Minds Too Narrow, Not the Market

For those who have seen tech shrink from the only game in town to a game that gets rained out a lot to the virtual National Hockey League of this market, it's been very tough. Going to all of those conferences -- "Goldman tech, stop trading!," remember those days? -- seems like a horrid waste of time. Better just to tag along with Georgia Gulf's(GGC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) management on its New York foray. Or better just to buy the REITs on a dislocation; that worked.

This remarkable, shrinking tech sector has kept hedge fund managers off their game for almost a half-decade. Meanwhile, whole new companies have come -- and even gone, check out Helen of Troy(HELE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) today -- while people have waited for Cisco(CSCO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Sun Micro(SUNW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) to come back.

Major themes, such as the real estate shortage -- I like that more than "the bubble" -- the secularization of the oil stocks, the return of heavy industry courtesy of China, aging boomer health care and health care cost containment continue to shoot the lights out for the mutual funds with their big staffs and their need to find longs. (Hedges just switch long-short-long-short until the groups they play in have no volatility whatsoever.)

But those get ignored in favor of "Boy, it's narrow out there."

It's narrow only if you are waiting for the techs to come back.

I remember that brutal moment a decade ago when my wife came back to work and I was all about Cisco and Wellfleet and DSC Communications and she was still on U.S. Steel(X - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Phelps Dodge(PD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). She hated having to do the new work, hated it. It finally drove her away, if I didn't drive her away with my insistence that new groups had to be learned.

Her stocks lay dormant for years. Now they are back with a vengeance. Yet I am seeing many people be like Karen was, waiting, wondering what's come over this market that it left its staples for other pastures. What is this BHP(BHP - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)? Who cares about Rio Tinto(RTP - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)? What gives with this Arcelor?

The answer is performance. That's where it is. There is always a place where performance is. When it is not where you are, you can lament it, you can bang your head about how there's no new ideas and, ultimately, you can wait to have your money taken away.

Or you can do the work.

Karen didn't want to do the work. She had a kid at home, crying, wanting to be with her, not the nanny.

What's your excuse?