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

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/23/1999 8:01:00 PM
From: thinkbach	Respond to of 13953

I agree, "Profit Moratorium" is probably the single biggest issue with this company in the eyes of the street. Not too many companies use the words, though plenty don't yet have profits. I think the moment ETrade declares a profit, we will start to gain share strength against whatever the analysts say. Merril Lynch recently downgraded Amgen and the stock ignored the downgrade completely. Once a company proves itself it starts to really shine, it seems to me. Profits are that proof, along with the expectation of future profits. This could take another year with ETrade...but I like the odds so far!

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/23/1999 8:24:00 PM
From: KM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13953

Here's a nice study, very well researched, showing that brokers sharply outperform the market in the January through April period. Take heart: moneycentral.msn.com The best time to buy a good stock like this is when no one else wants it and the natty naysayers are buzzing around.

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/23/1999 8:55:00 PM
From: Spytrdr	Respond to of 13953

In Online Trading, Salomon Takes the Road Less Traveled By Caroline Humer Staff Reporter 12/23/99 3:22 PM ET Solly's getting the word out: The discount-brokerage business may be fine for some full-service firms, but it isn't for Salomon Smith Barney. The full-service brokerage unit of Citigroup (C:NYSE) isn't making plans to offer cheap online trades, unlike Wall Street rivals Merrill Lynch (MER:NYSE) and Prudential. Instead, during the first quarter the company's brokers will start sending customers to Citibank's discount-brokerage service, Direct Access, which charges $20 for most trades. Instead of facing the cannibalization issue head-on, as other traditional brokerage firms have done, Solly is leveraging its role as part of a financial services conglomerate to keep its customers -- and its 11,000 brokers -- happy. Separate but Equal Cheap online trading has revolutionized the brokerage business. Even full-service firms that initially eschewed the business, such as Merrill, have begun offering $30 online trades next to their full-service offerings, which carry a price tag of a couple hundred dollars apiece. With more than 5 million online accounts in the U.S., full-service firms have had to come up with ways to try to keep clients, and their assets, in-house. And most have come to the conclusion that a low price, in addition to Internet access, is the way to do that. But not Solly. In October the brokerage house began allowing customers to trade online through fee-based or regular commission accounts, but that's as far as the craziness goes. There is no discounted trading, nor are there any plans for eventual discounted trading at Solly. The idea, says spokeswoman Sally Cates, is to maintain two separate brands: Salomon Smith Barney for full-service trading, and Citibank Direct Access for lower-cost trading. Later in 2000 the financial services behemoth that includes Travelers, Citicorp and Salomon Smith Barney will follow up with consolidated account and tax statements, Cates says. Investor Relations The separate brands, according to one hedge fund principal, should stem the flow of accounts to the cheap online brokerages that have sprung up and grabbed more than 30% of retail trading volume. "Rather than losing clients to the Schwabs (SCH:NYSE) and E*Trades (EGRP:Nasdaq), they're trying to maintain a relationship with those who want to do business on a discount basis with the hopes that they can maintain a relationship and maybe do some additional business going forward," says Frank Barkocy, a senior analyst at hedge fund Keefe Managers, which is long Citigroup. From an earnings point of view, Barkocy isn't expecting the move to mean much, but having a cogent Internet strategy will be important down the road for retaining clients and selling additional products and services, he says. Indeed, a large part of Citigroup's revenue comes from its consumer retail business. Getting That Promotion The online brokerages haven't suffered much from the new competition on the Internet from the big Wall Street firms, according to Stephen Franco, an online brokerage analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. In part, that's because getting customers online requires that the brokers actually promote the discounted products. Depending on how each firm is set up, moving business to any discounted service can hurt brokers' individual compensation. It probably will be another six months before there are any signs of whether Merrill's fee-based and discount business -- which has come online in the last six months -- has helped it hold onto customers. "I'll be very interested to see how much the full-service brokers promote the discount products. It goes against everything they've been saying for 20 years," Franco says.

