Oil Citigroup cut investment bank bonuses by 30 percent: report

Oil Citigroup cut investment bank bonuses by 30 percent: report (Reuters) - Citigroup (NYSE:C - News) has cut bonuses for its investment banking division by about 30 percent on average, Bloomberg said, citing a person briefed on the matter. Some businesses within the securities and banking unit had bonuses reduced by as much as 70 percent, Bloomberg reported. Citigroup was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bangalore; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Oil SWI breaking out

Oil

SWI had big breakout on earnings in July. It went sideways for few months after the earnings breakout. Today it is breaking out. 

Signals BBDA hit $.0199 From $.0004 Alert

Signals

The stock fell after hitting $.0199 but recovered its losses and closed higher today.  Strong interest remains in this stock that had almost no interest when I alerted it at $.0003/.0004.

Signals Why You Shouldn't Manage Your Friends' Money

Signals Why You Shouldn't Manage Your Friends' Money So you put away some nice returns this year - not too shabby. While you can't be blamed for bragging about good performance, it's not uncommon for friends to want a part of the action. What would you do if a friend asked you to make investments on his or her behalf? In this article we'll show you the highs and lows of investing for others. Taking Advantage of Your Financial Knowledge It's no surprise that your pals might want you to manage a couple of bucks for them. If you're pulling down decent returns and talking about your investing strategies, you've now become the go-to guy (or girl). These days, money talks and people who understand the financial world are getting a lot of respect as young people realize there's more to investing than they once thought. If you have financial knowledge, people who know you might view you as a very valuable commodity - a free money manager. All too often, the person asking you to invest his or her money is the person who knows a little something about investing - just enough to get into trouble. If you're nailing double-digit returns this year, why couldn't you repeat the performance year after year, right? The Problems with Investing for Others You may think that investing for someone else is just a way of helping out a friend, but the thing is, when you start investing for other people, particularly your friends, you enter a world of complications that you might not have foreseen when you started out. Unrealistic Expectations That friend of yours, the one who thinks that your 35% returns this year are going to happen next year as well, might be in for a nasty surprise when your picks make next to nothing. When you invest for friends, you have to deal with unrealistic expectations that can really put a damper on a relationship. If your friends wants you to invest for them, they likely don't understand all of the risks involved with investing, including not quite meeting the investment goals that they may have been projecting. Losing a Friend's Money Not meeting a friend's investing expectations could jeopardize your friendship, but falling short of your friend's projected returns could be a best-case scenario. When things go wrong, making some money is a lot better than losing money, which isn't an abstract concept for anyone who invests actively. When you bring money into a relationship, things can get uncomfortable pretty fast, especially when that money is hemorrhaging out of an investment account. Do you tell the friend to suck it up? Do you repay the person out of your pocket? Do you try to make up the difference with new picks? Really, there probably isn't a good way to deal with losing a friend's money and you should consider this risk before you agree to invest for anyone. Legal Matters Managing a friend's money is a sticky business and if you go through with it you may be breaking the law. Investment professionals must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or have a federal license. They are heavily regulated by the government and by trade organizations like the National Association of Securities Dealers, for the protection of consumers. If you invest for a friend for compensation, you could be breaking laws that are in place to protect investors from people who aren't qualified to have discretionary control over others' accounts. Short End of the Stick Despite the drawbacks, investing for friends isn't always doomed to failure. With skill, smarts and a whole lot of luck, you might rake in the cash. If that's the case, you still have to consider whether or not your friend is taking advantage of you. Helping out a friend is nice, but when that help consists of making significant amounts of money for that person and getting little or nothing in return, you might be suffering from an off-balance relationship. What You Can Do for Friends Now that I've taken the wind out of your sails, and your friend's as well, there are things that you can do to help your friends' investments without burdening yourself with the substantial responsibility of investing someone else's money. One of the best ways to lend a hand is to help teach your friend about investing. Help Them Learn There are a lot of pitfalls out there for new investors. If you're lucky, you've been able to avoid quite a few of them or you learned how you should have gone about avoiding them. The benefit of your experience can be one heck of an asset to pass on to a friend and it won't cost either one of you personally or financially. Therefore, if you want to help your friends, work with them; show them how to analyze a financial statement, how to execute a trade online, how to look up business news, or how to find online resources. Investment Clubs Going farther still, there is a popular way to invest hands-on with friends without taking on the responsibility that an investment advisor would feel for a client - the investment club. The investment club consists of a group of people who vote to decide whether or not to buy or sell their group-owned investments. Investment clubs are great, because they allow a more personal approach with actual investments than just helping someone with investing concepts. These clubs will also give you a vested interest in performance of your friend's portfolio. If you're interested in starting an investment club, there are plenty of resources available, ranging from your broker to the internet. It's important to recognize that an investment club isn't just a couple of people who want to invest together - it's a formal (and legally defined) organization with members who have an equitable claim to their assets. This means you should look into the rules and laws that govern investment clubs where you live before joining or starting one yourself. The Bottom Line Investing for a friend usually isn't worth the amount of trouble it can cause. Money just isn't something you want to bring into a good friendship. In the end, by helping your friends invest on their own, you'll be doing them, and yourself, a much bigger favor.

Oil Stuck in the mud

Oil

Stuck in the mud is the current stage of market.

