Not Too Late to Sell

I love it! Suddenly it's S&P 900 or bust! Nothing underneath us. The rally revealed as a sham. Even better, a rally in a bear market!

Now we are talking.

A 45% rally in a bear market. Maybe China had an 85% rally in a bear market! We may have had a 7500 point rally in a bear market since I started trading 30 years ago.

I am even thinking that we have never had a bull market!

Let's step back. There have been no pullbacks beyond 5.8%. This one feels like it could be bigger, but that would certainly be reasonable.

What matters is if things are getting better or just staying less bad. We might get a good read on Friday's employment number, where I figure we either go down for the next two days in front of it and then go down some more but not hard after a weak number, or we actually rally after a decent one.

Either way I stick by my earlier call that it is right to sell the aggressive -- materials, banks and minerals -- and buy defensives for the next couple of days.

I misjudged the power of the bank selloff because those stocks have done nothing during the time we have had a lot of good data and I figured they were just digesting the gain.

However, I was impressed at how well tech held and we didn't get a hammering of Apple (AAPL - commentary - Trade Now), Intel (INTC - commentary - Trade Now) or Microsoft (MSFT - commentary - Trade Now). I also like Salesforce.com (CRM - commentary - Trade Now) into the pullback. It would be something if that one got near where it announced its upside surprise. Nice opportunity there.

So to recap: It's not too late to sell. I figure you can buy stuff back on Friday lower than where we are now even if the employment number is good. I sold more than I bought and will keep on that path until I see us closer to the 6% decline level.

In a bear market, of course.

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

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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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