Visa and MasterCard Are the New 'Gallopers'

Is it repulsive to you that Visa (V - commentary - Cramer's Take) and MasterCard (MA - commentary - Cramer's Take) pretty much run up on most days? It shouldn't. It shouldn't, because first of all, try as they might, these companies cannot convince the shorts that they have nothing to do with retail and everything to do with the worldwide trend toward plastic not paper.

Second, they are fabulous core positions for big mutual funds, and the funds come in every day looking to find sellers to build up positions that are still way too small.

Third, they count as financials so therefore allow you to "weight" financials in your portfolio -- still ridiculously high at about 18% of the S&P -- without getting hit by all the ugly sticks, including the National Citys (NCC - commentary - Cramer's Take) and the Washington Mutuals (WM - commentary - Cramer's Take).

These two stocks are classic demutualizations, where you have these companies not run for streamlined profit that are suddenly on a mission to show profits -- think CME (CME - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Prudential (PRU - commentary - Cramer's Take) if you want the obvious ones. Of course, I thought NYSE Euronext (NYX - commentary - Cramer's Take) was the primary attraction, and that has been dead wrong and downright embarrassing. Endlessly embarrassing.

Visa, in particular, is a bit mystifying. It is more expensive than MasterCard, but because of the dollar price of MasterCard and the stark realization that you missed the first 180 points, Visa looks like the horse to bet on. I like 'em both, but think that the MA numbers are still way too low.

These stocks are "gallopers," as I used to say at my old hedge fund. They are galloping somewhere -- who knows where -- but every time they are down I would go buy calls on them, deep-in-the-moneys out many months, and just hold them because these are stocks that aren't quitting.

Don't be afraid to jump in. They are the cheapest way to play the financials if only because they have growth, and none of the other financials I know have any of that commodity.

Random musings: Schering-Plough (SGP - commentary - Cramer's Take) is going up simply because there is a growing recognition that the amount of decline in revenues for Vytorin forecast by Merck (MRK - commentary - Cramer's Take) just isn't that great, despite how much the media is making of it. As I told subscribers of Action Alerts PLUS, this is the quarter where Vytorin is no longer two-thirds of SGP's profits because of the Organon acquisition. ... Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) seems to have no supply up here. ... The absurdity of Philip Morris International's (PM - commentary - Cramer's Take) stall seems downright silly. This stock is much too cheap vs. its growth rate, but people want to see the quarter first. I wouldn't wait. ... So funny how the analysts don't believe in Caterpillar (CAT - commentary - Cramer's Take). The downgrades are telling of how this stock is a buy on any weakness because these analysts just don't get it. CAT is a global play on American dumping!! ... Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF - commentary - Cramer's Take) rallies 80 points, nobody cares. Still a small-cap! ... Joy Global (JOYG - commentary - Cramer's Take) should go much higher off of Arch Coal (ACI - commentary - Cramer's Take) ... BP (BP - commentary - Cramer's Take) puts on 8 quick ones because Russia's not going to nationalize the company. ...

At the time of publication, Cramer was long NYSE Euronext, Philip Morris International, BP and Schering-Plough.

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