purefct

E*Trade Primed for a Breakout

Etrade customer service could be better, but each time I look elsewhere I come back to etrade. I left Schwab for Etrade in the 80's, opened and closed Brown, Ameritrade, TD whatever their name was (I haven't gone back since the merger), Scott Trade, Fidelity, and have a Wells Trade acct due to my mortgage but will close it when I refi my mort. I've even left Smith Barney, Shearson Lehman (OK, I'm dating myself a bit with the old names), and even some of my Stone & Youngberg I'm transferring to etrade.

I've made hundreds of calls to ET Cust Svc and have a large number of unsatisfactory experiences - but it's still superior to the service and offerings from the other brokerages. I'm always warry of people who claim they've never had a problem, I conclude they only trade stock in a traditional manner and thus do not tend to have complications.

So complain all you want, etrade is growing because even if they stink at times, they are still better than the pack. As long as customers believe the company will stay around and the company focuses on superior management (and credit markets don't freeze up), etrade will recover quite nicely!

I own about 43,000 sh ETFC and have sold 2,000 contracts (not 20 contracts for 2,000 sh) $5 Put Jan-09 so far. I'm bullish!