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A week ago it was recommended by 3 out of 4 of the Fast Money gang based on the take over talk.

Filed under: TD AmeriTrade Holding (AMTD), Financial Crisis

Filed under: Earnings reports, Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW), TD AmeriTrade Holding (AMTD), E*TRADE (ETFC)

If there is definitely one stock to avoid these days, it's E*Trade (NASDAQ: ETFC). I went back and forth on it over the summer, wondering if it was worthy of a trade at certain points, but after the broker's Q3 earnings report, I just don't have any good feelings about it right now.

Total net revenue declined over 21% to $377.7 million. The net loss per share from continuing operations on a diluted basis plummeted over 300% to $0.60. E*Trade, as we all know, has been a victim of the whole

So as it turns out, the SEC’s temporary short-selling ban is specifically targeted at financial stocks: as the WSJ notes, the Commission has barred short sales of 799 financial stocks for the next 10 days, with a potential extension to 30 days.

Marketwatch has the full list.

No real tech names on the list, though it does include some online brokers, including eTrade (ETFC) and Ameritrade (AMTD), as well as SVB Financial Group (SIVB) parent of Silicon Valley Bank, a lender to many companies in the Vallley.

A sample of things to come: eTrade this morning is up 71 cents, or 21.5%, to $4.01.

There apparently are some troubles this morning with Ameritrade’s (AMTD) Web site. A note on the online brokerage firm’s Web site says “You may be experiencing problems logging on to our Web site. If you are unable to log on to your account online, you can still access your account through our automated phone system.”

A spokeswoman confirms that the site is experiencing a “slowdown” due to an increase in trading activity.

Meanwhile, the Web site for the brokerage firm’s parent, TD Ameritrade, includes a statement aimed at calming any investors worried about the company’s financial strength:

Th

E-Trade Financial (ETFC) has had its share of problems. A few years back, E-Trade was the biggest competitor to TD Ameritrade (AMTD) and the stock traded together with the brokerage stocks. Yet, since the mortgage headlines began to hit the wires last year, the stock has dropped from $23 to $3 today. In fact, the stock hit $2.25 back in January of this year. In other words, the stock has been hit like it were a Countrywide.

What the market might have overlooked is that ETFC's primary line of business has been its trading business. In fact, the number of net new retail accounts in July total