Every time it tries to rally it gets pulled back in range. Every time it attempts breakdown , it gets pulled back in range.

The breadth on either up or down attempt is also low. So no major breadth thrusts on either side.

The large cap stocks are holding up well compared to the small cap stocks.

The Fed day did not produce any spark. The ECB also opted for no change in policy.

The market needs a catalyst for big move in either direction. Till then stuck in mud.

Signals COBI - Chart To Watch at $.001

Signals

The above chart is what COBI looked like when I made it one of my charts to watch for my subscribers at $.001.

This is what COBI's chart looks like after the close today:

Oil Stock Market for 10/12/12

Oil Stock Market for 10/12/12 The Dow Jones and Stock Market were higher on Tuesday. Will the stock market go up or down on Wednesday? Keep tabs on the stock market futures which will predict the open on Wednesday. If you are a stock trader or investor, check out my stock picks group. We are making some big trades in there right now. Sign in and sign up. Dow Jones Futures - Up 3S&P 500 Futures - Up 1NASDAQ Futures - Up 2Gold Futures - 1732Silver Futures - 33.47Oil Futures - 96.93Asian Markets ( Nikkei ) - 8807

Forex France loses AAA-rating in blow to eurozone

Forex PARIS (AP) -- France's finance ministry says Standard & Poor's has cut the country's credit rating by one notch to AA. France's loss of its AAA-rating deals a heavy blow to the eurozone's ability to fight off its debt crisis. The country is the second-largest contributor to the currency union's bailout fund. S&P in December put 15 eurozone countries on creditwatch and other downgrades were expected later Friday. The cut in France's creditworthiness could also hurt President Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election chances. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. ROME (AP) -- Europe's ability to fight off its debt crisis was again thrown into doubt Friday when the euro hit its lowest level in over a year and borrowing costs rose on expectations that the debt of several countries would be downgraded by rating agency Standard & Poor's. Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. plunged late Friday when reports of an imminent downgrade first appeared and the euro fell to a 17-month low. The fears of a downgrade brought a sour end to a mildly encouraging week for Europe's heavily indebted nations and were a stark reminder that the 17-country eurozone's debt crisis is far from over. Earlier Friday, Italy had capped a strong week for government debt auctions, seeing its borrowing costs drop for a second day in a row as it successfully raised as much as euro4.75 billion ($6.05 billion). Spain and Italy completed successful bond auctions on Thursday, and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi noted 'tentative signs of stabilization' in the region's economy. A credit downgrade would escalate the threats to Europe's fragile financial system, as the costs at which the affected countries — some of which are already struggling with heavy debt loads and low growth — could borrow money would be driven even higher. The downgrade could drive up the cost of European government debt as investors demand more compensation for holding bonds deemed to be riskier than they had been. Higher borrowing costs would put more financial pressure on countries already contending with heavy debt burdens. In Greece, negotiations Friday to get investors to take a voluntary cut on their Greek bond holdings appeared close to collapse, raising the specter of a potentially disastrous default by the country that kicked off Europe's financial troubles more than two years ago. The deal, known as the Private Sector Involvement, aims to reduce Greece's debt by euro100 billion ($127.8 billion) by swapping private creditors' bonds with new ones with a lower value, and is a key part of a euro130 billion ($166 billion) international bailout. Without it, the country could suffer a catastrophic bankruptcy that would send shock waves through the global economy. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos met on Thursday and Friday with representatives of the Institute of International Finance, a global body representing the private bondholders. Finance ministry officials from the eurozone also met in Brussels Thursday night. 'Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Greece's leadership, the proposal put forward ... which involves an unprecedented 50 percent nominal reduction of Greece's sovereign bonds in private investors' hands and up to euro100 billion of debt forgiveness — has not produced a constructive consolidated response by all parties, consistent with a voluntary exchange of Greek sovereign debt,' the IIF said in a statement. 'Under the circumstances, discussions with Greece and the official sector are paused for reflection on the benefits of a voluntary approach,' it said. Friday's Italian auction saw investors demanding an interest rate of 4.83 percent to lend Italy three-year money, down from an average rate of 5.62 percent in the previous auction and far lower than the 7.89 percent in November, when the country's financial crisis was most acute. While Italy paid a slightly higher rate for bonds maturing in 2018, which were also sold in Friday's auction, demand was between 1.2 percent and 2.2 percent higher than what was on offer. The results were not as strong as those of bond auctions the previous day, when Italy raised euro12 billion ($15 billion) and Spain saw huge demand for its own debt sale. 'Overall, it underscores that while all the auctions in the eurozone have been battle victories, the war is a long way from being resolved (either way),' said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities. 'These euro area auctions will continue to present themselves as market risk events for a very protracted period.' Italy's euro1.9 trillion ($2.42 trillion) in government debt and heavy borrowing needs this year have made it a focal point of the European debt crisis. Italy has passed austerity measures and is on a structural reform course that Premier Mario Monti claims should bring down Italy's high bond yields, which he says are no longer warranted. Analysts have said the successful recent bond auctions were at least in part the work of the ECB, which has inundated banks with cheap loans, giving them ready cash that at least some appear to be using to buy higher-yielding short-term government bonds. Some 523 banks took euro489 billion in credit for up to three years at a current interest cost of 1 percent. ___ Steinhauser contributed from Brussels. AP Business writer David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed.