Bank of America will report before the open two days later. You could lump these four stocks together with a few other companies and you would have the definition of “too big to fail”.It was used to describe financial institutions that were so big that the overall economy could come under pressure if one of them failed. Since that time the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have a system of tests that they call a "stress test" to measure different aspects of the bank to make sure we don't go through another financial crisis.

One part of this piece of legislation was for banks to undergo an annual stress test to make sure the financial system could withstand different crises. Both the Volcker Rule and the Dodd-Frank Act have been in the news this week.The Volcker Rule entered the conversation as regulators rolled back some of the limitations on Thursday.  The Dodd-Frank Act also came in to play on Thursday as the results of the stress tests were released. Bank stocks rallied during the trading session on Thursday because of the news on the Volcker Rule.