The Real Expert

Citadel Infuses E*Trade with Strong, Experienced Management

oregonduck..yes ESPECIALLY the Bear Stearns' pros. If you knew anything about Bear, they are actually the best trading firm in the world..8 US offices and they controlled about 30-40% of the daily NYSE short interest. These guys dealt only with institutions and hedge funds.

If you also knew what happened, you'd realize that it was a liquidity squeeze out on repos out rumors from Europe. The fact is that the same situation could have happened to ANY bank, commercial or investment. Bear did not "blowup." Of cours enow that the Fed has opened its credit to IBs, they are protected from a fate similar to Bear. Most likely, Bear got screwed by the Fed because they did not help with the bailout of LTCM a few years back.

So yes, especially the pros at Bear, much more so than the others who mainly do retail (sales).

"I keep wondering, though. If you dont care about etrade , why are you here, posting? Just like JB Maria. What is your point? I have made a lot of money trading Etrade and dont need your advice or your concern. People here seem to be knowlegeable and know the risks. And, it seems, if I can follow your reasoning, that you would welcome us "rubes" entering the market against you pros."

Now what kind of idiotic remark is that?? Are you suggesting that this is to only serve as a pep rally for ETFC holders? Are you stupid?? If anything you should welcome and even thank us for our commentary because it is the most accurate I've seen. Your problem is similar to most other amateur investors - you let your emotions rule your reasoning. You want to hear only good things about your stock because it reinforces your decision to buy it. This is a suicidal mentality. I suggest you start listening to the realities because I know damn well what I am talking about and jbmaria seems to know as well.


If you don't like it don't read the posts. And the fact is that these people are NOT sufficiently knowledgable about the risks. That is why jbmaria and I have been so kind as to give our time to point them out to you guys.

It's all about risk and reward and risk is almost always the variable that investors fail to properly account for because it is very difficult to measure. I don't care if ETFC goes to $30, the fact is that the risk is too high and I would not care if I missed the boat. When you can realize that then you will be in much better shape. Only a fool cannot see that the credit crisis has further to go. Why sit and hold ETFC when there is absolutely no stimulus? Ask yourself whether you think Jim Rogers or Warren Buffet would buy it here. They would laugh at you if you asked them about ETFC.

You are explosing yourself to not only specific risk in ETFC, but also sector and more importantly MARKET RISK. When I have to explain these things it reinforces my view that there should be a requirement, like an 5-year course prior to letting the average Joe in the market. It's really frsutrating to see so many poor investment decisions. I do not like to see people lose money at the expense of big funds.

Big Pharma in Effort to Stimulate Innovation

Where is the investment relevance?

"To sustain a 10% annual growth rate is like adding a blockbuster drug ever year at a minimum (not counting patent expirations)."

Where did you arrive at this? I think you have this all wrong. You haven't factored in the sales growth of drugs. Take a look how much growth Lipator or other "blockbusters" have had.

Understand that no one will care to look at your site if this is all you have to offer. If you are going to shay away from investment relevance (which might be a good idea) then at least provide some real insight into the industry instead of summarizing a news post. Just a friendly tip.

Will the Banks Rebound? Cramer's Mad Money (5/30/08)

User 197255 of course you enjoy this site. You read yahoo stock message boards! lol. That tells me you are lost. This site caters to guys like you and that is experts don't stick around here long. Once they realize that 80% of the readers are complete idiots they bail. Good luck Cramer boy hahahaha.

Did We Learn Anything Over the Past Two Years?

tcornelison, you should have never admitted you were a mortgage loan boy. Now you have 0 credibility. I have further confirmed this by reading your other posts.

For instance, you state "All markets are not seeing values crashing down but 0-10% will be the norm across most of the Nation." seekingalpha.com/artic...

What a joke! Sorry sub-prime boy but real estate is down on average by over 15% from peak prices, with much more downside on the way.

You also state: "Myth # 1: Mortgage money is not available.
Reality # 1: Mortgages are readily available to "qualified buyers".

Myth # 2: 20% downpayment is required.
Reality # 2: 100% financing is still available for low to moderate income borrowers and reasonably priced homes."
seekingalpha.com/artic...

Sure there are very very rare exceptions but overall you are wrong. Lenders have redefined "qualified buyer" to the highest standard seen in 2 decades. And 9 out of 10 lenders require 20% down. 20% down should be a law for home purchases.

