Cramer on stock being dumped - panic
Buying in the Face of Fear
By James J. Cramer
09/19/2001 03:04 PM EDT
People are panicking now. You see big blocks of
stock coming to the market and you see stocks just
cascading. Today is orderly, but not as orderly as
Monday. It has more of a feeling of "get me out no
matter what" than what we saw on Monday.
I am buying, not selling. I had been selling for months going into this week. It is
time to put some idle cash to work, if you have it. If not, you have to sit tight. I think
you will get higher prices down the road. I wouldn't be buying if I didn't think that.
That said, understand how I buy. I buy over time, in spaced-out, small increments,
totally anti-heroic. I bought a little stock Monday, nothing yesterday -- the market
wasn't down even -- and then a little more today when it got hit. I will probably wait
until Friday to buy more because I can't believe that hedge funds and traders will
want to be long through this weekend and I would like to take advantage of that
weakness.
Same as Monday.
You buy a little at a time.
I was never one of those guys who would load the boat up at one level. I did it once,
right after the Gulf War, but this situation is very different. (Peter Eavis did a fine
piece on that.)
The patriotic buying cushion is now gone. In its place are people scared to own.
Remember when I said earlier that we needed to see people panic, but not us?
That's what is happening now. So I have to stick to the script and stick my bids in.
(If you want to see what I am up to, click here.)
We should get some bounces here. Nothing big, and there are too many people
who need money from this market to see a whoosh back up.
So I bid quietly and let the desperate people hit me. But I always make sure that I
have some capital left for the next disaster. |
