Bank shares - would you?

opinions4u

justpaper wrote: »

the op asked the Q. based on a 10yr strategy,

i wouldnt need to say in the position for 10 years,

HBOS is a nice buy at 60p, for the last 3months its been the low now the low is looking around the 65-69 mark, last price is 0.7010 based on the charts its the best time to buy,

lets just say i got £1000 / 0.7010 = 1426 shares, lets see how the next 2 months go

yes im crazy

Given that HBOS shares traded for the last time ever today, you might struggle to get hold of some!

oldfella

its a gamble - can you afford to loose ?

baby_boomer

We're all invested in bank shares courtesy of HMG , so it's probably better to diversify.

The Head of Barclays Bank was on Channel 4 News today making a desperate attempt to save his board's skins.

He wanted other measures apart from a second bail out. If there is a second bail out he will have to participate - and therefore look a right plonker for raising money from the Middle East at 14% pa, whic he did in order to save his fellow directors' bonus payments.

justpaper

opinions4u wrote: »

Given that HBOS shares traded for the last time ever today, you might struggle to get hold of some!

read again, lets just say i got £1000 / 0.7010 = 1426 shares, lets see how the next 2 months go

ok hands up theres me reading off charts again, would of been a good idea a month ago, but not now,

cloud_dog

Conrad wrote: »

Would you invest in Bank shares, and if so, which, Banks?
10 year strategy.

Conrad

The world will not recover without financial institutions doing their thing, and when they start doing their thing, they will make money, and the world will recover.

With this in mind I would think taking a stake in a financial institution might prove very rewarding. Having said that, there is sooooo much risk around at the moment picking the right stock will be a nightmare. Additionally I believe we are still in for more downside equity / stcok market action.

Having said all this I beleive in my first statement and have started monthly investing in a couple of financial focused funds (its many many years since I started my investment travels with 'monthly investments - just like the good ole days).

cloud_dog

Masomnia

Yeah I think a financial focused fund would be your best option, get some long term gain without losing it all if your choice of bank gets nationalized.

baby_boomer

For months Liam Halligan has been calling for the banks to "fess up" to each other about the extent of their toxic loans since it is fears about these that have prevented interbank lending.

Instead the bad news is being drawn out into 2009 - and it sounds as if the bank bosses can't even agree about the extent of their writedowns according to this article.

Therefore it is an investment in the unknown, more than most investments. Personally I wouldn't want to be invested in something where an (embattled) government has the potential for control, rather than the bank's board.

Yahoo

".....Barclays, Britain's third biggest bank by market capitalisation, turned its back on the option of taking the government's shilling, and preferred instead to raise fresh capital last year from wealthy investors based in the Middle East. As awareness increases of the size of the problems facing banks, Barclays may not be able to rely on investors from the Gulf states to bail them out again.According to banking analysts at JP Morgan, a serious recession could prompt another wave of write-downs by British banks, with RBS taking a £37bn hit on bad loans, Lloyds Banking Group making a £35bn write-down and Barclays reducing the value of its assets by £21bn to take into account bad debts.

JP Morgan suggests that under such a scenario, RBS would need to raise £6bn in fresh funds, Lloyds would need £13bn of new capital and Barclays would need to raise £3bn.

Signs that Barclays is already feeling the pinch emerged over the last two days after the group announced 4,200 redundancies and one high-profile departure in the form of deputy chairman Sir Nigel Rudd, who reportedly fell out with chief executive officer John Varley over the valuation of the bank's portfolio of toxic assets...."

tradetime

Personally, with the oil price languishing below the cost of production for just about all producer nations, the Gulf States' Sovereign wealth fund lifeline is likely at an end since those funds are more likely to be turned inwards to cover budget shortfalls. Thus the further financing of banks is likely to have to come from government and /or forced mergers at unfavorable to shareholder rates, and with HSBC signaling the next wave of money troubles to hit the banks expect there to be a few takers.

Trollfever

and with HSBC signaling the next wave of money troubles to hit the banks

Watch Citibank.

Thrugelmir

Personally I would invest in an investment trust with exposure to the wider financial sector not restricting to investing in the 6 remaining UK banks.

Over the past 3 years I have invested via IT's into funds which had no exposure to the UK mortgage market, ie no holdings in B&B, HBOS, Northern Rock etc.

To pick anyone particularshare at the moment would be a pure gamble. At some point in the future the Government will unload its holdings in the banks. They maybe the time to buy.