E*Trade Ads Spell Trouble For Emerging Markets

February 4, 2008

We all remember the infamous "Let's light this candle!" ad for an online broker in 1999. The day-trader-era focused ads made riches seem available to all who clicked buy. We all know what happened: pain and suffering as the Nasdaq declined about 80% top to bottom.

To those watching the Superbowl yesterday, you may have noticed a sort of retro dot com era ad flashback. Not only were many of the multi-million dollar ads run by dot-coms (just like the old days), but ads for online brokers were making the rounds again.

Check out E*Trades current slew of ads. Our favorite is the one that touts E*Trade's new feature where customers can buy shares directly in foreign markets. In the ad, one customer is particularly enamored by his ability to load up on Chinese stocks. This of course doesn't bode well for the future of Chinese stocks. This is the E*Trade (ETFC) that moved heavy into mortgage lending right before well... just check out their stock price.

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