Machine Orders Add to the Market Craziness

Even in 1987, even in the 24 hours after the crash, it was never this bad. It never made this little sense. It never took stocks down to 3 and 4 times earnings with good yields, like Nucor (NUE - commentary - Cramer's Take), where even if we had a severe recession I still believe the company would not lose a fortune.

Of course what this market is saying - no, make that babbling -- is that most companies are going to lose fortunes during this recession, and the yields aren't worth squat, and the valuations for everything are way too high.

To me this whole thing feels like The Terminator, where the machines took over and turned on man. We don't stand a chance against these machines that are spitting out orders for ETFs and common so fast and with so little discipline and in such size that they overwhelm stocks and even make equities like Exxon Mobil (XOM - commentary - Cramer's Take) seem tiny.

You know the money just got too big. I didn't even find today as upsetting as I did Monday, because on Monday the price action in the last 10 minutes was so absurd that you could envision Wednesday happening, because there was no way any real buyer was going to take Chevron (CVX - commentary - Cramer's Take) up 12, meaning someone trying to buy Chevron for investment. Who in his right mind would buy up 12 to make money? That's short-covering, or the tail being wagged by a futures or ETF dog.

It is so obvious that the market has ceased to function right that I can't believe someone isn't investigating whether there is something completely wrong with the mechanics of the market.

Wouldn't you love to know who bought Chevron up 12 or who sold it down 8? Wouldn't you love to know if it was a machine acting in conjunction with an ETF?

Because it sure isn't a rational human out there trying to buy or sell.

We are going to have to get to the bottom of these swings soon, before they eliminate equities as a place to do anything but speculate.

It's that bad.

And in the meantime, each time we fly up like on a Monday and we fly down like we did today, there will be fewer people in the casino.

It just seems so rigged, why bother?

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Chevron.

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