I wrote Jim Jubak (MSN money columnist) re Etrade buying Brownco from JP Morgan couple years back. Said i thought it would lead to trouble, because their two customer bases were so very different. I think that was the start of Etrade's serious trouble and a very bad business decision. Sort of like Walmart buying Nieman Marcus. If you pay top dollar for another company's assets and that companies assets can walk out the door whenever they choose, you had better think twice about the deal. At the time i expressed the opinion that a merger between Etrade and Ameritrade would make more sense. Now, ironically, Ameritrade has expressed interest in acquiring Etrade. Both are crap brokers, of course, but they are therefore a good match.
If Etrade goes below 4 i'll think maybe of gambling a few bucks. But not until.
