EyeDoc, what you forget is that much of the surge in volume for online brokers is from short term trading. These customers require a much higher degree of reliability than buy-and-hold types. If E*Trade is seen as unreliable - i.e. unreliable quote services, poor or erroneous trade executions, unresponsive or inaccessible customer service and altogether unavailable service like today - then short term traders will go elsewhere. Also, since these short term traders are providing much of the fuel feeding the internut stock frenzy, if they decide they can't count on the service, are they likely to buy the stock? I think not. Longer term, financial services relationships depend on trust and reliability and a bad reputation can stick with it for a long time.
BTW, I have been both short (Oct.'97 and now) and long (last July) EGRP, so I think I can be objective. I have also been a customer for about two years - sometimes happy, sometimes not. Right now EGRP is severely overvalued and appears to be stumbling a bit on execution. Growth is good, but is it sustainable if they continue to let service slide?
Bob |
