Remember the Banks

If Bill Gross goes on a buyers' strike, how can the rest of us buy? If Bill Gross says everything's in bear-market mode -- everything -- how can we think about picking stocks up?

Because there are levels. There are levels where there are buys -- and we heard that from Bill in his interview with Erin Burnett and me on CNBC. For bonds, Bill doesn't think we'll get to that level until we see Treasury get involved, and in his amazing note just out today, he's basically challenging Treasury in the way I challenged the Fed last year.

For stocks there are levels, too. There are prices being created by this bear market that will allow us to profit. I urge you to remember back when Wachovia was at $8 and Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Cramer's Take) at $18. I want you to remember when Wells (WFC - commentary - Cramer's Take) and U.S. Bank (USB - commentary - Cramer's Take) were both at $20. You have to remember, because the same kind of action that is creating these prices -- forced redemptions and panic -- created those levels. That's the kind of pain that these sellers are bringing out. We are not there yet, but then again, we didn't know we were there when that panic happened.

Keep your eyes open; the selling pressure is at maximum levels historically.

Remember those buys of the financials.

Those steely buys are what you need to be thinking about, those courageous buys were once-in-a-lifetime buys. We aren't there yet, but we didn't know then, and we don't know now.

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

ALL JIM CRAMER BLOG ENTRIES | POST A COMMENT | READ COMMENTS  

---

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.

TheStreet.com has a revenue-sharing relationship with Amazon.com under which it receives a portion of the revenue from Amazon.com purchases by customers directed there from TheStreet.com.