Emerald

Why This Rally Is Unsustainable

The author is correct. Earnings are deteriorating and fundamentals remain weak. Banking sector is essential to a recovery and banks are crippled; facing more real estate writeoffs and consumer deleveraging. Stock market has "corrected" to the upside and will now give it back over the next three months.
-Investors can find monthly cash flow in MLP's around 7-10%(KMP, EPD, TPP, LINE) and Ginnie Mae bond funds (4.5-5%).

-Also consider intermediate investment grade corporate bond funds due to wide credit spreads that will come in over time(5%).

-Stocks with strong balance sheets will be buys again after the market corrects.

-A strong short is the TBT (20 year T bond).

-Cash can be held in SHY (1-3 year T's; 2%)

Note: Long all of the above.

Rating the Top 12 U.S. Banks - From Hidden Gems to Zombies

Martin, you leave out each banks derivative exposure and, as other readers have noted, the lack of true transparency as to bank holdings. Therefore, your analysis is deeply flawed and investors should ignore it. No one is in a position to correctly analyze a bank today due to lack of information. Any bank purchase is pure speculation with significant downside. Many analysts wrote that WFC and USB were sound investments a few months ago and their respective prices have dropped due to increased loan losses.