All this chatter espousing the “long term” viability of bank stocks is absurd. If you were “wise enough” to invest in [[LEH]], [[MER]], [[MS]] and [[WM]] ten years ago, and held like a good little investor, how’d that work for you?
This notion, spearheaded by old fuckers, like Vince Farrell, is starting to piss me off. As a matter of fact, I threw my trader/servant at the LCD screen today.
As you know, I’m not a rapid fire trader. I like to build positions and hold them for a few months, or years, depending on the share performance. I will tell you this, anyone who is telling you to just “buy and hold” is a fucking moron and should have his/her drivers license revoked, for being mentally impaired.
In other news, Icahn loses again, via [[YHOO]]. Ever since Cramer jumped on the Icahn bandwagon, misfortune has hit the NYC billionaire like a dose of reality at [[TMA]].
Looking at the shares of [[LEH]], I do not think the firm will be independent for much longer. Expect to see some sort of consortium bailout soon.
For the day, I booked a modest loss of 1.2%, partly hedged by gains in short [[AAPL]] and [[FTK]].
By the way, the recent price action in FTK has been sweet.
Lastly, after reading over 100 10-q’s from financial companies, a few common themes are abundant.
1. The [[V]] ipo reliquified many banks. As a matter of fact, I’d guess that 75% of the banks I researched realized a gain from the Visa ipo. If you recall, the V ipo was priced during the peak of the credit crisis. Somewhat suspicious, if you ask me. By the way, gains from V, to the benefit of bullshit banks, were in the billions.
2. They’re all being very conservative with their potential losses. I believe most of these CFO’s are understating the true potential loss.
As a result, I am almost ready to start selling a new set of stocks.
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