No Reason for a Paired Short Trade

Stop being so negative. That's the lesson of everything from Arch Coal (ACI - commentary - Cramer's Take) to Hasbro (HAS - commentary - Cramer's Take). People are so willing to extrapolate anything negative to everything else. Mattel (MAT - commentary - Cramer's Take) bad? Doesn't Hasbro have to be bad? NO! Wasn't coal supposed to be cooling? NO! So Arch goes up beyond belief. Neither is done going up!

I just don't get how people can be so short these stocks, which is why they are ramping so fiercely. What's the deal? Is there something about every hedge fund that it has to be short a gazillion stocks and has to be negative on everything that could be positive?

You should recognize that pretty much every outsized gain, ones where the stocks go up on small, niggling positives is about short-selling. The Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) 480, 490, 500, 510 strikes? Tons of call-sellers, taking advantage of premiums too juicy to resist. Morons: limited upside, unlimited downside.

Caterpillar (CAT - commentary - Cramer's Take)? April 80 call-sellers.

We are now past the point when it is worth, constantly, to have something bad paired against something good. It just doesn't make sense. We are now where it is worth it just to play the good side.

Let's take Apple (AAPL - commentary - Cramer's Take). I am sure there are people who say, "We have to short Apple; it is up so much, and there is no news. We can go long Hewlett-Packard (HPQ - commentary - Cramer's Take) against it." Is that investing? To me, it is drivel.

Or how about US Steel (X - commentary - Cramer's Take)? I saw people shorting X -- mentioned on Stockpickr.com -- and suggesting that there must be a long they can match with the short.

Good luck.

Here's the deal with this market: It is a good one. Don't feel the need to have something short to match the longs. It's not working anymore.

I am not against shorting. Going short Eli Lilly (LLY - commentary - Cramer's Take) was a pretty darned good trade, one I didn't spot. Betting against National City (NCC - commentary - Cramer's Take) was terrific. That's got to be one of the worst lenders I have ever seen.

But the "paired" craze ain't working. Stopped working after Bear (BSC - commentary - Cramer's Take). Stop it already.

Random musings: Halliburton (HAL - commentary - Cramer's Take) reports this number, looks not-so-hot. They then spend the whole conference call talking about how Canada, which had been destroying them, has at last gotten not only better but MUCH better. I guess people just read the headlines because it went down anyway. Now it is up, as it should have been the whole time. ...

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

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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. To order Cramer's newest book -- "Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer)," click here. Click here to order "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get "You Got Screwed!" and click here for Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he appreciates your feedback and invites you to send comments by clicking here.

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