I am not a typical Seeking Alpha perma bear. My stated strategy is long bias that is long and short but always net long. My typical net position is 40-60% long. Currently, I am 26% net long, the lowest I have been in 5 years.

Of course, I wish I had been 100% net long from March 9, 2009 until today, but that is not consistant with my cautious but positive style.

Citigroup (C) bottomed when the broad market made its lows in early March. On March 9, Citi traded under $1. Less than two weeks later it was $3.80. Yesterday Citi closed at $2.69.

After the initial run, Citi has been held in a check by the arbitrage that accompanied the huge exchange offer with the holders of preferred stock. That exchange is now complete and this is what I have been waiting for to buy Citi.

Looking at the convertible preferred stocks of three large banks tells us a lot about the banks themselves. Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) have very similar $1000 par convertible, non-cumulative preferreds trading at similar prices.

BAC.pr.L is $1000 par and has a 7.25% stated yield. The shares closed Friday at 800 for a 9.06% current yield. The conversion into BAC common is $50, so that isn't much of a factor in the price. Some institutional owners of this preferred were offered an exchange into BAC common back in May. This preferred was not part of the most recent exchange offer.

There are still many millions of shares short on GMGMQ.PK.

Today GMGMQ is trading at $1.16 in the pre market.

GM, now trading as GMGMQ.PK, is currently $1.65 in the pre market. I had previously thought that the opportunity for a short squeeze had passed early last week, but it appears that once again I was wrong. GM has rallied 500% from its 27 cent low on June 1.

There are several reasons for the move. One which I mentioned before was the very high cost of borrowing GM shares to maintain a short position. The longer the GM bankruptcy lasts, the more it costs to stay short. Shorts could be paying 50 to 75 cents per month to borrow. It is simply cheaper to cover.

In an article written on Friday, I gave my opinion that GM common stock would wind up with the tax loss which GM accumulated over the last 3 years.

There were over 100 comments, and while those comments offered varied explanations of what the tax loss was worth and who would own it post bankruptcy, almost all of these commentators feel that the loss will not benefit the existing GM common shareholders.

Let me start by saying that I have no GM (GM) position. I sold the last of my bonds today, but may buy some next week. I like the prospects for the "new GM."

The GM that is expected to file bankrupcy on Monday isn't worthless. First of all, it will get some very small piece of the "new GM."

Let me start by saying that GM will probably file Chapter 11 bankruptcy - either next week or sometime in the next five weeks.

They clearly prefer not to file. A bankruptcy filing for GM will create a lot of problems, many more than the Chrysler filing. There are moms and pops and pension funds who own the debt. Not just greedy speculators, the Obama term for the Chrysler secured lenders. These lenders might sue and get a court to grant an injunction.

Everyone assumes that GM is going to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1. The company has even stated that it will file if 90% of the bondholders don't agree to the exchange offer of 225 shares of GM common stock for each $1000 of par value of bonds. That 90% exchange is very unlikely.

That leaves the question will GM really file? The bonds that mature on June 1 have $1 billion outstanding. There isn't another maturity until Jan 2011. If GM pays off these bonds, the company can avoid bankruptcy for 18 months.

The market is giving you a rare chance to buy gold mining shares.  While gold, the metal, is flat for 2008, leading gold mining shares are down 40%.  I point to Barrick Gold (ABX), currently down 40% year to date and Newmont Mining (NEM) also down 40% year to date.

Earnings estimates for Barrick are $2.14 for 2008 and $2.40 for 2009.  ABX is currently trading at 25 giving you a chance to buy the stock at a price earnings ratio of 12x the 2008 estimate.

We now have a clearer idea of what will remain in Wachovia Corp (WB) after the transfer of the banking assets and corporate debt to Citigroup (C). I spent all day reading Wachovia Corp. prospectuses hoping that the common and preferreds would get hit when they opened. It seems that others were reading them too.

The WB common closed in the after market today around $2. That is after being halted in the pre-market at $.90/share.

In May 2008 AIG (AIG) sold common stock at $38 and a "preferred" AIGprA at $75/share. The preferred is a mandatory convert in three steps of $25 each, hence the unusual offering price of $75. The securities are officially referred to as Equity Units.

This preferred has some interesting characteristics that are being overlooked by the market in the current chaos. First of all, the securities are "junior subordinated debentures" that have a mandatory conversion into the common in Feb., May. and Aug. 2011. The cash distributions are interest payments (not dividends) and if not paid, are cumulative. I assume that cash distributions will be deferred, but they will accumulate.