Wez

Metrics, Mortgages and Analysts

Regarding Layton:

""I AM QUEASY." Complex deals involving cash advances raised concerns with JP Morgan Vice-Chairman Donald H. Layton. "We are making disguised loans, usually buried in commodities or equities derivatives (and I'm sure in other areas)..." Layton wrote in an internal 1999 e-mail to credit-risk managers that was introduced as evidence in the trial. (Parenthetic remark in previous sentence is Layton's.) He also wrote: "I am queasy about the process."

When pressed to explain what he meant, Layton testified that his concern was with such lending practices in general, and he could not recall the controversial transactions with Mahonia. Layton would have no further comment for this article, JP Morgan said.

From the get-go, JP Morgan has insisted it followed the law in all its opaque deals with Enron. In July, under questioning from Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), then chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, bank execs asserted that there was nothing improper about its Mahonia deals -- the same assertion Harrison made last week. Yet in August, under growing pressure, JP Morgan announced it was forming a committee to review its practices."


That actually gives me more confidence.

Metrics, Mortgages and Analysts

Ermilo, the Expert wasn't the first person to start name calling....

This site has a huge amount of rabid ETFC fan "boys", Cindy being one of them. I hope this stock goes higher, but reading all the desperate bullish comments about ETFC and SIRI on this site is pathetic. Just because you own a stock and want it to go higher doesn't mean you have to put the blinders on and start pumping.

Metrics, Mortgages and Analysts

Prescient11 & Ben,

Sorry to piss on the pumping game the two of you are up to. Looking at your comment history reveals you two as doing nothing but pitching Etrade....so much for your "insightful analysis". It's not hard to see Etrade's financials, I know they have cash, they also have a huge loan book that maybe more subject to losses than what the CEO thinks....as has been the case with every other bank. I was simply countering Cindy's constant pumping of her position in Etrade. Balanced discussion are much better than one sighted prayers that everything will be fine.

Long ETFC btw........

Metrics, Mortgages and Analysts

Loan losses will rise, thinking Etrade is immune to what is happening to every other bank is foolish.

The Online Brokerage Wars: E*Trade Offers Compelling Risk/Reward

Yea sure "expert" because commodities and emerging markets can go parabolic forever.

Why the E*Trade Shorts Have It Wrong

www.marketwatch.com/ne...

Why the E*Trade Shorts Have It Wrong

Yea, the company announced wider losses than expected. Does SA doing any fact checking, jesus. Having said that, I have opened an ETrade account recently since so many here seem to love their trading tools. I may even buy some shares when the money hits the account.

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

Lol, Buffett wouldn't touch this stock. Yea, he buys value, but the overwhelming majority of his purchases are in stocks that aren't necessarily beaten down, but more unrecognized by the masses as having value. He mostly buys companies that are functioning on all eight cylinders and he thinks will do even better in the future. No one knows what this company will do going forward....thats why its at $4 dollars.

I'm getting sick of the topic actually. I wish everyone here good luck on the recovery, I'll sit this one out. Way to many companies out there with huge revenue and profit increases to F with some question mark.

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

Hehe, I'll try not to rain on your losing ETFC position anymore Voice, sounds like you got it all figured out.

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

Ezmass1

I wasn't complaining about being flamed, I was laughing at it. I'll make the argument that listening and believing what is said on company conf. calls is probably one of the biggest mistakes an investor can make. Do you really think a company's management would give anything other than a fully massaged and scrubbed depiction of what is happening? You claim to be a seasoned investor yet choose to list what a company says about itself as some sort of evidence of a turnaround? Have you ever heard positive comments on conf. calls and than seen a company unravel shortly after? How many stocks can we put onto a list that fit this scenario?

One of the mistakes I've made in the past when buying stocks is choosing to listen to one school of thought when I think it supports my case for owning a company. I to have thought that ETFC was possibly unfairly taken down and may represent a decent turnaround play. Than I started to think about all the competition in their space that isn't having the same problems. Than I started to remind myself that while a beat up stock may look good from a value point of view, often times where there is smoke there is found fire. With so many other companies flourishing in this market (i.e. GOOG, etc), do I really need to invest in a company where there is still a question with their long term viability.

You don't need to tell me to put my money in a mutual fund instead of owning individual stocks because I disagree with your few of EPS reporting. You choosing to believe that their 10c miss is meaningless, doesn't mean it is meaningless. I have plenty of money in mutual funds. I enjoy putting a portion of my investment dollars into individual stocks and the last thing I'm going to do with that money is listen to a bunch of anonymous internet posters sway what I feel has been a successful approach to investing.

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

I'm not short this stock, I have no agenda here. I'm simply taking the devils advocate position when I see everyone making overwhelmingly gushing comments about this stock.

Is it possible that management has understated their exposure and possible further write downs?

Lets fast forward 3 months, this stock is at 5, 6, 7, 8, you pick the price...and they come out with another announcement like the one today? Will the market be as forgiving as it was today? I invest in companies, I don't trade stocks. When I can say, with confidence, that in 3 months this company will be fine thats when I like to invest. I suspect that type of sentiment is why this stock is at $4.

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

Lol, typical seeking Alpha rabid stock promoters. I ask simply for a discussion of not only the good but also the risks and get my head chewed off.

Is it possible that the company management who say they don't plan on a dilutive raising of capitol could be underestimating the carnage ahead in the residential real estate markets. The tide is going out ahead of the tidal wave of mortgage & HELOC defaults and nobody seems to be running for cover. Anyway you slice it, this company is highly leveraged and if a significant portion of their assets is tied to residential assets that have a long way to go before a bottom is reached, the company will need to raise more cash somehow, somewhere.

Thats why the stock is at $4. Not because its been unfairly treated by the media or by a few crooked analyst. Supply and demand. Besides a very loyal following of people, like those represented here, there are a ton of people who don't want to get tied up in a company that "may" have further issues. They did lose $91 million with a big EPS disappointment.

Luckily this market has been shrugging off all bad news, thinking the bottom is in, but everyone here knows that this earnings report just a month ago would have cut this stock in half, again. I've been looking for an opportunity to pick some shares up because if the bottom is in, and they do return to profitability soon, than you guys are right, this stock will take off. This report was not exactly the good news I was looking for to get off the sidelines and pick up some shares.

If they said they had jettisoned their mortgage business instead of implying that it would turn around, I would of found much more reason to buy this thing.

E*Trade: Primed To Turn Around?

122 times leverage and planning on a dilutive share offering to raise money? Why does almost everyone on these boards choose to focus on only the good or bad points and not have any balanced discussions?