The Buyers Are Here

Was it manipulation? Was it short squeeze? Was it hedge fund covering?

Blah, blah, blah. I will tell you what it was.

A lack of sellers.

And that matters because in the pre-bull market -- sellers would have come out of the woodwork to sell their Wells Fargo (WFC - commentary - Trade Now), their JPMorgan (JPM - commentary - Trade Now) and their PNC Financial (PNC - commentary - Trade Now). They are always on the prowl to meet that kind of phony demand with supply.

But they either don't have any ammo left or everyone who wanted out of the bank stocks badly is gone.

Not only that, but this market has taken on the coloration of a juggernaut. People are afraid to part with what little stock they have left on their sheets, lest the market pass them by entirely -- as is the case with most of the markets around the world.

So you can decide that it's all phony or you can recognize that it is difficult to be as phony as this was and get away with it if it's a bear market -- because there are always people who want out.

Not here. Not now.

They don't want out.

They want in.

Random musings: Congratulations to comrades in arms Scott Rothbort, William Furber and Eric Oberg for all of the great work on the petition we are delivering to the SEC in Washington on Monday to reinstate the uptick rule. Now let's hope the Federal Reserve gets back into the margin-regulation business and starts going after those ETF companies that are set up just to get around the feds!

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.

---

Know What You Own: Major financial stocks include Citigroup (C - commentary - Trade Now), US Bancorp (USB - commentary - Trade Now), Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Trade Now), Deutsche Bank (DB - commentary - Trade Now), Morgan Stanley (MS - commentary - Trade Now) and Goldman Sachs (GS - commentary - Trade Now). For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman 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.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.