Short COF? No Way

So let's say you are short Capital One (COF - commentary - Cramer's Take). Makes a ton of sense. It has had its head handed to it with subprime loans. It is one everyone thinks is the next calamity: credit cards. It bought North Fork at the HIGH and Hibernia Bank at the HIGH. This is a luckless situation.

Yet, I could argue that this company's amazing ability to issue credit cards to the right people -- who don't default at anywhere near where the Street thinks -- could make the stock a terrible short, if not a decent long.

Plus, if there is money for a Washington Mutual (WM - commentary - Cramer's Take) or a UBS (UBS - commentary - Cramer's Take) or a Lehman (LEH - commentary - Cramer's Take), in many ways this is a more reasonable, less-troubled company that has been buying shares, not issuing them.

The credit card business, it turns out, is a fabulous business, particularly when the home equity loan business has been obliterated.

I do not want to own COF. But it is clear that the shorts are on the run here. It just seems like there is too much money chasing too few financials at this point, and if you don't need the capital, you can really have a run.

This company bottomed when it reported a not-great quarter. I have no idea what can bring it down now except a massive uptick in defaults, and I just don't see that happening. Given the decline in housing prices -- a decline which anecdotally is leveling off in California -- it is easier to walk away from your home than to walk away from your credit card.

Buy it up here? No thanks.

Short it here? With your own money.

Random musings: Arch Coal (ACI - commentary - Cramer's Take) said things were great last week. What the heck? That's very strange. ... The Rev was right, we've been quicksanded.

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

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