Safer Ways to Play Energy's Rallies and Declines

Remember this oil and gas rally.

It came, like they all do, after a 10% decline that people pin on the weakening American consumer, once again being totally ethnocentric and not realizing we are not the marginal buyer.

We also have committed to a policy of ethanol, which is meant to replace millions of barrels of oil with millions of gallons of gas. That's nuts, too.

You need to know that while natural gas is up gigantically and will be up more, this move is just like all the others. There is a better moment to get in than now as we go from bull to bear and back very quickly, but the major trend, like the major trend in crude, like the major trend in agriculture, remains until we get off ethanol.

We will repeatedly want to leave these for early cycle, and what I am urging you to know is that every time the financials advance they are going to give up their gains on rumors of a collapse of another firm, of which the only one that matters is Citigroup (C - commentary - Cramer's Take), which needs to make some sales soon or will be nothing but trouble.

We have a confluence right now of bears caught short in oil and most particularly gas, and long not wanting to budge because the futures are going their way. Rather than piling in on Apache (APA - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Anadarko Petroleum (APC - commentary - Cramer's Take) or Devon Energy (DVN - commentary - Cramer's Take) -- all of which I like -- I think you are better off following Bob Marcin's advise and taking a look at ConocoPhillips (COP - commentary - Cramer's Take), which is chock full of natural gas. And keep buying the drillers that are most levered to this -- Halliburton (HAL - commentary - Cramer's Take) in particular, but Baker Hughes (BHI - commentary - Cramer's Take) and Smith International (SII - commentary - Cramer's Take) too.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long ConocoPhillips.

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