[Porsche-O-Phile]

It's worth noting that E*Trade bank was one of the promulgators of the housing bubble too - they traded fairly heavily in mortgage-backed securities, leading to some panic last year that their collapse was imminent. They managed to avoid collapse and buyout/takeover, but I still tend to think they have a lot of toxic stuff on their books that they're feverishly trying to downplay. I suggest you investigate this and look up some of the financial news stories surrounding them from last year.

OptionsXpress has none of this stuff and has pretty open/transparent books - they're very up-front about what they do and what they hold, so another shameless plug for them (and no, I'm not a shareholder, although I sorta' wish I had bought them a couple years ago...) They're extrememly good - you can actually pick up the phone at any time and talk to a human being without having to navigate 30 minutes of automated sub-menus. That counts for a LOT with me.

Just an FYI.