ExOdy

I like schwab except for the fact that it takes a few days to settle your funds after selling stocks. Not sure if it is like that with other brokerages but sometimes I would like the freedom to trade more freely like my dad does with etrade.

chroot

ExOdy,

Sounds like you don't have a margin account -- and nothing at all is wrong with Schwab. Use the website to request an upgrade to a margin account.

- Warren

Chris S

Only bank accounts, not brokerage accounts, are insured by the FDIC.

jerrypeterson

This is an SEC rule. It takes three days to settle trades. Depending upon your account type, the money may be available to trade sooner.

jah

might consider TradeKing.com
-they have a money market account that is made up of a series of banks each is insured for 100K so for accounts > than this limit should still be insured
-they are not expensive, $4.95/trade

jerrypeterson

Apparently, merger rumors are starting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21938743/

QUIKAG

See, this is the stupid crap we all need to be a bit more clairvoyant about in the future. E-trade didn't suddenly lose 50% or more of it's market value in a true economic sense. The market traded it down, but obviously E-trade's assets and market clout were worth much more than that. So, had we all bought at it's low, then bam it jumps 25% on merger talks.

I honestly think it's a similar deal for all the large banks. Yes, the credit crunch sucks, but the fundamentals over time are still very, very strong for the large banks and they will obviously recover and be even stronger in the future. They've taken too big of a hit IMO.

But, alas, I don't trade individual stocks because I'm a mutual fund man (much to cthree's chagrin).

sahtt

QUIKAG, even those who are shorting the banks probably agree with you. But if you are early you are still wrong. The exact sentiment you are expressing has been common place for the last 3-5 months. It's not a matter if* MER is going to come back strong, it's a matter of are you willing to risk another 8-20% loss over an undefined period of time until it rebounds? That's when people don't put their money where their mouths are. The rebound is certainly much closer now than it was. The weak links like PMI/CFC/KBH are still afloat at this point, muchless the big banks. As long as those guys stay above water the future equity losses in regards to the big banks will probably be light to moderate.

AssassinJN

Hmm.. There was another letter from etrade on my account page yesterday thanking everyone for sticking with them and for patience for their slow responses to questions. They also wrote how exactly all funds are backed up. I just went to try and copy it to paste here for an update, but it is taken down already now.

Diabl0

Rumours of TD Ameritrade taking over Etrade have been around for some time.

Two prominent and powerful hedge funds one of them being SAC with stakes in TD Ameritrade have been hounding Ed Clark (CEO of TD) to merge with ETrade all this year.

It was Ed Clarks top notch foresight that he did not budge and proceeded with the merger back when the stock was in the 20s. Though the merger or takeover looks very likely now.

What do you guys think of the stock though? Good buy right now? The calls have been going up in value for sometime.