any one got a feelling in their water how far LLoyds will go looking to to buy but just dont know when they are low enough

It's interesting to note that Panmure Gordons Sandy Chen, who has been the most bearish of analyist so far, has cut is price target for lloy from 350p to 340p. But has changed is recommendation from hold to buy, saying that funding costs and synergies offer lloy a crucial advantage. And that lloy will have about one third of the retail banking market in the UK, around double that of it's nearest competitor.

It will be a bumpy ride in the short term, but I believe Lloyds will be in a very strong position once markets settle down.

Agree, we need to let time pass as, over the short term, Lloy will be hungry for cash while things are sorted out. Can not understand why they just don't pass the dividend instead of issueing shares since everybody is diluted pro rata anyway. Although, thinking about it again there may be some who will wish to sell the additional shares to receive the cash assuming there will be a commission free service provided to do this.

Time to buy ..?

There all going to rocket tomorrow if U.S vote goes to plan tonite- even if it doesn't and that looks very unlikely it will go through eventually. So its a case of picking the best or most undervalued share - Lloyds or Hbos even Rbs, or why not punt on all three, dead certs as they say !!

anybody who says it is a dead cert on anything in the mkt is asking for one huge fall. Punt on one bank, maybe, but all three. No way!

HBOS is my choice, but thats only at the moment, bought back in earlier so obviously would say that !!

good luck! certainly looking good atm.

I may get in but if I do I would try to take profits before close.

I have far too many dodgy companies atm if it all goes wrong!

We still don't know the terms of the US bail out. i.e how will the various toxics be valued and what future obligations will be imposed on the banks. We are not in the Greenspan era now. Moreover, Bush seems to be trying to place more pressure on Congress by presenting proposals to the Senate first which, could backfire. I would tend to be cautious to see how things pan out at this point.

I have gone short on FTSE. Only trade for me today, have got my bucket under my desk. I think banks will lose their opening gain today.

nordcaperen

I note your post saying that lloy, hbos and rbs are a dead cert, careful with rbs I have just posted what could be the reason for the weakness, incase you miss the thread I have cut and pasted my post below..............

I was thinking of buying RBS this morning, it was the only bank that hadn't gone up, it does seem very weak against the sector. But I had a nagging doubt about buying, but fortunately I remembered that Fortis which was part of the syndicate that grought ABN Ambro had just been rescued.

After checking the news releases today, I then read that the Dutch Finance Ministry are investigating Fortis, looking at risk which wasn't shown on Fortis balance sheet.

I'm not suggesting that RBS may be in the same situation, but this without doubt is what is holding the sp down. So I will sit on my hands for a while, and await a better entry time.

RBS now 168 Not for me

There is a small profit to be made in LLOY/HBOS trading - by buying HBOS instead of whatever you hold in LLOY - but the profit is small and probably not worth the effort if your LLOY holding is less than 5k (now).

From reading the Documents there is a lengthy time when trading will be difficult, (=as the Votes are counted and the Deal goes through) . . . indeed dates go out to Feb09 - so it surprises me this aspect isn't explained in simple language....

The last thing punters need is cash locked-up . . . . . oh deary.

By my calculation, if you have 5K of LLoyds shares, and change into HBOS

You can sell 1975 LLOY at 253p

Buy 2380 HBOS at 144p these will be converted into 1960 LLOY if the deal goes through.

If the deal goes through you end up with the same number of LLOY shares and 1500 in cash.

It seems that many people do not believe the offer will succeed.

The market is certainly saying that unless the terms are sweetened.

Keeps rising like it is (HBOS) and it'll be bidding on Lloyds :-) nice day again !

Shooting up now 272p .

will somone out their if they have the time please explain the diff between shorting and day trading I do a very small bit of buying and selling mainly banks and have done ok I have been away this last week . and what does it mean to the traders that buy and sell in the same day I trade through halifax

mojo, when you short sell a stock, your broker will lend it to you. The stock will come from the brokerage's own inventory, from another one of the firm's customers, or from another brokerage firm. The shares are sold and the proceeds are credited to your account. Sooner or later you must "close" the short by buying back the same number of shares (called covering) and returning them to your broker. If the price drops, you can buy back the stock at the lower price and make a profit on the difference. If the price of the stock rises, you have to buy it back at the higher price, and you lose money.

Day trading is completely different as you will not be 'borrowing' the stock, you will own it until you sell the same day, or at a later date.

Thanks for that kimoldfield sorted out now

Good show!