UPDATE: It's over. JP Morgan's buying the wreckage.
EARLIER: Maybe it was the inability to find a buyer. Maybe it was the insistence of last-chance private-equity investors that WaMu's (WM) existing investors get completely wiped out. Maybe it was the Fitch downgrade. Whatever it was, WaMu has finally crashed through the $2 barrier, and now appears to be headed straight to zero.
What was one big warning sign that you might have missed a few years back? The ads the company took out in financial newspapers bragging about how many years in a row its stock had beaten the S&P 500. And then there were all those Option-ARMs.
The good news: WaMu's stock is still trading higher than it was in 1990 (at least for today). So those of you who got in 18 years ago still have a chance to get out whole.
See Also: Unable to Find Buyers, WaMu Turns To Private Equity