Whenever you happen to be an investor in the business world, one of the worst positions that you can find yourself in is the position where you are actually hoping for a loss. The reason that this is bad should be self-evident, but what is perhaps not as obvious is that the reason you would be hoping for a loss is that the loss you would be hoping for is smaller than losses you had already sustained.

This is what the position of Citigroup investors has been over the last few quarters and the first quarter loss of $5.1 billion that had been reported certainly cheered many of these investors up because of the fact that it was significantly smaller than what most of them had been projecting.

However, there is usually a double edge to news like this and the news is simply that since the losses are still mounting, Citigroup is going to have to look to sales of assets and dividend cuts in order to maintain their own company, keep the head of the corporation above water. This means that many investors might see even more losses in the near future than they have already withstood with Citigroup stock.

To give you an idea of just how bad the situation is, consider the fact that this month Citigroup’s Tier 1 capital ratio was reported as 7.7%; an amount that is lower than it was in February. In addition to that, Citigroup requires a 7.5% ratio in order to maintain its credit rating. Considering nobody seems to know right now just how low that ratio can go, I don’t blame investors for being pessimistic at this stage.

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