E*Trade sees pointed decline in DARTS

Online broker E-Trade Financial Corp. on Wednesday posted a 20 percent drop in average U.S. trades for February from the prior month. The company said its daily average revenue trades, or DARTS, fell to 138,728 in February. Compared to the same month in 2008, the number of trades fell by 15 percent. DARTs represents the number of trades from which brokers can expect commissions or fees. It is a key metric of broker performance. E-Trade also said it added 7,761 net brokerage accounts to end February with 2.6 million. That reverses a 2,392 decline in accounts in January, but far lower than the 10,946 net new accounts E-Trade added in February 2009. Net new brokerage assets rose by about $600 million in February. E-Trade said clients bought net new securities worth about $300 million in the month. However, bank cash and deposits fell by about the same amount. The New York broker also said total delinquent loans rose by 0.5 percent to $2.3 billion in February from the month before. Loans that were delinquent by 30 to 89 days were up by 2 percent to $803 million while those late by 90 to 179 days fell by 6 percent to $544 million.