Financial stocks had a huge run up from their bottom. Many have doubled and tripled, but are they still cheap?
It’s almost impossible to value big financial institutions like Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), or Goldman Sachs (GS) — they’re a lot like hot dogs — you don’t really know what’s inside of them; for [...]

I did three 5 minute segment interviews on Yahoo TechTicker with Aaron Task and Henry Blodget.  Here are links to the videos:

Only Time Can Cure What Ails Us: Stocks Slump on Bailout, Stimulus News
Range-Bound at Best: The Long View on Stocks Isn’t Much Better, Says Vitaliy Katsenelson    
Active Value Investing: The Bull Case for EBAY, Philip [...]

I was quoted in this week’s Barron’s on AmEx (AXP):

“This company can weather a huge hurricane and come out fine,” says Vitaliy Katsenelson, head of research at Investment Management Associates in Denver. “American Express is one the simplest financial companies to analyze. It’s much more transparent than Citigroup or JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs.
He argues that the [...]

AmEx becoming a bank holding company (BHC) is not just net positive for the company it is simply positive. When a highly leveraged investment bank like Goldman Sachs turns into a BHC, its future profitability suffers as its leverage drops to commensurate level of the bank. Lower leverage leads to lower profitability.  AmEx on another [...]

I was interviewed by The Wall Street Transcript, here are some excerpts from the interview:
Investing vs. speculating
Let’s talk about financial stocks for a second, because I’m sure they are on investors’ minds right now. You want to be an investor rather than a speculator; at least I am talking about investing. If you own financial [...]

Here is a link (opens PDF) to a 9 page analysis I did of American Express (AXP).  Warning: it is a bit dry.  I was going to present American Express at Value Investing Congress in Pasadena, but the stock ran up and exhausted a good portion of margin of safety.  
Amex is one of the [...]