Stick to shafting people with lies and bad loans. Leave the comments to people who know what's going on. Thank you.

Bank of America: Smarter Than We Think?

SoCal Scott, it's a shame you have not been patched into the real experts. If you had, you'd have made a lot of money. If you never expected BAC to see the 20s, what are you goingto say WHEN it hits $18? In my opinion there is a 70% chance of BAC reaching $18, an 80% chance of it reaching $20 and 90% chance it's headed to $25.

Bank of America: Smarter Than We Think?

"Bank of America: Smarter than We Think?" Let's see...a bank that has yet to integrate its IT systems from its California branches into its nationwide systems, despite around 10 years of saying it would? Mike you should know about this.


If BAC is smarter than we think, it surely isn't showing it with its abysmal level of customer service, marathon-like phone wait times,
and complete organizational chaos. BAC grew by acquisition and by flooding the nation with ATMs but it has failed miserably to properly integrate its banks and other holdings into its archaic IT platform. BAC is the worst run mega bank in one of what is now and has been (for about 4 years) the worst run industry in America, and the results are just now starting to show.

Get ready to buy BAC Michael, because panic is about to ensue. What I find strange though is that with already some lameduck financials in your portfolio, why you would buy another (BAC), especially when you already have BAC exposure via CFC.

blah-blah, sorry to say but only a clown would buy the 55 calls. Those way out of the money calls are almost always bought by "joes" who have no money and think they are going to hit it "big" if the stock goes up. Don't be a cheapo. If you like BAC (and I cannot see why you would given the current situation) spend more money and buy calls closer to the money. If the stock price moves up your percent gains will be higher. That is the way options work.

Donald Johnson, dividends don't do much when the stock craters. And selling calls won't ease the pain because the stock will most likely fall to $20 over the next few months. Any type of long strategy in the financials is complete stupidity at this point. I recommmended a long-term short in BAC 8 months ago and I would not be covering here (except maybe for a short-term cover then another short after rally).

ETF Investment Risks

I think you should look into Barclay's a bit more closely. They have some big problems, so yes it could "disappear tommorrow just as any financial firm could. I would never say never about any banks during this crisis because anything could happen. And the banks that are deemed the strongest could surprise everyone.

The Reverse Wealth Effect

Chris, it is easy to explain the situation now that it has occurred. But where were you 2 or 3 years ago? I would venture to guess you were riding the wave of thought on our "great economy," similar to all of the other "pros." If you are going to hold yourself out as a CIO, you need to predict what is going to happen instead of reporting what has happened. As far as I can tell from this article, you are way behind the curve. If you would like some real insight let me know. I'm here to help.

Who Will Trigger E*Trade's Magic Moment - and a 111.4M Short Squeeze?

jbmaria: "If there was a little more editorial discretion by SA,maybe everyone might be better off."

Do you not realize that SA only cares to generate a trading mentality? They don't care about real content. You see, they want the same morons who watch Cramer. That is why they post his trash on the site. They are using the "Cramer" model - quantity, not quality and they get away with it because 99% of investors are clueless.

As far as rosetti's post, I have no idea why anyone is even giving "short" tips. No one should ever be shorting any stock unless they are professionals. It's far too risky. As a Wall Street professional, even I only rarely take pure short positions, and even then I always buy protective calls.

There are better ways to go short - using puts or Ultrashort ETFs. E-Trade has made so many think shorting is just a click of the mouse away and sadly it is. Unless you have worked on Wall Street you have no idea how risky shorting is. Virtually no stock brokers working for wirehouses are allowed to short stocks yet OLBs allow any moron to do it. Remarkable. And the stock market charade continues....and investors stand by watching, while they get screwed again.

Citadel Infuses E*Trade with Strong, Experienced Management

To jbmaria.....it is clear to me that you understand the risks and realities of ETFC. I have no interest in ETFC so I do not follow the stock closely. But one does not need to in order to understand the risks - that is if they understand the banking crisis.

These people clearly have no idea what is going on with the banks. They listen to the daily "ups and downs" reported by the media because they have no idea what is going on. These are the same people who look to Cramer for investment ideas. They would be in much better shape if they listened to your comments on ETFC instead of maintaining their incestuous love for this stock which they hope will make them rich.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about these saps is that they aren't even playing this very risky position wisely. They all seem to be holding ETFC instead of trading it or buying calls. Now I know why I am able to make so much money so easily from trading when I get spare time. There is so much dumb money in the market and ETFC has been a big source of this via making everyday Joes think they can compete against the pros in the market.

