Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is consistently one of the most volatile stocks on the short term, as frightening headlines or market speculations drive the share price up or down. But how much of that speculation involves the real factors that are going to affect long-term growth (or stagnation), and how much of it is just noise?

In this video, Motley Fool analyst Anand Chokkavelu takes us through what to really pay attention to with Bank of America: whether or not management is executing on its plan to streamline the business and pare it down to its core focuses, how quickly it can tie up the ongoing litigation from the acquisition of Countrywide, and how well it does emerging from the coming stress tests due to take place in 2013.