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/23/1999 8:57:00 PM
From: Spytrdr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13953

to tell you the truth, i liked the previous website MUCH MUCH BETTER than the current one. only the current one seems faster. ___ "Its website is lot better than what it was before."

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/23/1999 9:27:00 PM
From: Spytrdr	Respond to of 13953

the problem with these stocks is that analysts and fellow brokerage houses obviously have a CONFLICT OF INTEREST. how can Merrill recommend EGRP and SCH? EGRP and SCH are enemies nr. 1 to them! Merrill has been and is LOSING lots of accounts to Schwab and ETrade. same thing for the rest. so instead they just keep telling people to "strong buy" Verisign at $ 19 billion dollars (with $ 70 Million in annual revenues), Akamai, Foundry, Etoys at $ 9 billion (of course it fell like a rock from the upgrades on), etc. their analysts just ignore the OLB sector, hoping to steer people away from it, thus taking the shine off the sector, and make them pour their money elsewhere for as long as possible. we've all witnessed those CURIOUS DOWNGRADES and initiations of coverage during past months, exactly 1 or 2 days after the sector started to run. check my past messages where i say "just like clockwork", it was so obvious that even looked ridiculous. i even predicted a few of those in anticipation! saying "don't be surprised if tomorrow an analyst comes out"... in fact the analyst came out hours later. funny. of course, a strong stock would have just ignored those analysts and keep moving, but when the attacks come one after the other and from all sides, and when those enemies are market makers in your stock too... well, that's a poisonous combination. since i'm long forever on EGRP, i know eventually the balance of power will start to shift, the tables will turn, and some day maybe it will be ETrade doing the downgrading. and Merrill Lynch will be stuck with earnings warning after earnings warning, unable to cope with the cannibalization issue of a hybrid business model and its debt.

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/23/1999 11:34:00 PM
From: SLSUSMA	Respond to of 13953

Kumar: I agree with you that OLBs are the wave of the future. However, until they start picking up, there are better places to put your money. A buy and hold strategy certainly did not work for OBLs this past year; doing so would have wasted a year's worth of capital. Until OLBs pick up ad find favor in WSW once again, they are still a nice vehicle to short/trade. Given the pace of transactions today, thanks to OLBs, you can always buy back when they start moving up again.

To: Kumar Nathan who wrote (10149)	12/24/1999 4:45:00 AM
From: 2ripley2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13953

Kumar, Gut-wrenching & thought-provoking analysis of pros & cons. Your summation pretty much says it all: <<Given the abov positive and negative factor we now need to find out how the market is going to appreciate this sector. We all have a tendency that market is not seeing our potential. But we also need to understand that market has lot more sexy investments than ours. Once those sector run out of steam then we will see some action here. Until then I dont think that nobody will even look at us. Period. Even timber and railroad performed better between Jan till now. But not OLB.>> Painful as it may seem right now, remember: 1. In the scheme of things, OLB's are relatively new sector in a constant process of redefining itself. 2. In sector rotation, it's "in the news" time comes in Jan-Apr due to seasonal increase in OLB trading Q4 & Q1. It will become sexy again... but seasonal, until it (or EGRP specifically) redefines itself away from this seasonality to the "street's" satisfaction. Certainly EGRP is moving more strongly in that direction than any of the other OLBs. 3. OLBs (particularly EGRP) have been & are a thorn in the side of brick & mortar Brokerage firms, let's not even discuss the ways they have and will counter the OLB market, but sufficith(sp) to say that battle has only just begun. Will OLBs (particularly EGRP) win in the end? Most definitely. How many quarters will it take & how rocky will the ride be? Pure conjecture at this point. But I would venture to say (or at least hope) that we will see stock appreciation similar to last year from Jan-Apr... but I think it may take a little more redefining of the sector & elimination of the seasonality (another year) b4 we see any more stabilized uptrend. JMHO. regards, rip