Citi wants the treasury to sell their stake in the bank, treasury feels that it needs to maintain that stake to ensure that the $45 billion payback will be coming.

Man, these bankers are not looking forward to the possibility of reduced pay and government control…Go figure.

Treasury Said to Link Citigroup Sale to TARP Payback (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

Check your statement folks. These co-brand cards are moving up.  It used to be the case if you were a day late they would jack your rate.  No more.  If you have a BALANCE they are jacking your rate.  Wow.  What is the point?

Citicorp

Buy Citi now??  This certainly isn’t the catalyst needed to turn Citi, but it couldn’t hurt… or could it?  Higher defaults coming?

High oil and moves like this stacked on top of each other will cause the double dip that might be around the corner.

Below from FT.com

Citigroup has sharply increased interest rates on up to 15m US credit card accounts just months before curbs on such rises come into effect, in a move that could fuel political anger at the treatment of consumers by bailed-out banks.

via FT.com / Companies / Banks – Citi raises card rates on millions.

Last week I regretted getting back into Citigroup because I thought it was headed to the moon without me. This week, they might be headed straight to earth. So much uncertainity but I just think this choppy behavior is part of the “do you have the stomach” way the stock will trade over the next 12 months. This week might give me an opportunity to get back in at a price I want to. The pre-market on C is down to $3.40.

I know that I could probably have waited this one out and watched the contracts go to $0, but I am taking my profit and running.

Bought 10 Citi Apr 4 calls (CD W) for $0.11.   Profit of $247.   Pretty big in percentage terms (66.15%).

UPDATE (11:07am): Currently at $0.05 per contract.  Dropped all the way to $0.02.  Hindsight says that I should have been more patient, but…. “can’t go broke taking profits”.  I truly feel that this will be a dead contract at the end of the day and would have given me 100% profit, but I am OK with the 66% gain in 1 day.

Sold 10 Call options on Citi at $0.39 a contract. Total premium taken in $373.53. This is a covered call since I do own the 1,000 underlying shares of C.

As with my trade 2 days ago, I wouldn’t mind being taken out of 1,000 shares of Citi at $3.39. It would be fine if I had to deliver on the contract tomorrow. It is a heck of a premium for 1 day. Granted, earnings are tomorrow.

If it dips prior to the close, I will still be looking to cover for a small gain.

Citigroup has my attention again. Since I don’t know much about the kind of impact short sellers have, it’s hard to know when will be the right time to get back in on Citigroup but I am interested. It might be time to take a flyer towards the end of today.