It has been five weeks since I posted Serious Money: Tempting fate with 10 financials. The results of buying into the following pool of financial stocks at a time when the "hate 'em" factor was at a peak has been tremendous. The over all return has has been 26.3% with eight stocks up and two down.For investors this might have been too speculative; for traders, they are probably grinning from ear to ear. For me -- we will see where we stand next year. As one of my colleagues reminded me, this is the real test, although I think there is reason for optimism.
The leader of the pack was MBIA Inc (NYSE: MBI), up 228%. In the absence of that gain the appreciation would have only been 3.5%. That beats all the indices but is not as dramatic.
- Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) -- $18.45 down 63% from its 52 week high of $49.90; closed yesterday at $19.11, UP 3.57%
- Lehman Br Holdings (NYSE: LEH) -- $16.88 down 75% from its 52 week high of $67.73; closed yesterday at $16.13, down 4.44%
- Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) -- $26.25 down 67% from its 52 week high of $79.72; closed yesterday at $27.75, UP 5.7%.
- MBIA Inc (NYSE: MBI) -- $4.92 down 93% from its 52 week high of $68.98; closed yesterday at $16.14, UP 228%.
- E*TRADE (NASDAQ: ETFC) -- $3.06 down 84% from its 52 week high of $19.39; closed yesterday at $3.25, UP 6.2.
- East West Bancorp (NASDAQ: EWBC) -- $12.46 down 67% from its 52 week high of $20.88; closed yesterday at $13.01, UP 4.4%.
- Gramercy Capital (NYSE: GKK) -- $6.72 down 77% from its 52 week high of $29.45; closed yesterday at $6.80, UP 1.2%.
- Newcastle Investment (NYSE: NCT) -- $5.88 down 72% from its 52 week high of $20.88; closed yesterday at $6.89, UP 17.18%.
- Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) -- $15.70 down 70% from its 52 week high of $53.10; closed yesterday at $16.65, UP 6%.
- Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) -- $4.43 down 89% from its 52 week high of $39.48; closed yesterday at $4.24, down 4.29%
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of MBI, NCT & WM.
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