E*Trade's Annual Shareholder Meeting Should Pressure the Shorts

On April 25, Dean Laster wrote an intriguing article regarding the fact that E*Trade’s (ETFC) stock has short interest sitting at 20% of the stock’s float (see “Why the E*Trade Shorts Have It Wrong”).<!----> Mr. Laster pointed out that E*Trade has no “downside catalyst” and that all the the bad news is priced into the $4 existing stock price. In fact E*Trade’s April 17th Earnings Conference Call presented many positive upside trends for both the brokerage business and the mortgage portfolio performance, so “shorts are in effect digging their own graves.”

This week, on Wednesday May 7, Nick Perry from Schaeffer’s Investment Research wrote an article entitled “Is E-Trade Financial Corp. Poised to Make Another Run?” In this article Mr. Perry affirms the unusual circumstances that the 20% short interest position sets up. He also indicates that the current “contraction in volatility can be a sign that ‘pressure’ is building.” He points out that “a contraction doesn’t suggest which way a stock will break.” However, the “stage” is set for a “pop above the front-month calls but we still need a catalyst to spark the buying.”