Comparing Banks

[StevenA]

Originally Posted by joshuat

Another thing about banks - you can't read their balance sheets and interpret their risk position. All you can do is vote on management - best of breed. Even that will backfire - look at the BAC buying Countrywide debacle. Gotta wonder what Buffett thought when he heard about that. I would have been inventing new swear words.

There is a web site that evaluates the financial condition of banks and rates them on a 5-star rating system. 4 and 5 star banks are considered stable, while 1 and 2 star banks are the walking dead, almost certain to be shut down. I've never tried using this site as part of an investing strategy, but it's the first place I go to when I'm thinking of opening a new bank account:

Bank Ratings

[joshuat]

Originally Posted by StevenA

There is a web site that evaluates the financial condition of banks and rates them on a 5-star rating system. 4 and 5 star banks are considered stable, while 1 and 2 star banks are the walking dead, almost certain to be shut down. I've never tried using this site as part of an investing strategy, but it's the first place I go to when I'm thinking of opening a new bank account:

Bank Ratings

Thanks. Personally, I am not going to invest my money based on other's judgement. If I can't personally evaluate a stock (which is true of 99%+ of the stock universe), then I won't buy, even if somebody else says that is is great.

[Wooglin]

What numbers can one use to research banks? Im noticing that financials show little or no ROIC numbers and some banks show zero sales. How can we grade financials with Rule #1? Are there alternate Big 5 numbers we can use to calculate growth rates?