always something..
The Paradox of This Market
By James J. Cramer
5/21/99 12:45 PM ET
Bonds are strong, but banks are trading terribly. The airlines are all weaker, but so are the drug stocks. Brokers are down, but the utilities average is up.
In other words, either we are using the paradoxical theorem of stock selection or the whole game has degenerated for now into random buying and selling.
That's a good time to try to find the next big idea, to avoid capital commitments, to keep the bat on your shoulder.
If you have to play, play it vicariously through me. At the opening with a firm bond market, I take some Chase (CMB:NYSE), knowing that the company will not make a big acquisition, according to the morning papers.
My buy: $80.
Bonds get stronger and the stock sits. Bonds get stronger still, and the stock heads down. I boot it down a half, only to watch it decline another point in the blink of an eye.
Thin, edgeless, paradoxical markets.
I say, save the irony for novels.
Time to go for a walk.
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