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

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!

187p today could they fall even more.

I thought that this would drop below 200p....it has !....long term it will be a good buy......short term...expect nice rises and more drops....those with cash and time could mint it playing some of these banks !.

Britain will launch its biggest retail bank rescue on Monday when the four largest, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Barclays, ask for a combined 35 billion pound lifeline, the Sunday Times reported.

there is a much more in the report on Reuters and it does not make comfortable reading

Buying opportunity on Monday

what is this......a double act between cynic and kirkup on these threads

i posted my bit on all the bank sites as it seemed relevant to them all

i know cynic............i just found it funny that kirkup posted his same comments immediately after yours on all the other threads