[Nords]

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Originally Posted by wildcat I am not saying financials are expensive (some have pretty low exposure to the mortgage fall out) but if more bad news comes down the pipe I can always rely on the media to discount things further. Being ready to buy several times and keeping some cash on the sidelines is probably the best approach with the financials. I am loving the financial risk coverage in the media -- burn baby, burn.

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Originally Posted by brewer12345 Dunno, but anything at a price, and banks are cheap, cheap, cheap.

I'm still shaking my head in amazement over the retail bank ETF (KRE). Take a look at a chart; I bought on the 27th & 30th for a $42.05/share basis. (Most of July's gigantic purchase volume was due to Brewer.) At 55 cents/share in quarterly dividends the 5.2% yield is higher than many CDs. Just a 0.35% expense ratio. It's only been around for a year so it's low volume & volatile.

I've generally avoided country & most sector ETFs but this KRE has opened my eyes to opportunity. I've been perpetually frustrated by our local Bank of Hawaii-- intriguing price & yield but too much single-stock risk (especially state politics). I've also been having a tough time figuring out a bank's balance sheet because there's just too much opportunity for shenanigans that'd confuse an experienced auditor, let alone a retail amateur like me. Analyzing BofA, let alone a regional, was a daunting task. KRE seems to own at least a couple retail banks with good yields from all 50 states, nicely resolving all my issues.

I shorted FirstFed (FED), a sort of poster child for California zero-amortization ARMs, back in Feb at $68/share. It was my third try and I finally got it right. I covered last month at a $9/share profit as the market reached its giddy highs, fearing a stupid private-equity buyout and having no reason to be greedy. (Every time I'd looked at the bank's numbers and decided that they sucked, the price would go up another $1/share.) If I'd waited until this week I'd have profits of over $20/share.

I'll be taking more looks at unloved sector ETFs. Every year or two there has to be something trading at a multi-year low that'll eventually revert to its mean. If it's sporting a P/E under 14 and paying a dividend then that's just a bonus...

Thanks again, Brewer!