Dare I return to the thorny subject of banks? Perhaps I shouldnt. Of all my columns this subject brings the most controversy. Which is understandable.

Many of us have lost an arm and leg trading in these pests. Not recently I suppose, as generally speaking, prices of most UK banks have been fairly static. Theyve fallen away a little in recent weeks, but nothing to get worked up about.

But the fact remains, chums, that most trades, by amateurs anyway, are in bank shares. People buy them and sell just as rapidly, because the spreads are low and the volatility high, and hence the chance of making more money than in most stocks is high.

Yes, I know the reverse is also true, that losses can be high, too.

But I am not as worried as most of you seem to be about the prospects of share prices not rising. We know the arguments now that the recession continues, that credit is still hard to come by, that the chances of making big money in derivatives have receded and so on.

But there are good things about buying bank shares, too. The government, ok the taxpayer, owns a load of bank shares now and that makes real trouble for banks very unlikely. Also a couple of successful share issues have been made. One of them, courtesy of Honkers Bonkers, which has weathered most of the banking storm, made a very generous offer for us to buy new shares.

I know people who went in for it doubled their money, and perhaps made even more than that (on paper, of course).

The recent Lloyds Bank issue was not nearly so generous, but I think it is showing a profit and enough people accepted the offer to repay a lot of government money. Now the bank does not have to repay a huge slice of interest every year.

The new big cheese at the Royal Bank is going to earn zillions if he gets the share price up. So you can imagine therell be a lot of focussing going on in that department. Another good sign, I would hazard.

But please make up your own minds. Banks is not a subject of which I speak with confidence. Rocking on.