A good time to buy banks stocks?

[breadman]

bought them with sharebuilder came out to 8.13 with all the fees and bull**** $1640.00 for 200 shares. im new to this

platnum525
you have just bought Bear Sterns at the high of the day.
If JP Morgan Chase do buy Bear Sterns and noone else offers a higher price, you will get $2 for your shares which will mean you lose $6 .13 per share, about $1226 dollars plus dealing fees.
This will not be a good start to your trading.

 

[normbeef]

Its a risk I grant you.... I have a few thousand personal shares in HSBC... these are a long term Tax protected investment... and I will not be selling them "until retirement"... (or until my kids discover them if i dont make it that far ;-] )

I am not a true "value" investor , and I do not "trade" shares... Its my "Guess" in 20 / 30 years they will still be around in some shape or form... and worth more than I bought them for, dividends etc on the top...

Banking is like - death, Tax, and Nurses.... and if banks the size of HSBC / Citi etc,, cease to exist then you wont be worried about share price's as you hide in your basement

 

[platnum525]

bought them with sharebuilder came out to 8.13 with all the fees and bull**** $1640.00 for 200 shares. im new to this

or should i hold onto them

 

[platnum525]

Its a risk I grant you.... I have a few thousand personal shares in HSBC... these are a long term Tax protected investment... and I will not be selling them "until retirement"... (or until my kids discover them if i dont make it that far ;-] )

I am not a true "value" investor , and I do not "trade" shares... Its my "Guess" in 20 / 30 years they will still be around in some shape or form... and worth more than I bought them for, dividends etc on the top...

Banking is like - death, Tax, and Nurses.... and if banks the size of HSBC / Citi etc,, cease to exist then you wont be worried about share price's as you hide in your basement

so what are some sure bets as far as investment if i have 50k to work with

 

[breadman]

or should i hold onto them

I don't know, I would not have bought them. I do not know if another bank will offer more.I am sorry i cannot give you better advice, you are taking a big risk.

 

[platnum525]

well i pulled out down $350 no biggy need something a little more secure

 

[breadman]

so what are some sure bets as far as investment if i have 50k to work with

platnum525,

their is no such think as a sure bet. If you have 50k to invest i suggest you are alot more careful where you invest. My opinion is that the market is heading down for the next 3 to 4 years so short bets might be a easier way to make money.As you seem to be new to trading I suggest you put your money in a high interest account and do some research before placing your next trade. Their are alot of good articles on trade2win which should help you with your trading.

 

[nzbm]

Indeed. One never knows when those Black Swans will come out of the woodwork. I mean $2 a share for BSC? Almost inconceivable a year back...

 

[platnum525]

breadman any suggestions on the high interest accounts

 

[breadman]

breadman any suggestions on the high interest accounts

platnum525,

Do you live in America, if so I don't know anything about American banks and the interest rates they pay. As the base rate in America is now 2.25% I guess the rates are low.
Do you hold the money in US dollars, if so you may want to think about transferring it into another currency. The Euro, Australian Dollar or Gold come to mind although I would not do it now as the US Dollar could have a bit of a bounce.
Do you want to invest for 6 months 1 year 2 years or longer.
It's very hard to give someone advise without knowing their financial position, and even then what I tell you could be wrong.

 

[luckyd1976]

breadman any suggestions on the high interest accounts

Best Interest bearing accounts I found. I would recommend switching your bank to
www.everbank.com
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EverBank pledges to keep the yield on your account in the top 5% of competitive accounts as tracked in the Bankrate.com National IndexTM of leading banks and thrifts. For the Yield Pledge CD this pledge applies at the time of purchase, or when rolling your expiring CD into a new CD with EverBank."

