Courtesy of thestreet.com
Wrong! Dispatches from the Front:
Cramer on Why He's Putting Money to
Work
By James J. Cramer
5/27/98 10:47 AM ET
No man's land. We've been there before. No protection from
errant gunfire and artillery. But closer to where we ultimately
want to be. Can't go back now. Can't run back to our cash
trench and sell what we bought here. But we can't have any
conviction that this no man's land lies close to the bottom.
That's why I like to look at individual stocks in these
situations. Just now, for example, I heard some talking head
say that we might be in the midst of a 5% to 10% decline.
No kidding -- we just missed smacking 8846, which would
be a 5% decline from the intraday high. Unless you are a
Dow Jones options trader, you don't make big money
predicting the size of a decline in the Dow, though.
But you do make big money looking at individual stocks.
Right now I am looking for clues that the stocks that got us
to these lofty levels, the Ciscos, the Pfizers, yes, the hated
Dells, have run their course on the downside. I am
wondering whether the big consumer names, safety names
that people like to buy when they know that they are out of
no man's land and are bayonetting sellers who have fallen
asleep on guard duty, are finished selling off.
My playbook says that by the time a selloff is in midcourse,
one-third of the stocks have already put in their bottoms.
Take tech, for example. How many people have buried tech
this morning? Yet I am up on all my tech buys. I could flip
them for change, but I think they have put in a bit of a
bottom here.
The drugs. This index has taken on a bit of a Pharoah's
Fury, which is my wife's favorite ride (that's the one with the
gondola that swings up and down and should logically break
off and send everyone aboard into oblivion but never does). I
want to get on this ride if it were to slow down for a few
seconds to let me aboard.
Yada Yada Yada...Seems I've heard this sentiment on this thread from some level heads before Mr. Cramers iteration. My best to all who hung pat.
Solid |
