Bank Shares

thrupence

I'd prefer not to hold any of those now, with the possible exception of HSBC. Luckily enough I was able to sell my gamble on RBS last week when they jumped to over 30p.

I bought some Standard Chartered today which seem to have been dragged down by bad HSBC news but remain excellent value IMHO. There's a 7% dividend coming EX on 11 March so I'll hold until at least then, but I'm not bothered. I think they're excellent long term value.

As always, it's the fundamentals which make the difference.

Buddy195

danielcrowe wrote: »

Hi,
Tearing my hair out. Have shares in Lloyds, HSBC and RBS. Things seem to be going frmo bad to worse and I've no idea whether to sell (and realise a massive loss) or hold and hope they recouver. I don't need the money now and am prepared to play the long game, however lost money in Northern Rock and cant' bear to see any more of my hard earned cash 'disappear'!
Any advice greatfuly received.
Daniel

Hold or sell depends on what you bought them at and how far in you are. Also if you can afford to lose your entire investment. Personally I can hold onto my RBS & Lloyds until they get to a price I want to sell at or I lose the lot. Is a gamble and fairly high risk but I've made my decision to stay in and hold what I have.

gozomark

Buddy195 wrote: »

Hold or sell depends on what you bought them at and how far in you are.

sorry, but purchase price is irrelevant (apart to the ego) in terms of whether should sell

sabretoothtigger

I don't need the money now

Maybe you should put them in trust for your kids or something. Time to sell recently was start of the year or after they rallyed back strongly

NPowerUser

Banks shares will continue to suffer as they have much more bad news on the horizon.

As more and more people lose their jobs and more and more default on their mortgage payments, this will feed through but it takes time. Someone losing their jobs with possible redunadancy payments they can use that money towards their mortgage etc but give it 6-9 months we are likely to get a clearer picture.

Negative equity and falling house prices so no hope of a recovery anytime soon, after all who wants to buy a house if its going to be 15%+ cheaper in 12 months time.

Massive defaults on credit cards will be the next big bombshell, you lose your job then an unsecured debt is that last debt you want to probably pay if you have a mortgage. Many banks, mine included, issue visa/mastercard credit cards as a matter of course, so again this is bad news brewing on the horizon.

Why would anyone want to buy bank shares now, when in effect they would go bust without government intervention.

I would expect many bank shares to hit new lows in the next 6 months so perhaps sell now and buy back in 6 months time only if all the bad news is out the way but its your choice.

kingmonkey

Holding is the same as buying.

Long term I believe they will recover.

Make sure your diversified.

ad44downey

The next time bank shares plunge really low , and they will at some point, the government will probably nationalise Lloyds and RBS at the same time and give shareholders nothing

kingmonkey

ad44downey wrote: »

The next time bank shares plunge really low , and they will at some point, the government will probably nationalise Lloyds and RBS at the same time and give shareholders nothing

Seems we should all go short then.

gozomark

NPowerUser wrote: »

Banks shares will continue to suffer as they have much more bad news on the horizon.

As more and more people lose their jobs and more and more default on their mortgage payments, this will feed through but it takes time. Someone losing their jobs with possible redunadancy payments they can use that money towards their mortgage etc but give it 6-9 months we are likely to get a clearer picture.

Negative equity and falling house prices so no hope of a recovery anytime soon, after all who wants to buy a house if its going to be 15%+ cheaper in 12 months time.

Massive defaults on credit cards will be the next big bombshell, you lose your job then an unsecured debt is that last debt you want to probably pay if you have a mortgage. Many banks, mine included, issue visa/mastercard credit cards as a matter of course, so again this is bad news brewing on the horizon.

Why would anyone want to buy bank shares now, when in effect they would go bust without government intervention.

As much as I'm very cautious about investing in banks, alot of your comments were true a month or so ago, and bank share prices still rallied 50-100%. All of what you say is valid, but known. What moves share prices is the unexpected/the unknown - everyone knows things are bad for the banks, and are going to get worse - the key is, will they get worse than expected ?

soulsaver

Reaper wrote: »

I cant see any improvement in those shares in the short or medium term. I bought Hbos (now Lloyds) shares planning to hold them for the long term taking the view that when the crisis is over the combined group would dominate the market.

With hindsight I wish I hadn't as I have seen big falls but I'll stick to my plan.

Snap ... but LLoyds