Nonfinancial-Firm Dividends a Haven

When you get together with other managers, as I like to do all of the time, you are struck with an incredible sense of bafflement, discouragement and futility.

And it doesn't matter if you get together with retail analysts, who are crushed today by the declines in J.C. Penney (JCP - commentary - Cramer's Take), Saks (SKS - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Nordstrom's (JWN - commentary - Cramer's Take), vs. the advance in Wal-Mart (WMT - commentary - Cramer's Take).

It doesn't matter if it is tech, where the inputs aren't so hot but the stocks simply right now don't want to go down and they are short, perhaps because so many have already been crushed.

Or if you are a financial guy and you can't believe that Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take) is never cheap and that Fannie (FNM - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Freddie (FRE - commentary - Cramer's Take) common could be worthless.

Or how about the big value guys who bought FNM and FRE and Ambac (ABK - commentary - Cramer's Take) and MBIA (MBI - commentary - Cramer's Take) all the way down? These guys are never flustered ... until now.

Or how about those who invested in AIG (AIG - commentary - Cramer's Take), which was always the bluest of blue chips?

Or CIT Group (CIT - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is a cheap stock that is just slated to get cheaper. Or Thornburg (TMA - commentary - Cramer's Take), the best lender in the market, which is now almost kaput.

The brokers? A disaster. So easily rumored and pushed down by short-sellers.

Many managers I talk to spend more time talking about the holders of the longs and whether they can be broken than they do the fundamentals themselves.

Funds that use leverage are being forced to sell assets that have never been questioned before, even as they are well managed -- hence Annaly's (NLY - commentary - Cramer's Take) shocking decline.

In this environment, you can depend on so little that you know that people are going to pull out in droves. You feel it. The big funds are getting killed, the hedge funds are getting killed, and the shorts are getting killed, if they are trying to run a long/short book.

I think that there is one thing that is consistently working besides the hiding places I mentioned: dividends from nonfinancial firms. (I mistakenly believed that the dividend from Annaly would protect me).

That's a hiding place that has staying power.

But it's not something that will make you money, just keep you from losing more than the rest.

Even on a given trade it is hard. I know people who were short H&R Block (HRB - commentary - Cramer's Take) because of subprime and long Jackson Hewitt (JTX - commentary - Cramer's Take) because it did the same thing as HRB without the subprime! Totally wrong!"

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

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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. 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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