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[zoku88]

I really want to buy stock now. I just need to pick some company that has a somewhat good chance of survival...

 

[Kipe]

I remember last year conservative columnists were saying that if any company would make it out of this recession it would be Citigroup, because deregulation enabled them to diversify.

 

[Phoenix]

Here's my question. I'm poor and I've never owned stock before. If the banks don't get nationalized, is there no reason to not buy 100 or 150 shares of Citi?

I mean, if it nationalizes I lose it, and I'm out $150, which isn't great news but nothing that will kill me. But, if within three or four years Citi makes it back to 50 a share, I'm up like $6000.

It just seems silly not to try.

You're better off putting the money into another stock that has a better chance of having a strong return on investment. The chances of Citi going back up to $50 a share is VERY slim... almost non-existent.

 

[Pachael]

Remember that Prince? He looks like such a chump now.

 

[ArtG]

Here's my question. I'm poor and I've never owned stock before. If the banks don't get nationalized, is there no reason to not buy 100 or 150 shares of Citi?

I mean, if it nationalizes I lose it, and I'm out $150, which isn't great news but nothing that will kill me. But, if within three or four years Citi makes it back to 50 a share, I'm up like $6000.

It just seems silly not to try.

You can also put that $150 on 0 at the roulette table.

 

[Gallbaro]

Whatever it means, they had a picture of a really expensive, shiny ass, black stretch something on the teaser for the story.

Besides, the real point is this money for the bail out, the 700 billion $, is being wasted. Already like 70 billion is lost, and close to 300 billion unaccounted for.

First of all do you know how impossible it is to get around Manhattan in a limo?

What I said is %100 correct it was just the media sensationalizing. What they called Limousine Services is what I call the black car industry, wanna be yellow cabs that are not as lucky because they cannot legally pick up passengers off the street, it has to be reserved. I know this because this is my companies old industry, installing dispatch system for the black cars.

Prior to the tech bubble and 9-11 it was a hugely profitable industry, because every single wall st and madison avenue firm had a contract with them to transport their people home, who never worked sane hours, since then it has not been and my company subsequently went into other industries. The "Limousine Service" industry is failing companies in NYC like http://www.utog.com/ .

I really want to buy stock now. I just need to pick some company that has a somewhat good chance of survival...

There are a lot of companies with a very good chance of survival, just none of them are banks or insurers.

 

[LJ11]

There was an arb trade with Citi; you could short the stock, long the preferred (specifically the class that was being converted into equity), and bank a 50% return. The preferred was trading around $5, but when converted into common it equated to ~$12.

 

[Minsc]

First of all do you know how impossible it is to get around Manhattan in a limo?

What I said is %100 correct it was just the media sensationalizing. What they called Limousine Services is what I call the black car industry, wanna be yellow cabs that are not as lucky because they cannot legally pick up passengers off the street, it has to be reserved. I know this because this is my companies old industry, installing dispatch system for the black cars.

I really want to watch the damned story now, just to see I'm wrong (which going by your confidence seems to be more likely the case), but I won't make it that late. Maybe they'll have a recap on their site tomorrow morning. They never used the word services, I mistakenly put that in, they only said the money was being blown on limousines.

It reminds me of that whole other fiasco though, where the executives flew in on private jets to go to court when they were asking for the bail out. Real smart thinking these highly paid people are capable of. Then the second time around they drove cars not even available to the public (all separately, no car pooling).

 

[AstroLad]

man black cars fucking suck. only time i ever take one is if i'm leaving at like 3 am. TONS worse than the subway

 

[Meier]

Damn, I wish I'd gone ahead and done it. I should really open a Scottrade account..