Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) reported a loss that was twice what investors expected. But in early trading, there seems to be disappointment that the loss was not even bigger. The reason for the disappointment is that investors were hoping that Citi could take its losses all in one quarter and move forward.

But since banks need to maintain a ratio of capital to assets -- specifically Tier 1 capital of at least 6% -- Citi can't write-down its assets -- which reduce a bank's capital level -- without either shoring up its capital or getting rid of more assets.

I will be liveblogging Citi's conference call which begins at 8:30 a.m. I have never done this before. Here are some questions I'll be listening for:

• How much more write-downs will Citi need to take in future quarters?
• Are there other areas besides subprime which will require Citi to take write-downs or write-offs?
• How many layoffs will Citi make and when will they go into effect?
• How big will the charge be for the layoffs?
• Will Citi cut the dividend even more in the future?
• How much more capital does Citi plan to raise and from where?
• What is the cost of the $12.5 billion it raised already?
• Where will Citi's growth come from in 2008 and 2009?

Update: Thanks to technical problems -- when I followed Citi's directions to listen in on the call via Windows Media, my Windows Media Player did not start up and my browser was directed to a different page on Citi's web site -- I could not liveblog this call after all.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citigroup shares.