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Non-Tech : E*Trade (NYSE:ET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: desert fox who wrote (9968)	12/18/1999 3:34:00 PM
From: Curtis E. Bemis	Respond to of 13953

Don't forget the BIG $$ we have to play for the SuperBowl. Many small startups would give their eye teeth for revenue that E*Trade spends for that. I can smell the ETrade overload at halftime as all the couch quarterbacks rush for their PeeCees to open an account. You think they will upgrade their infrastructure to handle that ?? ;-)

To: desert fox who wrote (9968)	12/18/1999 5:14:00 PM
From: buckhead26	Respond to of 13953

As an aside, while surfing the other day I clicked on a banner for Salomon Smith Barney, and perused their site. What a joke. They have a major problem trying to serve the direct customer and their elite broker directed (i.e., Commission) customers. Their site is so inadequate compared to other sites like SI, MktWatch, CNBC, etc. I know the other big guys like DLJ doing a much better job of connecting online with DLJ Direct, but it was a real disappointment. I went there because of their "free" list of "Core Holdings for the Millenium" promoted in the banner ad. Here they are: KO (coke), HD, PG, MCD, WMT, DIS, XON, AIG, FNM, WFC, BMY, JNN MRK PFE, BA DD GE CSCO HWP IBM INTC LU MSFT WCOM. Of these the techs are good buys, and HD and WMT. The others I would wait and see, if ever, to buy. As for internet guidance, I could find very little there, but if you request a broker to call you (oh, brother.), you can probably get their internet reports, but who wants to have a broker calling them. Also they imply they have a self directed trading service, but it was confusing, no demo, and the "fee" structure was complex, vague, and no specific cost numbers (like % of capital base, per transaction charge) were listed. It's so different from the internet discount broker environment I use. I know their target group is the rich, but a lot of people who trade direct are getting rich, and I don't see them ever becoming a SSB or ML customer. I know I won't. buckhead26

To: desert fox who wrote (9968)	12/19/1999 1:48:00 AM
From: ecommerceman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13953

Desert Fox--Excellent post. While I am ridiculously long ETrade, I'm not unaware of the costs of their promotions/rebates. Without doubt the $5 trade option will dramatically increase ETrade's reported trade volume, but whether or not that will either add or subtract from the bottom line is anybody's guess. Clearly, it's E*Trade's belief that this promotion (and others) will utlimately add to the bottom line, but I for one certainly don't believe that it's a given certainly in the short term, and perhaps not even in the long term. As a long, I'm betting that these moves will advance the agenda of the company, but I'm also willing to admit that there's a certain element of blind-faith that is involved here, and I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that there is a fair amount of risk...