Citigroup Sinks Deeper Into Penny Territory
March 5, 2009 by Tisa Silver
Filed under Finance
Today, shares of Citigroup (Ticker: C) dipped below one dollar per share for the first time ever.
This day will definitely go down in the Citi record books. After the past year, they’d probably like to burn those books!
Photo by dawnzy58, Courtesy of flickr
About ten years ago, I had an internship at a brokerage firm. I remember people actually calling into the office to get stock quotes. Imagine that!
Anyway, I remember a client calling in to ask about Citigroup. Citi’s shares were trading around $50 at the time. After the call, a few people around the office said that Citi was a “solid company” and an “old reliable.”
I couldn’t afford $50 stocks back then, but if I had taken the office advice (along with a buy-and-hold strategy), then I would have a negative 98 percent rate of return on my hands right now.
Obviously, none of those brokers saw this coming!
At the time, they also recommended General Electric (Ticker: GE) and Microsoft (Ticker: MSFT). Take a look at this chart of GE, MSFT, C versus the S&P 500. Warning: This chart might make you wonder what a financial advisor is worth.
Do yourself a favor: take advantage of your advisor’s planning services (tax, retirement, estate) instead of stock picks. You will get more bang for your buck…or your penny.
