Option volume has ramped up on Regions Financial (RF) today, with 14,000 contracts changing hands by midday -- more than double the equity's average daily volume. Calls are dominating most of the action, as no fewer than 12,000 of these bullishly oriented options have been exchanged.

Traders appear to be adding new positions at RF's out-of-the-money November 8 and December 8 call strikes, continuing a recent trend in the options pits. During the past 10 days, the International Securities Exchange (ISE) reports that options players have bought to open 9.12 calls for every put on RF. This ratio arrives in the 94th percentile of its annual range, not far from an optimistic peak.

Goldman Sachs (GS) offered up a blowout quarterly report Tuesday. GS earnings were the second best on record and short only of Goldman fourth quarter earnings report from just a few months ago.

In the wake of recent fraud allegations against the investment bank, there's plenty of reason for politicians and taxpayers to grumble. But don't think it's envy over the record profits -- the real problem here isn't the big buckets of money being pulled in by Goldman Sachs, but the source of the income. Consider that without all the money GS made on Wall Street via proprietary trading, the bank's quarterly profits would be just $2.53 billion -- about half the profits put up by U.S. Bancorp (USB) the same day.

Step away from the news for a couple of minutes and JPMorgan decides to get out its downgrade stick and go bashing the banking sector. The ratings house feels that the slowdown in growth in securities along with rising credit costs are going to impact the bottom line at major banks during the fourth quarter and on into 2010. JPMorgan lowered estimates for Bank of America (BAC), Regions Financial (RF), Wells Fargo (WFC), SunTrust (STI) and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB).

In addition to JPMorgan's less-than-flattering assertions about the finance sector, Rochedale Securities analyst Dick Bove stated that 26 of the 30 top banks (ranked by asset size) will have to raise capital if "we go to a 12% capital ratio."

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the sooner banks repay TARP, the more likely they will power higher in 2010.

The Federal Reserve wants higher stock prices. That's all I can think of when I see that it wants repayment plans into place for the big banks such as Bank of America (BAC) (Cramer's Take), PNC (PNC) (Cramer's Take), Citigroup (C) (Cramer's Take), Fifth Third (FITB) (Cramer's Take), Wells Fargo (WFC) (Cramer's Take), Regions Financial (RF) (Cramer's Take), SunTrust (STI) (Cramer's Take) and KeyCorp (KEY) (Cramer's Take), all names that haven't repaid the Troubled Asset Relief Program yet.

Why would these plans bring about higher prices?

"Direct Investment Plans -- or DRIPs -- are a great way to investor regardless of the market environment; in fact, avoiding the emotional decisions usually made by the typical investor may be their greatest strength," observes DRIP specialist Vita Nelson.

In her MoneyPaper's Direct Investing, she reviews the basics of DRIP investing and discusses her latest "Bargain Corner" stock pick -- Regions Financial (RF).

Vita Nelson explains, "This strategy involve the four Ds -- dividend reinvestment, dollar-cost averaging, diversification, and discipline.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says everyone in the trenches knows we're better off now -- only the academics disagree.

Am I nuts, or am I missing something? One year after the financial system was brought to its knees, we are back in the mid-9000s and we have taken off the table massive bank risk and are well on our way to recovery.

I keep listening to people like Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz say the banking system is worse off now and I say to myself, "That's just stupid and wrong and anti-empirical and actually just silly." Anyone who knows what's really going on has to feel this way. And where was Stiglitz when some of us were running around trying to save things?

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that now it is all about who is going to take advantage of the opportunities.

Did anyone listen to Bill Isaac yesterday? Did anyone listen to the man that was instrumental in solving the banking crisis of 1987-1991 when he was on "Squawk Box?"

I don't think they did. If they did, they wouldn't be nearly as fretful about housing or the bank stocks or the mortgage problem or the toxic bonds as they seem to be, because Isaac talked about 1,600 banks that had to be closed and about how there simply was no place to put the bad assets at all. He talked about major banks collapsing day after day after day, the largest banks in the most important regions in the country. He talked about how hardly a day went by when a bank that they were not prepared to deal with went under because of mortgage loans.

"While I continue to avoid bank stocks and bank ETFs , I very much continue to recommend that you buy and own plenty of nicely high-yielding bank preferreds and bank minibonds for your retirement investing," says Neil George.

In his income-focused Stocks that Pay You, the advisors reviews his favorites among these lesser-known investment vehicles.

