the market seems to be confused about how to value these companies (EGRP, SCH, etc).
are they internet stocks? are they financial stocks?
MWD, MER, AXP, PWJ and C will offer online trading, who is cheap and who is expensive? who has to rise, who has to fall?
what will these latter companies do with their army of brokers is still a question left unanswered (was there something about that in the Bernstein report??), as is what will happen with their revenues from trading, they stand the most to lose.
there's the issue of growth rates also, Paine Webber is not growing 100% year over year, as is EGRP.
are they gaining 300,000+ acounts per quarter?
do HYBRID business models work? what can we learn from the CPQ vs DELL experience?
there's too much confusion.
but why this negativity with online brokers exclusively?
there's competition everywhere.
INTC entered the EXDS business too.
MSFT entered the online auctions business, does that mean we have to apply a 12,000 P/E to MSFT, or EBAY has to go down?
MSFT has the MSN portal too, so how to justify the 650 P/E of YHOO?
Wal-Mart sells books online, so does Barnes & Noble, but AMZN didn't fall because of that.
and so on and on.
it's weird.
these online brokerage stocks seem to be priced for a 1929-style crash right now.
what's worse, the process tends to feed on itself, negativity brings more negativity.
i try to profit from these periods, because i truly believe in this company, but it's painful and frustrating to see PHONE.COM, JUNIPER (13 billion market cap, 30 million in annual revenues or so), BROCADE, CMRC, IIJI, and other pieces of shit go up every day and command the market caps they have with their lilliputian revenues.
i daytrade too, and i play some of these stocks in the momentum game, but i feel BAD, really BAD and TERRIBLE doing it.
but what can i do! though i love it EGRP has not moved for months!
and i have to feed my children!
:-)
come on Cotsakos, announce that fucking alliance with Yahoo once and for all and close that ill-fated Telebanc deal, let's see if we can return this stock to its past glory. |
