Adrift Before a Crucial Moment

Wild day -- as in wildly disappointing. An amazing amount of selling came in at the last minute and totally crushed a methodical rally and really left us in no-man's land.

So many stocks today looked like what Procter & Gamble (PG - commentary - Trade Now) did on Monday morning -- hanging a point or two above a strike but really vulnerable.

We are no longer overbought technically at least, but one of my favorite indicators for` so many years has simply failed us and points to nothingness. I look at this market and think only two things: We are back in a world where hedge funds and ETFs totally dominate and individual stocks mean nothing; and the stocks are easier to knock down than any time since the climactic battle won by the shorts in the fall of 2008.

There are so many stocks that are so far from their strikes but are vulnerable -- I mean if JPMorgan Chase (JPM - commentary - Trade Now) doesn't rally from here it could go to $30 and, holy cow, that would be bad.

So the options test, which happens at 2:30 p.m. EDT tomorrow and the big floor traders get their look at how things stack up, will be more important than any expiration in ages.

Let's wait until the last hour and a half before we make another move. Not that it will be any easier then, but at least we will have a peek at what's cooking!

At the time of publication, Cramer was long JPMorgan Chase.

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Know What You Own: Major financial stocks include Citigroup (C - commentary - Trade Now), Wells Fargo (WFC - 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.

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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.

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