jobs and take a $1 billion charge as part of a restructuring plan it will announce in the next few weeks, according to media reports.

The company, which is also looking at big acquisitions including Japan's Nikko Cordial and reportedly ABN AMRO, is due to announced first quarter results April 16, the day before its annual meeting. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) is reporting that the company wants to unveil its restructuring plan before then.

Chief Executive Charles Prince has a big challenge. As the Journal points out, Prince can't cut too deeply because morale could suffer and if he's too conservative big shareholders will be angry. Citigroup also needs enough offices and people to meet its goal of boosting international revenue to 60 percent of total sales from about 44 percent, the paper said.

Citigroup. whose shares have underperformed its peers, is going in a million different directions at the same time.

How can the company go on an acquisition binge and undertake a restructuring at the same time? It doesn't make any sense.

This plan doesn't seem to address the concerns of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citigroup's biggest individual share older who last year called for big cuts to expenses.

Something is going to have to give here.

Either Citigroup will have to cut a lot more jobs or give up on huge acquisitions for a while. Until the dust settles, shareholders are going to stay on the sidelines.