A shell-shocked economy, spiraling debt at financial institutions, or just plain bad management -- on any given day, investors can name a number of reasons to sell a stock. Yet while panic never helps investors, it's still a good idea to play devil's advocate with investments.

In Motley Fool CAPS, more than 135,000 members have weighed in on nearly 5,300 stocks, sharing bullish and bearish opinions alike.

Consider the once-iconic but now-maligned American International Group (NYSE:AIG). The company is plodding through a turnaround, but in Motley Fool CAPS, a significant number of the 2,672 members weighing in on the company still offer reasons to be bearish. I've already plucked out some of the common bullish rationale backing AIG today, so here are three counterpoints, courtesy of CAPS:

1. Credit default swaps: AIG -- through credit default swaps -- is still guaranteeing close to $200 billion in assets consisting mostly of corporate loans and residential mortgages, a type of asset that continues to weigh on companies like Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM). It recently said that valuation declines on its credit default swaps sold to European banks could be a big drag on its financial results and really mess things up.

2. Going 1-for-20: Coeur d'Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE) recently pulled off a reverse stock split, proving they are fundamentally nothing to be afraid of. But AIG opted to shrink its share count by a much higher ratio of 1-for-20, and the move didn't gain much confidence from investors. Since the split, shares were promptly cut in half.

3. One heck of a deep hole: Similar to Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), AIG is still on the hook to the U.S. government for billions of dollars that some see it unable to pay. And one Citigroup analyst recently said there's a high probability that the company's equity value is zero. The company's CEO has told shareholders there's a chance the government may never give up its 80% stake in the company.

Of course, AIG has survived to this day. But the question about whether the company will regain any former glory is why CAPS is such a great resource to augment your own analysis.

To see what the very best CAPS members are saying now about AIG, just click on over to Motley Fool CAPS and have a look.

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