E*Trade Financial Announces Super Bowl Advertisments

E*Trade Financial Corporation today announced the Company will debut two thirty-second advertisements during Super Bowl XLII, a strategic investment that will gain the Company broad exposure to a captivated audience of financial services consumers. ... "With the boost in visibility from our Super Bowl advertisements ... we will demonstrate that we remain completely committed to our core retail business and to our customers," said Nicholas Utton, Chief Marketing Officer.

Frankly, I'm appalled.

It used to be that blowing a significant amount of money on a Super Bowl ad was a sign of an up-and-coming company, and may young Internet firms launched themselves by betting on a single roll of the dice. E*Trade, however, is no young company - and instead of seeming bold, this move just seems desperate.

Said another way, the ship is sinking, and they've just spent a lot of time and money writing a new jingle. They really ought to be focusing their efforts on improving their capital structure (especially, escaping the burden of subprime loans that are weighing them down).

The fact that they're resorting to distraction tactics in a desperate attempt to remind us that they're still in business is a very bad sign. The fact that the don't realize that their investors will see right through this is even worse.

Roller Coaster

I got an e-mail alert today that Petel, which I sold yesterday at 11 cents, rocketed up to 20 cents today, which annoyed me greatly at first. By close of business, it was back down to 8 cents, some 20% lower than its closing price (12 cents) yesterday.

All things considered, I'm glad I acted when I did to lock in profits, even though I could have made more than I did: there's a lot of volatility in the penny stocks, and you can't really predict when a stock has topped out. When you're lucky enough to turn a profit, take the money and run.

PTEI Pays Out

Petel Incorporated has taken off, more than tripling in value since I bought it a few weeks ago. And so, I've sold off half my shares to lock in profits, and am holding the remainder in hopes that the upward trend will continue.


The profits from the sale more than covered the buy-in for the full amount, so I'm riding free shares at this point. And yeah, it feels great.

Weekly Summary

Things were going miserably earlier this week, but the market recovered nicely, making up for my losses for the past month:


In all, it's good to be ahead of the game for a change, if only by a little bit.

ETrade (ETFC)

Company:	E*Trade Financial Corporation
Web Site:	http://www.etrade.com
Purchase Price:	$2.99
Current Price:	Click Here

E*Trade is one of the pioneers of online securities trading, who took a significant loss (five billion) in the subprime lending crisis, which sent its stock price plummeting from over $25/share to almost $2/share over the course of several months.

I've been watching the company since its price plummeted in November and have been hesitant to invest, but its recent signs of recovery (most notably, the restructuring of its capital reserves by reducing its holdings in mortgage-backed securities) have been encouraging.

And so, I've bought a couple hundred shares, and expect to make a satisfactory return within the next six to twelve months.

Weekly Summary

It's been a brutal week in the market, and I've had some double-digit losses but am still down by a small percentage, overall. Here's how it turned out.


I've got funds to invest, and have my eye on a handful of companies that look promising - but am waiting for the market to even out before getting any more skin in the game.

Weekly Summary

Two weeks into the year, here's where things stand:

I'm still running at a net loss, largely due to intraday fluctuations in stock prices, but remain optimistic overall.