I have shares in the banks

cheerfulcat

elizw, if the entirety of your investments consists of directly held shares in banks then you are horribly exposed to one sector. You would be well advised IMO to consider selling some or all of them and buying something a little more diversified.

If you have other investments then I agree with those who say " sit tight ".

sabretoothtigger

Buy at the top and sell at the bottom is the private investors mantra

Its quiet and will remain so at least until the new shares are issued, same thing happened with the summer rights issues. The only thing of interest is will they pay dividends which probably they wont so either hold them for 10 years or sell I guess.

I reckon they closest to something like this now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-coupon_bond
Government security backed, discounted value, zero interest over the term and very likely to be a higher value at their 10 year maturity


Over the last week the markets nearly came full circle but ended positive

libragully

I keep seeing comments on here like 'ride out the storm'. I cannot help but feel that these remarks rather miss the point. These are extraordinary times in banking/ the stock exchange that as a previous banking member of staff I have never seen in my career.

This is not just another case of a large dip only to be replaced by a recovering bounce.

Like many others my pension consists of various bank stocks built up over the years, and was just left to garner dividends and so on. That pension is now dramatically decreased with the complete loss of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley, the colapse of HBOS and the pummelling of Barclays and Lloyds.

For those who say ride the storm, N Rock and B&B show the cost today of such action. That storm has blown through like Katrina!

The reality is that a value built up over many years has been slaughtered in a month or so. What is is really annoying me the most is that we are all innocent parties here, with the exception of a few in privilaged positions, who clearly knew the real state of the accounts and said nothing.

In the US right now, plans are a foot to issue class actions against those CEOs and others who fiddled while Rome burnt. Why are we not doing the same here?

We could start with the four who are about to leave HBOS. How much have they pocketed at our expense?

Should this not be a new bank campaign Martin?

Rikki

We were not discussing pension funds and anything else involved in the stock market. Just personal shares and whether its a time to panic or ride it out.

mrposhman

libragully wrote: »

I keep seeing comments on here like 'ride out the storm'. I cannot help but feel that these remarks rather miss the point. These are extraordinary times in banking/ the stock exchange that as a previous banking member of staff I have never seen in my career.

This is not just another case of a large dip only to be replaced by a recovering bounce.

Like many others my pension consists of various bank stocks built up over the years, and was just left to garner dividends and so on. That pension is now dramatically decreased with the complete loss of Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley, the colapse of HBOS and the pummelling of Barclays and Lloyds.

For those who say ride the storm, N Rock and B&B show the cost today of such action. That storm has blown through like Katrina!

The reality is that a value built up over many years has been slaughtered in a month or so. What is is really annoying me the most is that we are all innocent parties here, with the exception of a few in privilaged positions, who clearly knew the real state of the accounts and said nothing.

In the US right now, plans are a foot to issue class actions against those CEOs and others who fiddled while Rome burnt. Why are we not doing the same here?

We could start with the four who are about to leave HBOS. How much have they pocketed at our expense?

Should this not be a new bank campaign Martin?

With all due respect, I'm not sure you actually understand the problem.

Other than the cashflow issue (which looking at Libor towards the end of the week) seems to be improviung, the main issue has been the overvaluation of the balance sheets of these banks and not a profits issue.

Profits will clearly be hit this year due to economic conditions in their investment banking arms and the massive writedowns that they still expect to make but these are all exceptional items and not recurring. The recurring effect will be that shortly banks will return to profits. If you don't agree, take a look at operating profits from the banks (I haven't seem them but reading between the lines of some, operating profits are still being made).

Therefore, in terms of shareholding, riding it out may be the right course. The shares may not make back all their recent losses but they will wipe some of them out.

elizw

I have other stocks and shares too but as I have had accumulation shares for the banks they have built up in value over some time

elizw

why can the Government not see that by it's policy of no dividends for five years, they are making banking shares even more undesirable - I cannot see the logic in this at all, unless there is some grand underhand plan that we don't know about. They must reverse this to get everything going again. And also why should they get a dividend of 12%, Northern Rock have paid alot of their loan back already, surely the banks won't want to be beholden to the Government any longer than necessary.

[Deleted User]

libragully wrote: »

I keep seeing comments on here like 'ride out the storm'. I cannot help but feel that these remarks rather miss the point. These are extraordinary times in banking/ the stock exchange that as a previous banking member of staff I have never seen in my career.

Pish are they extraordinary times, theres a bubble every 5-7 years, tulips anyone.

Im sure they will survive just fine or at least whats left of them. Ride it out, there is a bigger slice of bigger margin business for the remainder when its all over. NRK was a big player and the big banks have successfully pulled the rug from it and will very generously buy the assets for 1 dollar mortimer? yes randolph a splendid idea.

:rotfl:

Just_landed

elizw wrote: »

why can the Government not see that by it's policy of no dividends for five years, they are making banking shares even more undesirable - I cannot see the logic in this at all, unless there is some grand underhand plan that we don't know about. They must reverse this to get everything going again. And also why should they get a dividend of 12%, Northern Rock have paid alot of their loan back already, surely the banks won't want to be beholden to the Government any longer than necessary.

Rumour has it TONY BROWN ( pun intended) when signing up to the EU they agreed to this rule. IE :- it is the EU rules not the British governments. :cool:

DocProc

Don't you mean Gordon Blair?