November 12, 2007
Late Friday, E-Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:ETFC) said deterioration in the value of its mortgage-backed securities has fallen significantly. The online brokerage said the weakness will lead to bigger-than-expected write-downs in the fourth quarter.
Word on the street is there’s 15% chance of the company going into bankruptcy. E*Trade has protection for it’s brokerage customers through SIPC, a quasi-government entity that protects securities customers the was FDIC protects bank customers. Make sure you go online and print copies of your statements; good records will be important if you need to make a claim. If you were considering moving to a different broker, today would be a good day to get that started. I’m a Fidelity fan myself.
