Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-17-2009, 03:32 PM   #421
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,842
Apparently US government doesn't consult Cramer on it's actions to take. I think when the nationilization of BOA and Citicorp is a foregone conclusiont then finally we will have a real rally in the stock market that will last beyond a few weeks. I wonder how low getting there will take us.

FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy - Bank nationalisation gains ground with Republicans
__________________
But then what do I really know?

https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f44/why-i-believe-we-are-about-to-embark-on-a-historic-bull-market-run-101268.html
Running_Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 02-17-2009, 05:37 PM   #422
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
harley's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
Quote:
Originally Posted by jug View Post
In this situation, Cramer is more like a mad chicken running around in the aftermath of a tornado checking for life in the dead and telling everyone to wake up. At present, he is simply entertainment.
And what was he before? Certainly not a financial resource.Maybe chopped liver.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
harley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2009, 10:04 AM   #423
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 26
I have a small business. My bank fees were running around $125 per month. Last month due to lack of business my fees dropped to $14.45. I think there are a ton of small companys that are not using the banks services and that besides bad loans the banks are seeing a big reduction in small fees (that add up to big profits). Anyone looking at Harlesyville Bank of Pa.
nellieb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2009, 08:09 PM   #424
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 312
Quote:
Originally Posted by nellieb View Post
... the banks are seeing a big reduction in small fees...
Seems Washington Mutual has lowered all interest-bearing checking and savings accounts to 0.01% interest. Yes, that's 1/100 of one percent. Nice!
Grep is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-20-2009, 06:16 PM   #425
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: W Wash
Posts: 1,643
Last month is the first month I had a service fee on my business account in four years. Seems that my credit for onhand balance dropped from "earning" credit at 1.8% to less than .5%. Balance pretty static but credits earned two thirds less! Translation, we get to charge hard cash now for the privelege of holding your cash
:-(
nwsteve
nwsteve is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2009, 07:16 PM   #426
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,543
Quote:
Originally Posted by redduck View Post
OK, I was one of those who thought Running Man was a complete loon with his target price for BAC of $12. Well, turns out he wasn't a complete loon, he was a pollyanna. I mean, his target price wasn't even close.
Where's Al Bundy when you need him?
banks aren't the only ones that are hurting, a lot of tech as well. start of the year, new budget and i've been busy bargaining with vendors to get their ridiculous prices to something normal. no time to check the market since i have have sales people calling me asking for business

I think Sun Micro is either toast or will have to radically reorganize past what it already has done. Sparc and Solaris are as good as dead when compared to Linux and x86/x64.

IBM and HP are OK, but they are willing to drop prices on some of the higher margin items 20% or more.

EMC should also come out OK

Microsoft is OK in their server offerings, but on the consumer side it's a lost cause.

cloud computing is a joke. hardware is so dirt cheap it's not even worth it to virtualize. we are looking to buy servers with 32GB of RAM just because memory is so cheap. and since they scale to 64GB RAM, in 2 years we'll upgrade the RAM for today's 32GB prices. and we've been a VMWare customer for a few years.

speaking of banks, i just refi'd with countrywide. interest rates are as cheap as IT equipment
al_bundy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2009, 07:41 PM   #427
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 44
When stock like Citigroup is trading at less than @1.50 a share, I wonder whether it could be a long long long term buy? The most one can lose is $1.50 per share, if one plans to hold it for 15 -20 years, there may be enough potential upside to justify taking a flyer?
atlas888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2009, 09:15 PM   #428
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,819
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlas888 View Post
The most one can lose is $1.50 per share, if one plans to hold it for 15 -20 years, there may be enough potential upside to justify taking a flyer?
How much were you thinking of investing? $15,000 maybe?

Well, you can lose that $15,000 on 10,000 shares of a $1.50 stock, or on 100 shares of a $150 stock. So no, I would not buy it because "The most one can lose is $1.50 per share", because that is totally irrelevant. $1.50 is still 100% of the investment.

It's pretty much a gamble. If this stock was likely to provide a better long term return than other investments, it probably wouldn't be trading at $1.50.

-ERD50
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2009, 10:35 PM   #429
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 44
While it is a gamble, I do not think Citigroup will go to zero. It would not be allowed to fail because of the national and international implications. The US government had said that in so many words, and now owns 36% of C common shares.

Citigroup is also crawling with FOO ( friends of Obama), an example is Richard Parson, the new Chairman.

If a number of big money center banks fails, nothing will be safe anywhere in the economy because there will be a major credit freeze up. There is a herd mentality and there is a heavy oversold situation in bank stocks. Remember the speculative rush that drove the price of a barrel of crude oil to $150, and all the talk about that being justified for fundamental reasons. The same thing may be happening to bank stocks because of the negative feed back pressure , often driven by hedge funds and short sellers. Yes,the bank's finance is a mess and they are losing money hand over fists, but they are still fundamental institutions that the government will prop up.

I am toying with the idea of buying and holding for long long term, because the risk/reward ratio will be tempting. I will just have to give up eating a cheeseburger for every C share I buy. ( how sad is it all these major US institutions are selling like penny stocks ? )
atlas888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2009, 10:41 PM   #430
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,819
Maybe. But I can imagine a scenario where the bank does not "fail", but the shareholders get nothing.

