Sorry, the page you requested could not be found

Sorry that you couldn't find the page you wanted.

Here are a couple of ways that can help you find that information successfully.

Content Search:

Quote Search:

(Stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds)

TheStreet Directory

  RealMoney.com
Dow Jones S&P 500 NASDAQ 10-Year Note
10,318.16 1,091.38 2,146.04 33.56
Oil *
77.53
DOWN
14.28
DOWN
3.52
DOWN
10.78
UP
0.07
10 Yr
3.36%
SPDR Gold
112.94
-0.14%
-0.32%
-0.50%
+0.21%
Data delayed 20 minutes

More From TheStreet

Latest Headlines

  Sorry, the page you requested could not be found

Sorry that you couldn't find the page you wanted.

Here are a couple of ways that can help you find that information successfully.

Content Search:

Quote Search:

(Stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds)

TheStreet Directory

Dow Jones S&P 500 NASDAQ 10-Year Note
10,318.16 1,091.38 2,146.04 33.56
Oil *
77.53
DOWN
14.28
DOWN
3.52
DOWN
10.78
UP
0.07
10 Yr
3.36%
SPDR Gold
112.94
-0.14%
-0.32%
-0.50%
+0.21%
Data delayed 20 minutes


Commentary: Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations
*New* Alerts! Please click here...

Hold Your Nose and Buy Some Stocks
By James J. Cramer

3/20/01 8:28 AM ET


Read More
Click here for the latest from James J. Cramer.
Sometimes you have to force yourself to like something. That's how I felt this weekend after last Friday's miserable performance when it looked like the world was going to end.

We all want to be contrarians. I know my friend Alex Berenson at The New York Times, wanted to be contrarian when he said it was "time to get greedy," when it most assuredly wasn't. I know that the folks at Barron's have a wide contrarian streak -- or at least some of them do, and it always comes off as rigorous, if pedantic and petty.

I have it in me, too. When the bear seemed to be everywhere this weekend I wanted to don the bull costume. And why not? I said the Nazz could trade to the 1860s, and we got there. I had said when we got there that I would go more positive and, hey, we were there and, therefore, it was time to go more positive.

Yet, to be positive right now means that you must buy merchandise that is bad right now. You know that virtually anything you buy in the Nazz or the New York Stock Exchange has severe problems. You are simply trying to thread the needle, which you must do at times, if you are going to make good money. You are betting, as my colleague Bob Olstein so eloquently puts it, "that pessimism has created good prices."

That means identifying stocks that everybody knows have problems, that are down a great deal and that can still recover if certain circumstances occur. Lets talk about two trashed groups so you can understand the need to "force yourself to like something." Let's talk about tech and the financials.

First, tech. As my series on the SOX has shown, this group is not cheap. Last night KLA-Tencor (KLAC:Nasdaq - news - boards) blew up and, if I hadn't done the matrix that showed me how KLAC was not cheap, I would have recommended that excellent company to you a few days ago, as part of the process of finding something down that I like. Much of tech is like that. In my chat last night with Bill Fleckenstein, we pretty much all agreed that the fundamentals in tech are poor and getting worse not better. Where we disagreed is the notion that the stocks are pricing that decline in right now. I said that some of the stocks are pricing in a further decline in fundamentals. Others aren't. KLAC wasn't. Maybe Nortel (NT:NYSE - news - boards) is. Intel (INTC:Nasdaq - news - boards) hasn't. Maybe AMD (AMD:NYSE - news - boards) has. Cisco (CSCO:Nasdaq - news - boards) could be; Redback (RBAK:Nasdaq - news - boards) and Vignette (VIGN:Nasdaq - news - boards) aren't. PSINet (PSIX:Nasdaq - news - boards) will never price it in because it is paying the ultimate price.

Read the rest of this piece!


James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to jjcletters@thestreet.com.
Send letters to the editor to letters@realmoney.com.
Read our conflicts and disclosure policy.
Order reprints of RealMoney.com articles. Top

Research Now
on CSFBdirect
GS INTC MWD
The tools you need to invest. CSFBdirect.

RELATED STORIES


Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations
Hold Your Nose and Pick Some Stocks, cont.
3/20/01 8:23 AM ET

Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations
Zany, but No-Brainy
3/19/01 1:27 PM ET
A hip children's store goes down the tubes, showing that IPO fever extended beyond dot-coms.

Wrong! Rear Echelon Revelations
Cramer: Tech Bear No More
3/19/01 8:18 AM ET
After Friday's rout, the risk of staying in this sector is lost opportunity rather than captial depreciation.




Apply now for a csfbdirect account ONLINE INVESTING
The tools you need to invest. CSFBdirect.
FINANCIAL PUBLICATIONS
Risk-free issue of Red Herring
BANKING
Get a $50 bonus from NetBank.



Click to change or update chart Click to change or update chart Click to change or update chart

Sorry, the page you requested could not be found

Sorry that you couldn't find the page you wanted.

Here are a couple of ways that can help you find that information successfully.

Content Search:

Quote Search:

(Stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds)

TheStreet Directory

Dow Jones S&P 500 NASDAQ 10-Year Note
10,318.16 1,091.38 2,146.04 33.56
Oil *
77.53
DOWN
14.28
DOWN
3.52
DOWN
10.78
UP
0.07
10 Yr
3.36%
SPDR Gold
112.94
-0.14%
-0.32%
-0.50%
+0.21%
Data delayed 20 minutes