The head of global markets at a large bank says that one of the defining skills of good traders is their ability to sense the moment when the market gives up on a stock, sector or equities in general and starts selling at any price. Capitulation is hard to define and harder to analyse, but the best traders can feel buying support ebbing away and the abyss opening up. Many must be getting that nagging sense about banking stocks right about now.

Why are investors giving up on banks? Well, how long have you got? The "London Whale" trading losses at JP Morgan Chase, the defenestration of the top brass at Libor-tarred Barclays, revelations about HSBC inadvertently laundering drug money and Goldman Sachs posting a net return on equity of 5.4% for the second quarter of the year will add a nasty whiff to even the rosiest of portfolios.