In his FT column yesterday ( http://www.ft.com/cms/... ), Wolfgang Münchau noted that the European financial crisis is really more of a banking crisis than a sovereign debt crisis (with the exception of the obvious Parthenon of cards, Greece). Münchau pointed out that there is still not much clarity about how bad European banks' balance sheets really are.

In looking for an especially weak European bank to bet against, I came across AIB, which conveniently has options traded on its American Depository Receipts. I have a limit order in to buy a few of the Feb 11 $2.50s.

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Below is a list of today's twenty-five most distressed stocks (according to their Altman Z-Score or Z''-Score, respectively) with a share price of $5 or higher. For details on how this ranking list is compiled, please click here.