Chungst

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  • Read This Before Buying E*Trade
    Rich Shinnick: You are being so difficult.

    First, you wrote the piece (I stated earlier no one put a gun to your head to write it). We, as the readers, provided feedback at our option. Given your background that you've advertised (akin to shingle theory) that you are highly educated (with a JD no less) with years of investment experience (your bio stated 10 years of "studying"), you should have figured out (by yourself) why some critics told you how to improve your analysis (trust me, I've tried nicely earlier). Instead, you want to come across as a neophyte in investing -- sorry, you can't play both sides of the fence or "Homey don't play that" where I'm from. If you really are a neophyte or incompetent, then I will not hestitate to treat you like one.

    Second, I commented to you earlier about objectivity and having a reasonable basis. I am astounded that someone with a JD and 10 years of investing experience would respond with: "I could call the investor relations department but that is what they would tell me." How difficult would have been to say to ETFC's investor relations that I have concerns over the company's $2.6 billion consumer portfolio and can you walk me through the migitants or does the company have safeguards in place? To make assumptions on what the company will say is NOT OBJECTIVITY and trust me I've tried to teach that concept to you but you don't listen. Clearly someone like Prescient11 was able to use a little more effort and supplied more information about these loans based on the link provided. Therefore, this information is AVAILABLE and you chose to OMIT key information like FICO scores, etc because you chose to avoid calling the company to get the information in the first place.

    Rich Shinnick, if you advertise yourself as someone with a JD and 10 years of "studying", then you ought to be intelligent to discern when someone (like myself) is trying to coach you to do a better job. Instead, you make excuses and make up answers rather than take the advice.

    You owe it to yourself to learn how to speak to the investor relations department. Since you have a JD, then you ought to understand the impact of "Fair Disclosure" (aka Reg FD that levels the playing field such that the investor relations or senior management must treat each investor fairly). If you don't speak to the company, you will miss out on key information. Let me conclude with this comment, even Warren Buffett calls the IR department himself.

    Cheers.

    Cheers.

    Feb 19 17:53 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Read This Before Buying E*Trade
    "Furthermore, nobody has pointed at anything in the article that is "innacurate" information." -- RS

    As a buy-side analyst for a number of years, I will tell you that OMISSION of key information equates to "inaccurate" information and I am not dealing with semantics. I don't have time to go over your numerous faulty comments, but I will address one in that you originally wrote (more like pontificating out loud):

    "$2.6 billion Consumer Loan Portfolio
    Does it surprise you to know that E*Trade holds $2 billion in RV loans and $500 million in boat loans? They have a little over 1% of this total portfolio reserved for loan losses as of the end of 2007. Here is my question. How will a portfolio of RV and boat loans do in a recession? Could this portfolio be a little bigger problem in the future than just a 1% write-off?"

    You never checked with ETFC's investor relations about these concerns. So, I ask you again, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO DO YOUR JOB??? Please advise, how difficult is it to call the company and get answers to these basic questions --- questions with negative implications based on your writing, etc.

    Lastly, Mr. Shinnick, you have demonstrated you don't like, much less appreciate, constructive criticism. Therefore, I will exit this "dialogue" and allow you the last word (which history shows that you enjoy).

    Good luck.

    Feb 19 16:12 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Read This Before Buying E*Trade
    Richard Shinnick, you are missing the point. If you write a piece and submit into the public domain, you are inviting feedback -- be it positive or negative feedback. However, when you receive negative feedback, it's how you response that is the key. Since you unilaterally wrote and submit this article (i.e. no one put a gun to your head) you are held accountable for the quality of the information. When someone points out a defect in your argument, in my humble opinion, you are now obligated to verify that information yourself as opposed to attacking the critic with your comment of: "Response 1: Ok, who is the counterparty? Ambac?"

    I am very serious about this because how difficult was it for you, i.e. the analyst on ETFC, to simply call up ETFC's investor relation's department and get the answer from the horse's mouth. Therefore, this behavoir is not called "taking ownership" as you liked me to believe -- to me, this behavior is akin to being a sore loser.

    A good analyst has to independently verify the information because a good analyst has to be objective. When I was studying for my CFA exams, AIMR (now the CFA Institute) stated that one must have a reasonable basis for the recommendation. People can debate what is meant by "reasonable basis," but to me, it meant looking under sufficient rocks to make sure I did as best of a job as I could. And yes, I did discover some fraud in my career as a Buy-Side Analyst.

    Cheers.



    Feb 19 06:58 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Read This Before Buying E*Trade
    I've been following the debate, based on what has been written, it's clear the author (Rich Shinnick) didn't do a good job and deserved the resulting feedback.

    I will also advise Mr. Shinnick to stop coming across as a sore loser. People took time and energy to give constructive criticism such that Mr. Shinnick would be a better analyst as a consequence. I don't know what Mr. Shinnick seeks to gain (perhaps to comfort his damaged ego) by attacking the critic(s) who made good faith evaluations of the article.

    Mr. Shinnick ought to know that there is a unwritten rule about people who write essays: Attacking the essay is fair game. If Mr. Shinnick doesn't want feedback, then common sense would suggest that Mr. Shinnick refrain from submitting articles in the public domain.

    Cheers.
    Feb 18 23:14 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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