 

[platnum525]

platnum525,

Do you live in America, if so I don't know anything about American banks and the interest rates they pay. As the base rate in America is now 2.25% I guess the rates are low.
Do you hold the money in US dollars, if so you may want to think about transferring it into another currency. The Euro, Australian Dollar or Gold come to mind although I would not do it now as the US Dollar could have a bit of a bounce.
Do you want to invest for 6 months 1 year 2 years or longer.
It's very hard to give someone advise without knowing their financial position, and even then what I tell you could be wrong.

i live in america, 1 year would be fine

 

[breadman]

platnum525,
All I can really say is that their is nothing that I wish to buy or sell today and hold for a year. I buy and sell all the time but never hold anything for a long time. I am not qualified to give anyone financial advise and their is no reason for you to listen to what I tell you anyway. The best advise I can give you is to educate yourself in the financial markets so you have a better understanding of what is going on, this will take time.
Pay of your mortgage if you have one and any credit card bills before you invest.
Do not put all you money in one product, 50K can go into 10 to 15 different positions.
You can be in the right trade but at the wrong time, timing of trades is important.
The people who loose the least in a recession/bear market are the winners.
Put your money in a high interest savings account while you educate yourself, the market will still be their in a years time. You will have to check American banks/ newspapers to find the best rates.

 

[Hook Shot]

This made me chuckle....

If you feel like buying bank shares now, the best thing to do is have a lie down until the feeling passes.


Some of the Irish banking shares on the ISEQ:

........Thanks Captain........

I'd have to say though that (and everyone knows it) banks will be one of the best investments you could have ... when this blows over...

Put the money somewhere safe which provides a decent yield - and sit on your hands for now...and watch......... it's just a timing issue.......

Barclays under £4(as close to £3 as possible) usually does the business...
Hbos at multiyear lows today ...... worth tracking
Hsbc - I'm a big fan but I would like to see more carnage, still well above Jan lows
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stateside ........ most of th big names will be back ......I think Jp morgan will be alright but I want more carnage ...... I also like Amex but not yet...

Citi not sure whether it will still be independent once this blows over... if it is then it will be huge earner.......... time will tell.


just my 2c

 

[Dinos]

"Buy Internet stocks, you can't lose" - sorry to disagree, you can lose, no such thing as can't lose.

Banks, long term hold, not sure yet is the time, as for days trading stock, I have found Barclays excellent, but wouldn't hold overnight at present, suppose, if you have a big enough pot and prepared to take the risk, your decision.

 

[Pat494]

Would now be a good time to buy big bank stocks? in terms of long term buy an hold strategy, they seem to be trading at pretty low prices at the moment and a lot of it seems down to all the negativity surrounding banking

Are big banks like RBS and barclays a good long term bet at todays prices?

Have a look around the web and its mostly for free.
For instance :-
Who knows what is going on within the banks before the general public ?
Answer :- the Directors

For instance Barclays
12-Mar-08 Sell Robert E Diamond Jr 460.50p 506,600 £2,332,893.01
04-Mar-08 Sell Robert E Diamond Jr 453.80p 468,085 £2,124,169.78
12-Mar-08 Sell Paul Idzik 460.50p 70,316 £323,805.18
10-Mar-08 Exercise of option Robert E Diamond Jr 456.10p 56,261 £256,606.41
26-Feb-08 Buy Sir Nigel Rudd 498.30p 28,000 £139,523.99

I am quite sure Mr. Diamond will have had a look at what is going on in Barclay's for instance before doing the above deals - what do you think ???????

 

[Hook Shot]

Uk banking is showing signs of life with Hbos up 50% of its lows at one stage today and the rest up at least 20% from their lows...

I posted a bullish note on banks over the Easter holidays and it disappeared into cyberspace... we know what happened next ....... Anyway Cramer said the financial crisis could be ended quickly by Fed's/Authorities buying impaired assets..... this idea is not knew try googling Bernard Connolly - Banque AIG.... It seems as it the Fed is already at it .... and the BoE are considering the same course of action.......

If this is true....... the negativity about banks has been overdone and a rosy future awaits us. We all know banking always get out of jail one way or another.... This cuuld be a once in a generation opportunity to "accumulate" bank shares..........

What if I'm totally wrong about the "timing" ? Well ....we get new lows in lets say Barclays to well below £4 but the longer term argument remains intact....

