I don't know if this would work, but it could serve a dual purpose, if needed:

Call, and immediately write to ETRD via overnight mail to confirm that you want your shares delivered to you immediately (I think they only have a max of three days to send you your shares for settlement, but I could be wrong, so act on this advice only doing all your DD).

This would only be possible if you have another account with another broker to immediately deposit those shares to (or you could, I suppose, open up another account with those shares).

The risk is that the shares could be 'in the mail' when news came out, however, the flipside is that while the shares are in your hands, your shares cannot be used against you to short the stock. (Since the amount of shares available for trading is lowered, any attempt to 'hold back' the price is harder with fewer shares "on the street").

I suppose if enough PTSC investors called E-Trade and let them know they would do this, E-Trade might be willing to 'review' their policy regarding PTSC.