The last time I mentioned eTrade's issues, I said I had bought in to the stock around $5.50, following a small recovery after bad news swirling around the company had decimated its market value. Not seeing the kind of continued growth I had expected right away, I sold my position a few days later around $5.65. I'd made a few hundred bucks, but nothing to write home about. But now I'm back in, and it's a different story - one that could be much more profitable.

After I sold on November 16th, eTrade stock resumed its collapse, falling below $4 a share - signaling to me the right opportunity to resume my eTrade gamble (Partly due to this article). So on Wednesday morning, I put a sizable chunk back into the stock, now at $3.89 a share. It looks like it may have been the right move, as while rumors of a potential merger with Schwab.com or TD Ameritrade have been swirling, the stock jumped about 25% today, ending at $5.33 a share, giving me a 37% gain in a two day period, and an "on paper" profit of more than $3,500 so far.

Why play eTrade? Because I believe they have the best brand among online brokerages, and that their customer base will be a valuable commodity, even if they are sold or merge with a competitor. It's also likely the eTrade name would be kept, if not too damaged. After all, who wants a new name like TDAmerE*Trade or SchwabTrade.com? An eTrade customer can only benefit from this.

As an investor, I believe my funds are safe, and that the value of the company is higher than it is today. I've made more than my fair share of bad stock trades in the past, whether from premature selling or simply bad buying, but I'll be watching this one close, hoping it turns out well.

(Also see: Silicon Alley Insider: E*Trade On The Blocks? Probably., BusinessWeek: E*Trade: The Merger Buzz Grows, or E-Trade Shares Spike on Takeover Talk)

As the company does every year, Apple is holding a one-day "Day after Thanksgiving" sale, encouraging buyers to get an early jump on the holiday rush. But while iMacs, MacBooks, and low-end iPods were on sale, at roughly 5-10% discounts, the company's most sought-after products, including the iPhone and iPod Touch, didn't get a single dollar's worth of reduction.

As many Mac-focused sites reported, including MacRumors and Chris Pirillo, you could save from $51 to $101 off the price of a new iMac, the same $51 to $101 off from MacBooks, and anywhere from $11 to $31 apiece on iPod Shuffles and the iPod Classic.


While Apple billed the sale as letting customers "save big on some of our best sellers", it seemed you're really only able to "save small" on some of their products. The company's front page also stated, "Save big on iPod, iPhone and Mac gifts," but instead of discount iPhones, you instead have the option to get price-reduced bluetooth headsets, or carrying sleeves. Not exactly the same thing.

If you were interested in getting a new iPod Touch, iPhone or MacBook Pro, there's no sale for you. So not even this Apple fanboy will be reaching for his credit card for this sale.

I don't believe we've yet reached the stage where one family member will Twitter from one side of the table to "Pass the Gravy" and another will update their Facebook status to complain the turkey "is" a bit dry. In fact, when the real world takes a vacation, it appears the blogosphere does as well in a big way. Using my Google Reader stats as one non-scientific measure, the total number of new items in my RSS feeds dropped by more than 50 percent from a typical Thursday, and you could see total traffic beginning to trend downwards as early as Tuesday this week.


On a typical Thursday, I read about 700 new items from my RSS feeds. According to Google Reader, Thursday is my 2nd-most busy day, behind only Wednesday, in this metric. But today, with about an hour left in Thanksgiving, we haven't yet broken through the 300 barrier.

(Note the above graphic has highlighted Saturday and Sunday in light blue. Today is red.)

That's not to say nothing has happened today. Mashable reported on some of the year's failures, and Robert Cringely covered Apple's patent settlement with Burst, while others pontificated on a rumor that News Corp. might be looking to add LinkedIn to its stable, next to MySpace, in a two-pronged attack against Facebook.

I expect tomorrow to be light as well, as most people took a four-day weekend. While the stock markets will be open, real business won't kick back up until next Monday. Should make for a pretty slow weekend on the Web.

Ballhype, the sports news, discussion and game picks Web site, one of my personal favorites, upgraded their look and feel late tonight, giving a fresh "2.0" like appearance to the site which continues to grow by leaps and bounds in terms of traffic, users and story submissions.

With the advent of the NBA season and college basketball on top of college football, the NFL, NHL and Major League Soccer, it's no wonder the activity at the site is at all time highs. And while a simple Web site upgrade isn't exactly breaking news, it signifies to me another stage in the community's growing up. We've been happy visitors and participants of Ballhype for about eight months now, and have had the good fortune of meeting the site's husband and wife co-founders, who have the enviable position of doing what they love and starting a business at the same time.

The new look draws the site in line with its sister entertainment-focused community, Showhype, which debuted just last month. The new, more professional, look highlights the concept of "Hyping Up" a story, and with stadium lights in the background, reminds us it's all about the games and the athletes.

Of course, that doesn't mean everyone's happy. One occasionally irascible user immediately pounced on the changes, complaining, "....I can't stand it. Maybe make it an option for people to use the old theme?" But as the saying goes, you can't please all of the people all of the time, and as a site grows, in order to gain new members, sometimes you have to leave the originals behind.

More detail around the relaunch can be seen on the official Ballhype blog.