Weekend Reading – Nov 15, 2007

Time for another round of giving recognition to other great articles around the web.

• With E-Trade facing a HUGE write down due to sub prime exposure, are they capitalized enough to keep the show running?  What will happen to your E-Trade account if they go bankrupt?  Both Canadian Capitalist and Canadian Money Blogs Reviewer have answers to your questions.  If you are looking for further reading about E-Trade, here's an E-Trade Review.
• Canadian Mortgage Trends breaks the news about the new HSBC mortgage promotion.  HSBC is offering prime – 1% on 5 year variable mortgages until Nov 17 (tomorrow).  I wonder if they can afford this with their $3.4 billion write down from their U.S mortgage exposure.
• I've gotten a few questions from my readers regarding holding a mortgage inside your RRSP.  I've always responded that the admin and other fees involved make it undesirable.  Preet from WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo has written a detailed article on the topic and has come up with some interesting conclusions.

On another note, some of you may have noticed that MDJ has a new application on the right sidebar called "Top Spots".  Basically, this is a way for generous readers to give MDJ a "tip/donation" or for advertisers to get cheap exposure.  When I say cheap, I really mean cheap.  I've set the initial price to $5 which will get you a link along with a message of your choice. 

The "appeal" of the Top Spots application is that the newest contributor will get the #1 top spot.  If you're interested in giving a small donation to MDJ, you can do so here.