As an accountant working at stockbrokers in London, I keep myself abreast of most of the financial news. These profits posted by JP Morgan, Citigroup for the first two months of this quarter and was it Goldman couple of days back, is all down to revision of American accounting standards under the pressure of authorities whereby the assets held as investments in their balance sheet are being valued at cost rather than the Net present value or what they can fetch from the market in an arms length transactions. Hence there is no write downs to be posted onto their income statement converting the loss into profit. Its all down to creative accounting I suppose. I will post the article on economist for this if I can find it again. Even European International Accounting Standards are coming under pressure to change the strict standards on asset valuation which hasn't happened yet. If you really want to bet on Stock try, CFDs and Spreadbetting. You can earn loads as well as loose loads if things go the opposite way. The financial info are normally free on all stockbroker websites once you become the account holder. Anyone interest in investing in stockmarket can email me however, as I am UK based, there is further risk of currency fluctuations if you do decide to invest.