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Strategies & Market Trends : Turnarund Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: batman10023 who wrote (480)	4/25/2012 10:51:14 PM
From: Good Fundamentals	Respond to of 1876

Batman10023, "we owned C in 09. nice trade. did not buy it in 2011 unfortunately. so you are not worried about their europe exposure?" I would be worried a little but the main part of Citibank business is in the U.S. The european assets have been written down too much and will come back big time - unlike those securities on the NOVS balance sheet - gone - gone - gone. The tough part of looking at most fiancials these days is trying to get a handle on the mark-to-market securities on the balance sheet. I bought some C and some RAS a ways back. RAS shows a profit if you exclude the market writedowns - so the guess is how realistic are the market writedowns. FAS 157 and 159 are not friends of beginning or average investors; at least not these days.

To: batman10023 who wrote (480)	4/26/2012 9:39:14 AM
From: grahamcracker	Respond to of 1876

<<we owned C in 09. nice trade. did not buy it in 2011 unfortunately.>> "We" bought a basket of WFC, AMEX and USB. I bought a hair too early (right before the final collapse of prices) but it worked out well anyway. I sold a little "too early" (whatever the hell that means) and later rebought USB and WFC and held for a long time. I played games with USB writing short-term covered calls on it during the volatility last fall. It finally got called away at $24 but I got something like $28 including profits from the games. Of course it's at $31 now but I actually had a use for the money so I can't gripe. I did the same game with Wells but I still have both it and the premiums. Ditto BRK-B. Sometimes insuring panic works out. I can't trade to save my life so the wimp method (safety net 2 feet below me) keeps me out of trouble when I get the itch - cash covered puts and covered calls only (and puts only written for a price I was willing to pay, calls for a sell price I was quite satisfied with). Remember, I'm just dummy retail.