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RealMoney.com: Jim Cramer Blog
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Shorts' Dirty Dozen

By Jim Cramer
RealMoney.com Columnist

3/14/2007 9:17 AM EDT
Click here for more stories by Jim Cramer
 

You asked for it. You asked for what some would regard as irresponsible, but others would describe as prudent. You asked for the Dirty Dozen that the shorts are operating on, and here they are:
  1. IndyMac (NDE - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  2. CharterMac (CHC - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  3. Friedman Billings (FBR - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  4. Fremont General (FMT - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  5. Redwoods Trust (RWT - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  6. Newcastle Investment (NCT - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  7. American Home Mortgage (AHM - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  8. Gramercy (GKK - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  9. RAIT (RAS - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  10. Accredited (LEND - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  11. Thornburg Mortgage (TMA - commentary - Cramer's Take)
  12. CapitalSource (CSE - commentary - Cramer's Take)



Notice that I'm not including NovaStar (NFI - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is on its deathbed. I am also not including ECC Capital (ECR - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is also, to me, a goner.

Accredited is still alive, but I believe not for long, at least in this current form.

I do not believe that Washington Mutual (WM - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Countrywide (CFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) is in trouble, although both are not done going down. H&R Block (HRB - commentary - Cramer's Take) is in trouble, but it's been crummy for so long, I guess it doesn't matter. I do believe that GMAC is still a bleeding hole but I would no more short GM (GM - commentary - Cramer's Take) than GE (GE - commentary - Cramer's Take) off this stuff, although a lot of others will.

Do I think that all of the Dirty Dozen will go out of business? That's not the question. I'm saying that these are the shorted stocks. If you think that some of them have liquidity problems, then you short them to zero. If you think that they don't, wait a week and buy them.

Now, most important: I would not own a single one of these myself.

I feel badly about including some of these. RAIT is run by Betsy Cohen, an old friend from Philadelphia. The IndyMac people are adamant that they're not in trouble, but so were the Accredited people, and I believed in that. But this is what shorts are gunning on, so why not tell people?

OK, there you have it. Use it for what you will. But I wanted you to have the short operating list because the shorts are not stopping, not one bit.

And they are in control.

Oh and let this be an end to the thinking that I've been a Pollyanna. You don't put this list out if you are a Pollyanna, particularly because Thornburg and IndyMac are pretty well-run. And a Pollyanna wouldn't include a company like Friedman Billings, which people don't even realize has problems.

This problem is nasty, and we're not done with it yet. In my opinion, as each one of these crashes, the futures will be down big and we will lose 200 Dow points. Lot of points.

Protect yourself.


Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Fremont General, Accredited Home Lenders, NovaStar Financial and ECC Capital to be small-cap stocks. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

General Electric owns CNBC, for which Cramer is a featured commentator. At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this post.






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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. Watch Cramer on "Mad Money" weeknights on CNBC. Click here to order Cramer's latest book, "Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich," click here to order his 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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