RealMoney Radio Recap: Wait for the Signal

Before people on Wall Street realized what really happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and the horror, "they knew there was going to be trading that day, and the trading was going to reflect that bizarre fire emanating from one of the World Trade Center towers," Jim Cramer said on his "RealMoney" radio show Monday.

After the first plane hit, all people saw was some smoke and at first asked "How bad?"

"I must have gotten six or seven 'How bads?'" via instant messenger in the first two minutes," Cramer said. Given that they didn't know it was a terrorist act, Cramer said he replied, "?????"

People responded by IM'ing, "Seems weird" and "Time to buy." But no one said "sell" that morning after the first plane hit, Cramer said.

"We didn't think people were going to die," he said. "Actions on Wall Street were merely of discipline."

Market players continued to trade at the initial fire, Cramer said. Even though people didn't know exactly what was going on, they saw it as an opportunity to buy.

"Then the second plane hit, and we knew it wasn't an opportunity at all," he said. "We were still lamenting opportunities. We were still IM'ing about financial losses [as] we couldn't grasp what was happening."

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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. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" at 6 p.m. ET weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World," click here to get his second book, "You Got Screwed!" and click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict." While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column by clicking here.

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