These posts on ETFC could be used as a case study for a behavioral finance course showing how people who invest in a stock fail to see reason and react with their emotion due to their financial attachment to the stock. It is really both shocking and funny to read the posts on ETFC because you can easily spot who is long the stock and those who have no bias.

To spell it out for so many of you out there who are long ETFC, maybe if you had no stake in the company you might be able to realize the value in jbmaria's posts; then again, I doubt it since buying ETFC right now indicates you lack a fundamental thought process needed for investment due diligence. Maybe we can call this element basic intelligence?

It's really a shame the SEC allowed anyone with a computer to enter the markets against the pros. I hate to see people get taken. But at some point these people can only blame themeselves. If they didn't learn anything from the Internet bubble they won't learn anything ever.

Monday Option Update: LEH, WM, XLF, CCRT, ETFC, BDK, GGP, XLNX

Good wrap-up Andrew. As you can see from my previous posts, in my opinion most of the commetaries on SA are trash or pumps. But this is a good and useful piece.

Recession Isn't Here Until the Consumer Says So

Enter your comment herespeculator, is the entire reason for your posts to push your useless blog? You are an example of how bad the economy is. You apparantly have no job and your only source of income is by trying to direct the sheep on SA to your site, hoping for Adsense revenues lol.

Will the Banks Rebound? Cramer's Mad Money (5/30/08)

"THE REAL EXPERT ... Obviously you hold yourself in high regard! Maybe you should consider retaining a CFP to assist you in your decisions. Then you would have the advice of A REAL EXPERT. If you are unable to sift through the cornucopia of information available today, and make your own decisions without requiring rubber panties, then stay out of the market."

Lol that tells me you are a complete idiot. CFPs are nowhere near experts. They are clueless! All they do is charge money for telling you to diversify. How do I know? I completed all educational requirements for the CFP certification and after successfully completely the useless courses, I refused to waste anymore money to take the exam. I did not want to be associated with such a scam designation. What people need more than anything are people who know how to navigate the markets. When nearly everyone missed the real estate dump, how can you trust anyone? Seek out those who knew it would happen. Theyare the only ones who have an idea what the future holds. Cramer missed it all just like the other morons.

To the rest of you naive kids, I do not watch or read anything Cramer talks about. Simply by following this moron you are showing you are lost.

getjdb, you are exactly right about CFPs. I can name a few experts for you to follow:

Jim Rogers
George Soros
Me - feel free to ask me any questions.

An Investor (A Very Old and wise Investor)

Starlims Technologies Long Trade Setup

First Mountain, in case you missed it - my (nasty) comment was based on my in depth knowledge of company fundamentals and management. It took me all of 5 second to do a "chart analysis."

Invest2success, it should be obvious the dividend is a desperate attempt to gain shareholder support by giving the impression that the company is strong and growing - to naive investors. Think of it as a $3 million marketing campaign.

Citadel Infuses E*Trade with Strong, Experienced Management

CFO Investor: ETFC has already provided a significant return in just the last month. The price change from $4 to $4.50 was at 12.5% change. I have felt that a prudent portion of my portfolio is well invested in E*Trade. I've diversified in other stocks as well.

I don't like CC because of the earnings projections for 2009 and 2010 are negative 1.84 and negative $1.65. Retail stocks right now are quite risky.

Wow. What type of company are you a CFO of? Based on your comment I would suspect you are a bank CFO. You clear have no idea about risk. Anyone long financial stocks right now needs to have their head examined. The worst is not even close to being over.

Sure retail is bad. Can you tell me the condition of the financials? I was merely trading risk by mention of CC. Are you aware of that concept? The fact is that, while CC is not at the top of my list, it has a much better risk-reward than ETFC. In fact it has very little risk currently. The company has NO DEBT (except for seasonal inventory).

ETFC is simply a terrible investment right now, PERIOD. There are so many better opportunities out there. One of them is cash. Why are so many of you missing the commodities market? US assets (other than commodities) are trash right now and the situation isn't going to change anytime soon. And if you want to take a VERY long stance on US equities the last thing to invest in right now are the financials. At the very least, you had better be trading or hedging these stocks with options if you decide to deal with this trash. WAKE UP GUYS.