K..Your sentiments are reflected here. Trufflette posted this over on the RMBS thread so you may have seen it.
Steve
Someone Wanted Out
By James J. Cramer
2/4/99 4:23 PM ET
Hmmm, looks like the Nasdaq seller might have finished. In checking with every major
OTC desk every five minutes in the last hour, I did not find a single large seller. In fact,
after the Advanced Micro (AMD:NYSE) news came out, there were large buyers of
Intel (INTC:Nasdaq), as people recognized that AMD may be faltering in its next
generation of chips. In other words, the selling was all derivative, all stemming from a
program designed to sell all the favorite names that have propelled this advance.
You will hear people blame bonds for this selloff. That's just plain stupid. The drug stocks
were actually an oasis of "strength" and they trade with the bonds. You will hear people
blame the wild Internet shenanigans, the red rovers, as I now call them. But that's wrong
too. In fact, the Net wasn't that volatile.
Someone wanted out. He wanted out more than anybody wanted in. And when he was
done, he wanted to be sure he left his tire tracks all over the backs of anybody who tried
to call the bottom. Making things worse, camp followers piggy-backed, and what could
have been an orderly selloff just became a flat-out rout.
Me? I dodged the high explosive, but my ears are ringing. Have to see whether the same
selling comes back tomorrow. If it does, then the barrage will be dealt with and the prices
will be cheaper and more fetching. No, this is not the Silver Lining Department speaking
(like that Greed & Fear character that speaks in haughty third person over the weekends).
Today was hideous.
That said, I would have loved to have seen what it looked like without the high-explosive
program. Maybe tomorrow he comes with some white phosphorus. Stings, deadly, but
lacks the impact of what he threw at us today. I feel good that I held out to the bell to buy.
I feel bad that if this guy comes back, I am not done buying!!
(A word on "he": As I have said many times, I have no idea who did the selling, whether it
was one big account or two accounts. Or whatever. What I do know is that the selling
was concentrated in the futures, not the cash market, and the market makers never saw
lots of merchandise for sale. Just 10,000s and 15,000s from "away," which fits the pattern
of futures spill-off.)
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