Back in March, we profiled five unbelievably solid stocks-- companies that have been paying uninterrupted dividends to shareholders for more than 45 years. That consistency is incredible.

Today, we thought we'd take the flip side of that coin and examine five stocks that are anything butincredible.

Why they are so dangerous
What first caught our eye about these five dogs is that they are among the most heavily traded stocks on our major exchanges:

Company

Average Daily Trading Volume,
Past 3 Months

Recent Share Price

Citigroup

722 million

$4.52

Bank of America

274 million

$17.50

Freddie Mac

67 million

$2.02

Fannie Mae

123 million

$1.69

AIG

42 million

$46.71

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Millions upon millions of these shares have traded hands -- on a daily basis -- over the past three months. That might make sense; after all, every one of these stocks has headlined the nightly news at least once in recent months.

Now, we have to acknowledge two things. First, many of these transactions were from the big-money institutions or the short-term day-trading crowd. (Still, somewhere in there is the little guy.) Second, an earlier version of this column was published in April, and we were as bearish on these five companies then as now. One problem: Since then, the five companies we called out have handily outpaced the market -- some even doubling.

Why you should stay away
While it's true that they've rallied of late, we believe there are better opportunities long-term. Speculatorsmay be able to ride the momentum ... but investorswould do well to sit this one out. Why? Because these stocks have three troubling commonalities:

1. Convoluted relationship with the government.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the "Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate" industry spent more than $3.4 billion on lobbyists between 1998 and 2008 -- more than any other industry.

What did those five companies get for all of those political contributions? All have received well-publicized bailout funds. And while the taxpayer money will be used to save these companies from a far worse fate (we hope), Uncle Sam's money comes with strings attached.

Under normal circumstances, businesses are accountable to three constituencies: their customers, shareholders, and employees. Businesses will do well when they do right by all of them. These five companies, however, are now accountable to a supra-constituency: the federal government. That frightens us, because it's unclear how customers, shareholders, and employees will fare when these companies try to do right by the feds. That's no doubt one of the major reasons why TARP recipients like American Express (NYSE: AXP) and BB&T (NYSE: BBT) wanted to repay TARP funds so promptly.

2. Gordian knot-like financials.
Take a look at Citigroup's balance sheet. For all of the information, for all of the numbers, it's among the most confusing documents we've ever examined. Call us when you figure out what it owns and what it owes. Heck, call Citi CEO Vikram Pandit first.

See, it's seemed to us that as the credit crisis persists, insidershaven't been totally clear about what's on their books. Though some have a vague sense that mark-to-market accounting has forced them to write down asset values too far, only time will tell ... and time may not be on these firms' sides right now.

The auto companies have some of these same issues -- they have consumer finance/lending divisions -- but their pension obligations present an entirely different yet similarly complicated set of problems.

3. No near-term catalysts.
The financial companies will survive in some form -- our government has committed to that. But their future will be unlike their past. Regulation will be stricter. The massive 30-plus-times leverage that drove outperformance earlier this decade will be a dark relic of a bygone era. And now, skeptical investors may never ascribe the same market multiple to profits.

We just can't see a world in which these companies post the same kind of profits that we saw for the past 10 to 15 years.

What you shouldn't avoid right now
Contrast the future of Citigroup or AIG with, say, the future of these efficiently run companies, each of which is trading at a discount to its five-year average:

Company

Current P/E

5-Year Average P/E

Motley Fool CAPS Rating
(out of 5)

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI)

14.2 Continued...