I identified each participant because, in my judgment, their presence would be a vote of confidence to an increasingly fragile banking system that was having trouble raising capital. It is now clear that JPM chose to go after WM to gain a West Coast presence. The housing slump has hurt GE’s appliance division – now up for sale along with the storied lighting division. Finally, GE does a better job than possibly any other company of linking one division to another, enveloping large customers in the full range of GE’s product offerings. Its huge commercial property division is struggling with the decline in that market. None of those intangible assets are much affected by short term stock market moves. What is actually much more strange: The priced estimate keyword-phrase: “Learn to type quicker” possesses no ranking on the 1st page! Today, the individual shares are much reduced, some of the investment trusts have been sold in both ISA and SIPP drawdown and have been replaced by Vanguard index funds and ETFs.

I guess we have all grown to be more sensible and responsible in managing the money, understanding that the money is hard-earned and earmarked for our parents’ retirement. Is the US government, or China, or, France more important than Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) or Wells Fargo (WFC) or Proctor and Gamble (PG)? You will recall that I thought Wells Fargo was the likely suitor for Washington Mutual, and that JPM was a good match for National City. Even good news is sometimes seen as bad. Also, GE still is seen with good reason as a company just packed full of extremely competent workers, managers, and executives. Nepotism: Donald Graham is a former DC police offer, now heads the company his mother once controlled, late last year he appointed his son-in-law, O’Shaughnessy (founder of LivingSocial), to be the President. Well, the balance has certainly shifted and my individual shares are now less than 15%. My portfolio is becoming less volatile, more balanced and globally diverse.

It can be a little confusing trying to work out the most cost effective way to construct your passive portfolio. It seems the whole industry has gone to some form of Modern Portfolio Theory where you spread your money across the whole globe and then try to live off capital gains. Any mistakes on the down-hill path could be difficult to recover because you no longer have time and labour capital on your side. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes….well, you wonder if I have been investing for 25 days not 25 years! One of our New York clients said 20 years ago, “Remember I do business with you because you are from the Midwest and not from New York.” I asked him what he meant by that statement. 360 in assets. How is is that a firm from a modest sized town in the Midwest serves so many people is such a wide geographic area?

No wonder people do not want to be a trader. Increasingly people are going to realize that 4 times in the last 8 years there were no capital gains, thus their living income came from principal. FDs carry low risks , yield substantial returns and keep your capital from eroding. With today’s PE of 8.0 and a dividend yield of over 6%, one is buying GE on the cheap and is getting paid to wait out the economic turnaround that will inevitably come. However, unless you think all hope is lost and we’re reverting to candles, voodoo medicine, horse-drawn wagons, and a barter economy, GE should continue to be an increasingly valuable company for many years to come. Most of these companies have been around for a hundred years. Great investors have confidence in their own convictions and stick with them, even when facing criticism. GE is poised to provide handsome returns for investors with the courage and patience to ride out the latest storm.

Thus, JP Morgan gains a valuable assets, but it was done on the backs of conservative income investors as well as the bigwigs. As Charlie Munger pointed out, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders have been well rewarded over the company’s investment journey. No matter how little or how big you can invest, it is well worthwhile investing on a regular basis. This is an attempt by Icap to educate the investor on Value Investing, a proven excellent investing Philosophy. Yes, using hindsight (the worst investment guide, besides the tax code) you should have bought gold in 2005. But even then, it maybe doubled in value. Here’s the problem: bank’s stocks have long been seen as so-called widows and orphan’s stocks. It involves the act of purchasing stocks that are already out of favor in the stock market because of the irrationality of investor. A brokerage account in which securities purchases are paid in full within settlement date (usually three business days for stocks) after the trade is executed. Equally or even more powerful are the smaller, daily ideas of thousands of employees trying to figure out how to better serve customers, outsmart competitors, or do their job more efficiently.