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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Spartex who wrote (22900)	6/24/1998 2:28:00 PM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Off-Topic: A man some people love to hate....;) James Cramer.. Wrong! (Archive) Jun 24, 1998 Tactics and Strategies: Cramer on Shorting an Oversold Market By James J. Cramer You just don't know what drives a market until you have been short a stock that slams you upside the head. This morning we have seen a giant squeeze stemming from all the puts and shorts slapped on last week when hedge funds figured that the trickle of earnings shortfalls last week would turn into a torrent. Wrong! In the absence of earnings mishaps we get a pro-Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) ruling and a sense that maybe the last 48 hours at Intel (Nasdaq:INTC - news) weren't so bad. And now crazy rumors fly by, like VLSI (Nasdaq:VLSI - news) for LSI (NYSE:LSI - news) , or was it LSI for VLSI, or, Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG - news) ADR) for Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP - news) . I kid you not about that last ruse. My partner, Jeff Berkowitz, just came to me with it. Now watch it show up on the Faber report on CNBC, for pete's sake!!! In the meantime, some guy drones on in the background that it is dangerous to buy stocks that have soaring valuations, like he doesn't wish he had been long Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN - news) for those last 50 points. In that climate, if you are short, you would feel more comfortable with a tight-fitting Ziploc veggie bag over your head. You are suffocating anyway. How do I know? Because I have worn that ill-fitting poly choker. Because I have asked that the zipper be closed on me, to spare me any further pain. I have been short stocks that have spiraled out of control and thought, how do I tell my partners that, not only did the market turn around, but I stayed short? Why did I do such a bonehead thing?? Why? Why? Why? Because I thought Intel would preannounce and it didn't, darn it. Because IBM's (NYSE:IBM - news) business had to be as bad as Hewlett's. Because Dell (Nasdaq:DELL - news) had to get crushed by Compaq's (NYSE:CPQ - news) woes. Because I thought Amazon wasn't worth five times Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS - news) and it turned out to be worth seven times Barnes & Noble, or eight or nine. Because I thought that Justice Penfield Jackson was the next best thing to Oliver Wendell Holmes and he would smite Microsoft down to the mid-80s with a dramatic ruling. Because I thought the East was exploding! Uh uh. Not today. Today is one more day where the intellectuals, the critical thinkers, the ratiocinators and the detectives -- the ones who could figure it all out and knew that everything had to collapse under a heap of Infoseeking (Nasdaq:SEEK - news) missiles -- are getting their butts kicked because of their skepticism. Which is why I never sell short an oversold market. James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-chairman of TheStreet.com. At the time of publication the fund was long Microsoft and Dell, though positions can change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Cramer's writings provide insights into the dynamics of money management and are not a solicitation for transactions. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to comment on his column by sending a letter to TheStreet.com at letters@thestreet.com. c 1998 TheStreet.com, All Rights Reserved.