Apple Corporation (NASDAQ: AAPL) is the story of the morning, as the company posted monster quarterly revenue last month. Shares are up 4% premarket to $356, relative to a 52-week range of $199.25-$364.90.

Allied Irish Banks (NYSE: AIB) is up 3.3% premarket to $3.12, relative to a 52-week range of $2.00-$21.50.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) is up 3.4% premarket to $8.88, relative to a 52-week range of $7.72-$15.43.

TradeStation Group (NASDAQ: TRAD) is up more than 30% on very heavy volume to $9.71, well above the company’s 52-week range of $5.22-$8.46. Monex Group agreed to buy the company for more than $400 million.

OptionsExpress was not acquired for a huge premium despite the $1 billion price tag. In a 1.02 share swap, the value was $17.91 before the effects of price changes in the shares.  With Schwab shares at $17.76 this morning, the implied value would be closer to $18.10 for OptionsExpress.  A month ago it was said that OptionsExpress had 385,200 customer accounts and about $8.1 billion in total client assets either in positions or on deposit.

The deal is long after the TD AMERITRADE Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) acquisition of ThinkorSwim for some $606 million.  This was one of those deals that sort of got the value track going again in options, but we can’t omit the deal where Citadel tied up so much of the options business of E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC).

Perhaps even more important is that the recent IPO from CBOE Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBOE) leaves the exchange stock as perhaps “The Last Man Standing” if the NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) merges with either Deutsche Boerse or if NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) makes that rumored rival bid.  It is still unsure whether or no the U.S. regulators will even allow the NYSE to be mostly foreign-owned or not.

The deal from Schwab for OptionsXpress makes sense.  While it sounds expensive at almost $2,600.00 per account, the true die-hard options traders tend to be more active traders and tend to have more assets at other firms.  This may allow for much cross-selling opportunities for Schwab to gather up more accounts from more active and advanced traders.

Schwab has seen a 52-week trading range of $12.64 to $19.95 and OptionsXpress has seen a 52-week range of $13.86 to $21.07.  So far, the April and May options expirations in the $17.50 strike prices are not indicating that a higher premium buyout is coming either from Schwab or from another buyer.

We are not going to look at the currency-brokers because they often have many accounts funded with very small dollar amounts.  Some other firms which are specialty brokerage firms are as follows:

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTX) is a firm specializing in electronic trading of corporate bonds and other fixed-income assets and its market cap is $845 million with a $22.44 price and a 52-week range of $12.27 to $22.49.

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc (NASDAQ: IBKR) allows its clients to trade multiple securities classes and it seems to have a broader cross-border scope than many of its peers. At $15.99, it has a market cap of $675 million and a 52-week trading range of $15.23 to $19.49.

TradeStation Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TRAD) caters to more of the professional and active trading crowd and caters to stock, options, futures and more.  With shares at $7.08, its market cap is $277 million and its 52-week trading range is $5.22 to $8.46.

There is value in the higher volume and higher trading activity accounts again.  At least so it seems.  There may be more consolidation ahead in the specialty online brokerage firms.

JON C. OGG

On each we have summarized what you will want to watch for, what move came into the event or what move is expected if applicable.  None of these key events are earnings based, but we did prepare a separate earnings calendar with the few top earnings we are monitoring for this week ahead.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) was given a boost this weekend by Barron’s after the financial publication said that shares could rise 40% from a $14.38 close on Friday.  That would take shares to roughly $20.13.  For whatever it is worth, its 52-week range is $10.91 to $19.86 and the consensus one-year price target from Thomson Reuters is $18.39.

Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) is one of the discount retailers in the trade-down economy retailers and the company is up for sale.  While volume was not astronomical, there was elevated trading in the April11 $45 CALLS on Friday and shares were up 2.6% at $43.05 on Friday.  Another issue worth noting was over 2,800 of the July11 $50 CALLS with an open interest of only 237 contracts before.  “Unusual options trading on Fridays” leads to the rumor mill picking back up.

Chevron Corporation (NASDAQ: CVX) hosts an analyst call on Monday.  At $99.93, its 52-week trading range is $66.83 to $104.99.

Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBLI) is another Japan-related play to watch as the nuclear reactor continues to be under watch for fallout in Japan.  Its shares rose 3.6% Friday on triple-volume as the company makes anti-radiation pills and its CLBL502 is under an FDA Fast-Track designation.

Fushi Copperweld, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSIN) won the Mr. Dumas Accounting Award as the company delayed its 10-K filing to review non-cash accounting issues.  Shares fell 10% to $8.435 in the after-hours on Friday and its 52-week range is $6.70 to $12.94. Keep in mind that the company’s co-CEO made an offer to take it private at $11.50 per share before this move.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is set to hold its first investor meeting on Monday with new CEO Leo Apotheker.

Chico’s FAS Inc. (NYSE: CHS) Started as Neutral at Janney Capital Markets (late Monday).
Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) Cut to Sector Perform at National Bank.
Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) Raised To Outperform at National Bank.
National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) Cut to Strong Sell at S&P Equity Research.
OpenTable, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN) Cut to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
OptionsXpress Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXPS) Cut to Underperform at Macquarie.
Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Semtech Corp. (NASDAQ: SMTC) Reiterated Buy and $22.50 Target at Gleacher.
TradeStation Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TRAD) Raised to Outperform at Macquarie.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) Started as Buy at Janney Capital Markets (late Monday).

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

The acquisition price may fluctuate as this is technically a cash andstock deal, but the $3.34 in cash and 0.398 shares of AMTD per SWIMshare gives an implied value of about $8.70 based upon the AMTD closeof $13.48.  Ameritrade shares are down on the report so that $8.70implied price will be adjusted lower.

This will give Ameritrade a larger retail options presence.  Ameritradeis targeting a 3% to 7% profit boost next year as a result of the dealwith a target of an additional 10% or more growth to annual earnings. If you look as of the end of September, thinkorswim had $380 million in trailing 12-month revenues and $87 million in pre-tax income that it generated from roughly 87,000 ‘funded’ retail brokerage accounts and more than $3 billion in client assets.

If you are looking for other niche plays that other brokerage firmsmight want to consider in sympathy, there are two firmswhich come to mind.  Those companies are optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.(NASDAQ: OXPS) and TradeStation Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TRAD).  Just keepin mind that the ability for these deals to come about did not evencome during good times, and brokerage firms are doing far more thanjust pinching their pennies today.

thinkorswim shares are trading up roughly 40% to $7.94 on the deal.

Jon C. Ogg
January 8, 2009

• AllianceBernstein (AB) (buy);
• AMBAC Financial (ABK) (neutral);
• Blackrock (BLK) (buy);
• Calamos Asset Mgmt. (CLMS) (neutral);
• CME Group (CME) (buy);
• Franklin Resources (BEN) (neutral);
• Gamco Investors (GBL) (sell);
• INVESCO plc (IVZ) (neutral);
• Janus Capital (JNS) (neutral);
• Knight Trading (NITE) (buy);
• Labranche (LAB) (sell);
• Legg Mason (LM) (neutral);
• Marketaccess Holdings (MKTX) (neutral);
• NYSE Euronext (NYX) (neutral);
• T. Rowe Price (TROW) (neutral);
• Pzena Investment Mgmt. (PZN) (neutral);
• The NASDAQ Stock Market (NDAQ) (neutral);
• TradeStation (TRAD) (neutral)

Jon C. Ogg
January 10, 2008

Jon C. Ogg
July 25, 2007

The short interest in online brokers is often a guage as to what traders are thinking about the markets because it is one of the directly affected areas by rising or falling trading volume in the overall stock markets.  So if shares in the short interest are rising, then short sellers in these names are either building positions for an impending fall in the markets or a drop in trading volume, or they are just fighting the tape.

Stock (Ticker)                     MAY       APRIL    CHANGE
E*Trade (ETFC)             16.72M    10.96M     52%
TD Ameritrade (AMTD)  21.45M    13.96M     53%
Schwab (SCHW)            20.66M    18.2M       13.5%
Knight Trading (NITE)   10.02M    8.79M        14%
optionsXpress (OXPS)   5.05M       5.4M        -7%
Interactive Brkrs (IBKR)   415K        N/A          N/A
TradeStation (TRAD)      2.05M        2.1M       -2.6%

Jon C. Ogg
May 25, 2007

JOn Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.