Nat Gas Has Cooled, But It's Not Over

Darn griddle got too hot for natural gas. It was that vicious spike up last week when Chesapeake (CHK - commentary - Cramer's Take) announced the deal that showed it had much higher reserves and it caused the whole group to explode at the opening.

The Holland Tunnel Diner, where the griddle was hot enough to make perfect egg sandwich after nine seconds but burn the &*$@ out of it at ten may no longer be in business, but the market's griddle -- 10 times hotter than the aforementioned diner's -- sure isn't closed.

The nat gas stocks stayed on for that tenth second, where they all rallied so hard, wiping out the last of the shorts, that you knew they were finished for the moment.

I write "for the moment" because I believe that natural gas will become the stopgap fuel our nation uses as it gets its renewable act together.

I warned people last Wednesday that things got too hot. You saw the crisping Thursday and another fry job yesterday.

Now, everyone wants to know if it is done. Unfortunately, the futures are going to play a role. Nat gas only declines by less than 10% -- far less than any of the stocks -- but the stocks themselves had, in many cases, exceeded the 60% increase in the futures pretty handily.

I am inclined to think that you can start picking small today -- I did some yesterday, but only after selling off my biggest win in the group (albeit not at the top, but those are rare to catch) -- but keep a wide berth with wide scales.

These stocks can only be bought using a precise scale where you put your bid down at your price because that's the only way you won't turn tail at the bottom. Arrive at where you want to buy it before the trading day starts and then just be true to it. But don't be big. I would rather buy 1,000 Devon (DVN - commentary - Cramer's Take) at $112 going up from, say, $105 than I would buy stock at $106, when I have no idea if it will really bottom there. I believe that natural gas is the fuel of the year, but I also believe in corrections. That's what I think we are having. I know people will say this is the big blowoff and the group is finished. I think it is only finished if you think that the fuel can be replaced by something else domestic that makes sense. Things got too heated, now they're real cool. But not over.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Devon.

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