I used to trade K-Mart stock, and I was lucky to get out before it went to zero. Yet...

Clothing, Toys, Electronics, Jewelry, Jaclyn Smith - Kmart.com

K-Mart did not "fail".

-ERD50
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2009, 10:55 PM   #431
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 44
The common share holders for C are now pretty much all wiped out. But because pension plans, mutual funds held 60% of C common stocks issued ( before the US government took a new 36% to dilute the total shares outstanding ) , it is another reason why I think the risk/reward ratio may justify a gamble. C going to zero will place such a major stress on many ordinary people's 401k and retirement plans, the power-to-be simply cannot afford to let it happen. By hooks and by crooks, the authorities will ensure C will survive with some values left, albeit that may take a very long time.
atlas888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 10:51 AM   #432
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,819
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlas888 View Post
C going to zero will place such a major stress on many ordinary people's 401k and retirement plans, the power-to-be simply cannot afford to let it happen.
Wait a minute.

First you say that you are thinking of investing in C, because "all you can lose is $1.50".

But them you say that C going to zero has a major impact on ordinary 401Ks.

Which is it? $1.50 to zero isn't a big deal, or $1.50 to zero *is* a big deal?

-ERD50

PS - C isn't even in the top ten holding of the S&P500. It is probably less than 1% of any "ordinary" 401K that is reasonably diversified.
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 11:07 AM   #433
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 44
Losing 1.50 a share for an individual who chose to take a flyer on a small stake is not a big deal, especially if you are using money you would not mind losing.

But a systemic loss of of every last cent for a major financial institution whose shares are owned by pension plans, index and managed mutual funds where a lot of 401k money had been invested would be disastrous. Like the failure of Lehman Bros set up a run on money market fund, failure of major money center banks would trigger meltdown for practically all kind of stocks, because banks are fundamental parts of a financial system, The resulting loss would be so overwhelming and no government would allow that to happen. You have to separate an individual from the system as a whole.
atlas888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 11:26 AM   #434
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,819
If it goes to zero, and is 1% of a 401k, that is not a catastrophe.
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 12:03 PM   #435
Dryer sheet aficionado
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 44
My point is that the impacts of failure of major money center banks would not be confined to just the actual number of their shares owned by pension plan, index and mutual funds, but on everything in the stock market, so the government would not let that happen. Look at what are being done by every government around the world for their banks.

We can disagree, that what makes a market. I subscribe to Baron Rothschild's advise that the time to buy is when blood is running on the street.
atlas888 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 01:01 PM   #436
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
ziggy29's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: North Oregon Coast
Posts: 16,483
Everything I needed to know about holding bank stocks I learned from cartoons:

__________________
"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)
ziggy29 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-01-2009, 03:19 PM   #437
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,819
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlas888 View Post
My point is that the impacts of failure of major money center banks would not be confined to just the actual number of their shares owned by pension plan, index and mutual funds,....
OK. I don't know if I agree or disagree, but it's a different question. I thought you were just talking about the impact of the stock price itself.

-ERD50
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-02-2009, 03:07 PM   #438
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 17,203
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grep View Post
Seems Washington Mutual has lowered all interest-bearing checking and savings accounts to 0.01% interest. Yes, that's 1/100 of one percent. Nice!
That is now Chase and that is what Chase is paying...
Texas Proud is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-02-2009, 03:44 PM   #439
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 17,203
Quote:
Originally Posted by atlas888 View Post
Losing 1.50 a share for an individual who chose to take a flyer on a small stake is not a big deal, especially if you are using money you would not mind losing.

But a systemic loss of of every last cent for a major financial institution whose shares are owned by pension plans, index and managed mutual funds where a lot of 401k money had been invested would be disastrous. Like the failure of Lehman Bros set up a run on money market fund, failure of major money center banks would trigger meltdown for practically all kind of stocks, because banks are fundamental parts of a financial system, The resulting loss would be so overwhelming and no government would allow that to happen. You have to separate an individual from the system as a whole.

The damage has been done... it was over $50 IIRC and is now say $2.... losing the last $2 will not make much difference to a 401(k) account..

The common shareholder can be effectively wiped out like it is happening now... convert all preferred to common, convert all bonds to common... a defacto bankruptcy without going through the courts... but the common will still own a few % instead of zero...
Texas Proud is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-02-2009, 07:24 PM   #440
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,543
even if I buy a tall starbucks coffee tomorrow, it will still cost me more than a share of C
al_bundy is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Anyone like bank stocks? Hamlet Active Investing, Market Strategies & Alternative Assets 76 08-14-2007 03:31 PM
Bank stocks brewer12345 FIRE and Money 7 10-20-2005 11:30 AM
Swedroe comments on buying individual stocks. Nords FIRE and Money 27 10-12-2005 09:20 PM
Net Bank - Poor Customer Service Lancelot Other topics 7 09-22-2005 04:51 AM
Bank Preferred Stocks Jason FIRE and Money 1 08-19-2004 08:34 AM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:03 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.