Disclosure: I have a small positon in Rbs.(a laggard).. but looking to build a portfolio of banking stocks unless I can find an etf/investment fund to do the same job.

 

[chump]

Uk banking is showing signs of life with Hbos up 50% of its lows at one stage today and the rest up at least 20% from their lows...

I posted a bullish note on banks over the Easter holidays and it disappeared into cyberspace... we know what happened next ....... Anyway Cramer said the financial crisis could be ended quickly by Fed's/Authorities buying impaired assets..... this idea is not knew try googling Bernard Connolly - Banque AIG.... It seems as it the Fed is already at it .... and the BoE are considering the same course of action.......

If this is true....... the negativity about banks has been overdone and a rosy future awaits us. We all know banking always get out of jail one way or another.... This cuuld be a once in a generation opportunity to "accumulate" bank shares..........

What if I'm totally wrong about the "timing" ? Well ....we get new lows in lets say Barclays to well below £4 but the longer term argument remains intact....

Disclosure: I have a small positon in Rbs.(a laggard).. but looking to build a portfolio of banking stocks unless I can find an etf/investment fund to do the same job.

"Once in a generation" ...I presume your species has avery short lifespan...see chart.

Money started flowing out of banks from Jan 2006 when people of a similar mindset to mine knew that they were playing hide the pea.
At this moment the banks earnings/performance has not even begun to feel the impact of tomorrows marketplace in the sense it won't look much like what we have seen in the last decade...say goodbye to some profit centres as they won't even be coming back.Plenty of AGM's and trading statements to come and to say that I feel analysts are off base with expectations for future earnings would be a vast understatement so if I am right let's see what those earnings and divs look like this year.
No surprise the strongest in the bank sector are HSBC and Standard C as they have much more global exposure. The UK orientated banks though will feel the hit from property ,residential and commercial , much more.
Plenty of time to accumulate when we see who will be the most economically viable when the dust settles down.

 

[Hook Shot]

"Once in a generation" ...I presume your species has avery short lifespan...see chart.

Money started flowing out of banks from Jan 2006 when people of a similar mindset to mine knew that they were playing hide the pea.
At this moment the banks earnings/performance has not even begun to feel the impact of tomorrows marketplace in the sense it won't look much like what we have seen in the last decade...say goodbye to some profit centres as they won't even be coming back.Plenty of AGM's and trading statements to come and to say that I feel analysts are off base with expectations for future earnings would be a vast understatement so if I am right let's see what those earnings and divs look like this year.
No surprise the strongest in the bank sector are HSBC and Standard C as they have much more global exposure. The UK orientated banks though will feel the hit from property ,residential and commercial , much more.
Plenty of time to accumulate when we see who will be the most economically viable when the dust settles down.

Live fast die young....:cheesy:

Chump, the chart says things are bad ......... and we NOW know that .... so your comment about Jan 2006 was prescient.

Your outlook for the next year or so seems bleak - which if it plays out means we ought to be looking at banks as trading stocks (both up+down) and perhaps a short could be soon at hand...

Thnx for your views...
hs

 

[chump]

Live fast die young....:cheesy:

Chump, the chart says things are bad ......... and we NOW know that .... so your comment about Jan 2006 was prescient.

Your outlook for the next year or so seems bleak - which if it plays out means we ought to be looking at banks as trading stocks (both up+down) and perhaps a short could be soon at hand...

Thnx for your views...
hs

I'd prefer to be wrong ,but rational seems realistic. It took a decade of unprecedented credit expansion and overleaverage to get here and to get out of here , BOE must be unlikely to take collateral of unknown value without first ensuring that the institutions in question get their balance sheets robust and the signs of lenders backing off from new business is surely a sign of that.
So as I see it we're going to have both less supply of credit and also falling demand for it as individuals also try to reduce their debt load. This is a contracting spiral and as such I fail to see how the aggregate banking sector is going to maintain revenues and earnings in the face of that. On the plus side it takes a ****strom to make a FTse100 bank drop it's divs in public ,but perhaps that's what we might see ,I obviously don't know .