The Future Is Cold for Nat Gas Stocks

Wait a minute, it is freezing cold for much of the nation and getting much colder as the week goes on. I could see, right now, picking up as many natural gas stocks as I could find, everything from Ultra Petroleum (UPL - commentary - Cramer's Take) to Devon (DVN - commentary - Cramer's Take), Apache (APA - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Chesapeake (CHK - commentary - Cramer's Take). You always buy nat gas stocks when it gets cold. That's a time-honored trade.

Not this year.

Natural gas, astoundingly, just took out $5. That's incredible, just incredible. Can you imagine where it would be if it were warm? Where would we put this stuff?

These stocks, every one of them, seem like shorts to me. My friend Bert Dohmen, a fabulous technician I have used for years, thinks that even my favorite, Anadarko (APC - commentary - Cramer's Take), could have a gigantic breakdown. These companies have simply overproduced. Other than Chesapeake, they haven't cut back, and the ones that do will do so under duress, meaning that they don't have enough cash flow to keep drilling.

These stocks have come well off their recent highs, but as far as I am concerned after this break below $5 in this weather, I have to believe that $4 cannot hold. At that price, every one of these stocks will be 20% lower.

I'd sell them now and short them if they rallied.

Random musings: I am loving Doug Kass' pick of Franklin Resources (BEN - commentary - Cramer's Take). I am not on board ... yet. ... Dan Fitzpatrick's got some exciting chart stuff I am using on my show. No guarantees that I agree!

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

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