"Why invest in banks at all? Because -- as they continue to clean up and bolster their balance sheets -- banks are getting even better credit risks, which means that you'll be even more likely to get paid your high-yield dividends and interest payments.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says many stocks, considered frothy at one time, have turned into good turnaround stories.

Here's still one more version of a short-seller's nightmare. What happens when froth turns to investible? What happens when you see behavior that clearly indicates froth and then, somehow, the fundamentals change, and the stock takes off?

We have seen that recently in so many situations that it is pretty dazzling. It was one thing to see Genworth (NYSE: GNW) (Cramer's Take) back from the dead on its own.

"Even among the broad-based market carnage of the past year, regional banks with heavy real estate exposure have been notably poor performers," notes turnaround expert George Putnam.

In The Turnaround Letter, he explains, "While investors are still wary of this group, there are cases where the market has overreacted and the stocks will eventually rebound dramatically." Here, he looks at four favorite regionals.

"Many regional banking stocks are now trading at a small fraction of their 'book value.' In more normal times, most banks will trade for two to three times book value and sometimes more.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you'll miss some great opportunities if you blindly believe all the bad news.

You want a rebuke to the "never-ending woes of commercial and residential real estate mortgage bonds"? You get one every day in this market, and today is no different. Look at what is up big today: Genworth (NYSE: GNW) (Cramer's Take), Lincoln National (NYSE: LNC) (Cramer's Take), Wyndham (NYSE: WYN) (Cramer's Take), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) (Cramer's Take) and Zions (NASDAQ: ZION) (Cramer's Take). Each in its own way needs the residential or commercial real estate markets to be robust to thrive, and if the myriad articles I read about the horrible state of the mortgage bond market and the dim commercial real estate prospects were true, why would you be making money in Wyndham, a gigantic timeshare company? How could Regions and Zions be rallying? They are among the worst of the worst; unless you consider Genworth and Lincoln National, which are supposed to be roadkill because of all of their mortgage bonds.

Today was a day marked by selling, partly on economic news and partly on a call from S&P. S&P put the credit bias of the United Kingdom at "negative" from "stable" giving the notion that the nation's Triple-A ranking is possibly at risk to be cut. Then came the implications from Bill Gross and others that the U.S. could ultimately see the same fate. To show how bad the trend and bias was, long-dated Treasuries saw their yields rise as much as 15 basis points today.

A slightly less-bad jobs report failed to catch any attention today. In short, if you are a market bear you are getting more feathers in your cap now that earnings are basically finished. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,291.82 -130.22 (-1.55%)
S&P 500 888.23 -15.24 (-1.69%)
Nasdaq 1,695.25 -32.59 (-1.89%)

Top Analyst Calls

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) started today's trading with a resounding thud after announcing a $1.25 billion stock offering. The regional banking issue said it will offer $1 billion in common shares and $250 million in new convertible preferred shares. The proceeds will address roughly half of the $2.5 billion in capital Regions was instructed to raise by the U.S. Treasury Department following its stress test results.

Despite a negative start to the session, RF has since ticked fractionally higher. The security has shed more than 34% of its value in 2009, and it's currently struggling under the weight of resistance from its 32-week moving average. Since 2007, RF has managed to notch just one weekly close above this steadily descending trendline.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says he'd sell the regionals, but this group is mired till housing sales tick up.

Is it SunTrust (NYSE: STI) (Cramer's Take)? Maybe it is Key (NYSE: KEY) (Cramer's Take)? How about Regions (NYSE: RF) (Cramer's Take)? Maybe Huntington (NASDAQ: HBAN) (Cramer's Take)? Fifth Third (NASDAQ: FITB) (Cramer's Take)?

Oh, who cares? Frankly these are all small, nothing banks that you could short and probably do pretty well with, if you can borrow the shares. None of them is really important, and incredibly, all of them can easily be made delicious morsels for a JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) or a U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) (Cramer's Take) or a Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) without a lot of money spent by Treasury.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) Q1 profit edged past expectations despite lower sales of Humira.
• AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) posted a smaller-than-expected Q1 loss, sending shares sharply higher.
• Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, sending share higher.
• BP (NYSE: BP) and other oil companies were downgraded due to higher environmental costs.
• Charles Schwab Corp. (NASDAQ: SCHW) Q1 earnings declined but still topped analysts' expectations.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) said Q1 earnings would be lower due to a weaker dollar and lower oil prices.