22thoroughbred

Banks: The Final Countdown?

The pre announcements have nothing to do with the inauguration, options expiration, or Obama making an announcement, the pre-announcement is being done so the companies can answer questions, make comments, and basically put a pretty face on an ugly picture, they cannot do that in a quiet period and to not be able to comment just hurts the share prices as it is interpreted as "something bad" But I do agree that the new Fed / Treasury officials want to start doing something, even if it will not work or will make the problem worse they want to be perceived as jumping in with both feet on day 1...be scared be really scared

JPMorgan Chase: Poisoned by Bear's 5,000 Counterparties

I have no idea what assets or longer term liabilities JPM, BAC, WFC, C have, neither does anyone else, including those institutions, what I do know is that things in the financial world are bad, very bad, both here (USA) and abroad, and if there isn't a fix soon, and a real fix, not just a creditline we will be in much worse shape than anyone realizes or admits. Unfortunately if anyone from treasury or the fed were to state the truth it would start an unraveling of the entire house of cards. I am not a bear or a fear mongerer, but a realist and what I read and see tells me to be very worried.

A Dividend Primer, You Don't Get Something for Nothing

Sumosama and David, I am sorry but you are incorrect, a stock price is adjusted DOWN on the opening on Ex-Dividend date by the exact amount of the dividend. If it closed the night before at $10 and pays a 50 cent div. the bid price is $9.50...now you are correct, orders to buy and sell pre-open or news pre-open does effect the price as usual, but it is derived from the $9.50 price initially. That I am 100% correct. And yOYO in the 2nd line of my post I specifically state this is relevant to taxable accounts, and that is the basis for my opinion...I don't want to report my own money as taxable dividend income, even at 15%...

A Dividend Primer, You Don't Get Something for Nothing

I have NEVER been a fan of dividends, why give me back my own money and make it a taxable event (in a taxable acct. of course) I buy 1000 shares of company A at $10 (spending $10,000) they pay a $1 per share dividend and thus reduce the stock price by $1, so now I still have $10,000 worth of assets, but it is $9,000 stock $1,000 in dividend = $10,000 and I have to pay tax on the $1,000 dividend. Too many novice investors don't realize the stock is reduced by the amount of the div. and that's with penny pricing now, it used to be if a co. paid an 8 cent div. the stock was reduced by 1/8th or 12.5 cents, so you would lose money. It was rounded UP to the nearest 1/8th and reduced, so in a year in that scenerio you receive back 32 cents ( 8 cents x 4 divs.) and the stock was reduced by 50 cents (12.5 cents x 4 divs.) No Thanks...

Merger Arbs Balking at Merrill/BofA Deal

Ken Lewis never met a deal he didn't like, his ego wants to beat Jamie Dimond and his manhood wants to be bigger than Citibank, so the deal was done. My worry is that the SEC is letting BAC get to be "too big to fail" and we will have the same problems in 5 years that we are having now with AIG and LEH, etc. BAC will have the largest morgage dept, largest credit card dept and most bank branch foot print, aren't we creating another monster? BAC got nothing but assets with the Fleet purchase, zip with the Countrywide buy, didn't get much beside names and debits with MBNA and will get a brand name with Merrill, do you think the good high producing brokers want to work for BAC???

History Suggests the Financial Bottom May Be Near

Ken Lewis never saw a takeover he didn't like. He blew the Fleet takeover, got zip for that deal, except to settle lawsuits for insider trading by the Fleet specialists, settle lawsuits for inappropriate sales by the brokers, settle a lawsuit on selling ARPS, terminated everyone in the company, lost brokerage assets, lost some deposits (as is expected) bought Countrywide which he could have gotten free had he waited, and now paid a premium for Merrill which he didn't have to pay, than gives himself a raise and says the deal was too good to pass-up, eventhough every other bank passed them up. He will tur out to be as bad as Dennis Koslowski, minus the illegal stuff, he destroys solid businesses.

Mother of All Short Squeezes?

Not that I am a big fan of his, but didn't the CEO of Overstock.com complain about this ad nauseum and all he got was ridiculed, maybe he was right?

Why I'm Committed to the UltraShort Financials ETF

I bought and have traded SKF very successfully for the last 4-6 weeks, I originally bought at just under $100, continued buying in $5 increments to $125 and started selling at $160 in $5 increments, sold my last 100 on Thursday at $178 and when news came out about Fannie / Freddie on Sunday I was glad to have been out, expected a big rally, none happened and than it hit $223...but with 15-20 point spreads each day, what a wonderful trading stock in my IRA. I gotta say though, I saw $150 as a top, did not expect $200

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

I must commend Balmer for not buying Yahoo, it's about time someone realized they were spending shareholder money and not monopoly money and decided that price did matter. Too many CEO's would have raised their offer just to say they did a deal. I don't own either stock but it is good to see ego not get in the way for a change.