E*Trade silence is deafening

E*Trade (ETFC) continues to slide, a day after it announced a big bailout deal with vulture-oriented hedge fund Citadel. Much was made of E*Trade’s success in getting out from under a deteriorating $3 billion mortgage portfolio, albeit at the deeply distressed price of 27 cents on the dollar. But E*Trade stock fell Thursday and it continues to give up ground Friday as investors worry about assorted other issues, including the company’s still substantial home equity loan exposure. As Phil van Doorn writes on TheStreet.com Friday, E*Trade has $2.4 billion worth of home equity loans in which the loan-to-value ratio is above 90%. With house prices falling sharply, it’s all too likely that many of these loans will end up defaulting — and the potential for recovery appears low.

Meanwhile, E*Trade still hasn’t filed its current report on form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is unusual given that yesterday the company reported three separate events that would seem to call for that sort of disclosure: the departure of its CEO, a transaction that gives one shareholder 20% of the stock, and more than $2 billion in writedowns. E*Trade didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Update: A Citadel spokeswoman says an E*Trade investor relations rep tells her he expects the filing to be made in the next day or so.