Yesterday, it was E*Trade's turn to issue chagrinned statements about a technical snafu that it couldn't really explain. Call it the Curse of Ken Griffin.

E*Trade Financial Corp.'s online trading system shut down on Wednesday, frustrating customers and raising fresh questions about the security of electronic marketplaces.

At about 10:30 a.m. EST, customers began reporting difficulty completing trades online or via its mobile application. Trades by telephone weren't affected….

At about 3 p.m. EST, a post on the company's Twitter feed said: "We have fully restored access to http://etrade.com. Please contact us if you have issues—we're here to help."

An E*Trade spokesman on Wednesday said the company hadn't yet gotten to the bottom of the problem.

Online Brokerage Firm E*Trade Financial Suffers Outage [WSJ]