bank stocks; sorting out important information for investors

bank stocks; sorting out important information for investors

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

caveat- opinion from author, tongue in cheek stuff

Insidiously and ominously Citigroup [citi] symbol ] [c] announced an important piece of financial information for investors this morning. The news released quietly over tea from the London office of Citi this afternoon there in London [ it's morning here in America and afternoon in London England at the same time] is a harbinger of grave importance to investors and also to human workers, like this author, who are worried about intelligent machines taking over highly skilled jobs once performed by human workers.

Citi announced today from London plans to lay off thirty-five human workers on trading floors in London and across it's platforms but did not disclose but implied that some of those workers would be replaced with machines. Perhaps the workers were laid off because something is askew on the trading floors of London- again, and again for various large US banks as happens from time to time especially late in the stages of a bull market.

It's always difficult to decipher what Citi is up to. They make so many mistakes; at least this investor who once made some money on options in Citicorp in 1989 and used the funds to take a nice vacation remembers many things Citi has done wrong that hurt stockholders in the last 25 years. A reverse split, Victor Pandit, Sandy Weil, and recently hinting about restating some earnings because of unforeseen legal expenses. It's quite confusing to stock holders. When investors in Citi hear the company is going to get " back to basics" it's time to listen up.

Maybe intelligent machines aren't really taking over human workers jobs as floor traders in London. Perhaps this author is really just delusional and it's not intelligent machine taking the trading jobs, it's just computers who are going to do the trading. Or, perhaps the news from London is just an early crack in the mature bull market. A signal to the newly elected republicans to start planning to issue some more tarp funds to US banks sometime in the near future should the need arise.

Listen carefully if you wish to know what the bull market in America is up to. A Whisper from Citicorp in London may just be important to what is going to happen to your 401K over the next 24 months.