financials

Errors occur most frequently when judgment is rocked out of the boat by emotion, hindsight, and misconceptions about how securities react to waves of varying economic, political, and hysterical circumstances. You are the commander of your investment fleet. Use these ten risk-minimizers as lifeboats:

Risk minimization requires the identification of what's inside a portfolio. Risk control requires decision-making by the owner of the investment assets. Risk management requires a selection process from a universe of securities that meet a known set of qualitative standards.

Risk is compounded by ignorance, multiplied by gimmickry, and exacerbated by emotion. It is halved with education, ameliorated with cost-based asset allocation, and managed with disciplined: selection quality, diversification, and income rules--- The QDI.

With the sharp sell-off Friday in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) stock prices, it's good to take a step back and see the effect the sell-off has had on the broader Financial Sector, and perhaps the quickest way to do so is to look at the charts of the AMEX Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE: XLF) to assess key potential support levels and what the chart looks like on both the daily and weekly frame.

SPDR KBW Regional Banking (NYSEArca: KRE) offers investors a direct play on this subsector of the financial industry. We like the diversification benefits this ETF offers and think that investors looking to bet on a recovery in this beaten-down subsector should consider KRE as a tactical satellite holding,” Scott Burns Reports From The Money Show.

Citigroup (C) has long been noted as one of the worst situated banks compared to all the other big names. After sharing 4th quarter numbers and 2010 outlook, there is certainly ambiguity to how investors are taking in the news.

At the Treasury meeting, I commented that the insurers were better regulated for solvency than the banks. One of the reasons for that is that they do harder stress tests, and they look longer-term.

So, if one is trying to regulate banks for solvency, there are two things to do:

•Set risk-based capital formulas so that few institutions fail.

Today I spent most of the day staring at the FAS 30min chart. Oddly, visions of SKF came pouring into my head. Short the market, is that what you think I’m thinking? Save that for the donks. Those are the only people trying to short the market or continuing the daytrade charade of SRS and [...]

The past few weeks have just been incredible for the U.S. and international markets. The markets soared for 3 weeks with the Dow surpassing 9000 and the S&P back up to near 1000. Investors who missed incredible buying opportunities are now kicking themselves for not buying when the market was so low. If you are convinced you missed the boat, don’t be.

First Chester County Corporation announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009. Net income totaled $2.2 million, a respectable increase of 22% compared to $1.8 million in the second quarter of 2008. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $0.36, a slight rise from the $0.35 per diluted share reported for the second quarter of 2008.

In the last few months as the financial crisis has worn on and the perceived fate of the US banking system has ebbed and flowed there have occasionally been articles and blog posts pointing to other countries that have “better” or more sound banking systems. The decline in these places has generally been less and there seems to be less uncertainty about their fates.

This chart is the most important of the series, in my opinion. The weekly symmetrical triangle that has formed just below strong resistance is a very important pattern to watch. Also worthy of attention is the 50 level on the RSI, and the weakening PPO.

I was reading 2 different analyst opinions of Bank of America on CNBC.com. One analyst stated that Bank of America had seen a tremendous run up and would languish between $5 and $10 for the next few years. Another analyst stated that he thinks that BOA’s stock will double over the next year and triple over the next 2 years. Both of these analysts cannot be correct So who is right?

It's Wednesday June 24, 2009 and on my long ride home last night I switched between Sirius channel's 129 and130 or CNBC radio and Bloomberg radio. As I expected, I heard more of the same talks about an overheated market and that we're due for a pull back. One analyst predicted a market correction to 850 on the S&P and the other predicted an even greater pull back to 800 by summer end.