E*Trade Financial Corporation (ETFC: sentiment, chart, options) reported late Monday that it will post a pretax gain of $425 million in the third quarter related to the sale of its Canadian operations to Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS). The deal, which closed on Monday, netted E*Trade $515 million. In total, the online brokerage house expects to rake in upwards of $700 million in proceeds from asset sales this year.

CEO Donald H. Layton noted that the sale "helps to create a substantial capital cushion that we will be able to deploy as needed as we diligently execute against our plan to return our balance sheet to strength in this challenging market." Earlier this month, E*Trade noted that it will take a pretax loss in the third quarter stemming from its sale of preferred stock in Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE).

While news of the Canadian sale propelled ETFC more than 3% higher in after-hours trading, the stock has slipped fractionally into negative territory this afternoon. As the stock trades around $3.33, option volume is heaviest on the stock's October 4 call. This out-of-the-money contract has seen 1,645 contracts cross the tape on open interest of 21,352.