I initiated transfer of my account from Etrade to TDAmeritrade and I've gotten three calls from Etrade in the last two days, working up the chain of management. I was just given (finally) an explanation for Etrade requiring all trades to go through a broker. Basically, they are now saying that they detected evidence of fraud, not in PTSC, but in the trading of the stock. Etrades contends that there have been instances of criminal shorting activity in which the shorting occurs through large accounts where security was breeched and shares were sold causing the share price to collapse. This is the first and only explanation that Etrade has offered. Does this make sense and could that be a factor in the price action at any point, especially with the big run up?

Walt