Hi Sketch,

There's so much stuff flying around about how this will all shake out that one almost needs a scorecard to keep up with all the characters. The latest eyebrow raiser is why would Bank of America pay roughly 29 bucks a share for Merrill Lynch when the company was supposedly on the ropes with the stock trading around 17 just this past Friday.

How distressed could the company have been if it could pull a 12 dollar premium out of the fire just like that. The stock price Friday was only a half buck or so off its yearly low and down well over 50 bucks plus so far this year. A couple of analysts raised the question on one of the financial programs and said it needed to be answered. However, they quickly moved on to something else.

Sure is a good way for the deal makers to kill some of those overexposed wicked shorts. And I bet some of heavy hitter shorts are more than just sweating over this move. They could take a helluva beating.