Why Selling Has Lost Its Appeal

Why aren't we down today? Let me take a stab at it: the bid for Acxiom (ACXM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and the bid for Alliance Data (ADS - commentary - Cramer's Take). These are two so-so companies that have been kicking around for a while with no real mission other than processing things. Database management. Credit card services. Loyalty and marketing services. All of that amorphous stuff that feels like First Data (FDC - commentary - Cramer's Take).

You might have owned these stocks if you liked that industry. It's like owning Automatic Data (ADP - commentary - Cramer's Take) or DST (DST - commentary - Cramer's Take). Boring; fairly consistent.

They might as well be dozens of other companies, everything from Fair Isaac (FIC - commentary - Cramer's Take) to Fiserv (FISV - commentary - Cramer's Take). Unexceptional stock wallpaper.

To be, sure they had their champions. But my point is that these are basically humdrum, not-really-interesting stocks that just got very big bids -- the kinds of bids that, if you sell a lot of other companies, you run the risk of looking stupid when they too get bids.

These bids make it so you can't resist owning and buying. They have changed the risk/reward for owning hundreds upon hundreds of stocks,

That's why, in the end, we are up today.

It just doesn't make any sense to sell!

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this post.

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Jim 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. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order his book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

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