Making a quick buck on Countrywide

If only you had bought shares of the Calabasas-based mortgage company early Friday morning. The stock opened at $40.29 and then the FT comes out with this unattributed report that Countrywide was in discussions with Bank of America about some sort of relationship, maybe even a merger. Within a few hours, shares were trading at $45.26 - and a couple of analysts were saying that such a combination was plausible (it's pretty easy to get at least some analyst to say whatever you want them to say). Then along comes Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis downplaying any such deal at a financial conference this morning - and Countrywide stock falls to $41.39. Let's see, a $5 a share profit times 1,000 shares and suddenly we've got a few days in Paris. And who said bidness wasn't fun? (By the way, Countrywide is back up to $43.15.)