Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Trade Without Fear

"Marvell is not a trade," Cramer said. "It's not an investment. It's just a good idea."

The company reports earnings on Feb. 26, and Cramer predicts the results will be "nasty-looking."

"I would try to get into Marvell at a decent price before it reports on the 26th," he said. "Below 18 is a decent price." The stock closed Monday at $17.91.

"Marvell Tech is not a trade," Cramer reminded viewers. On a trade, you'd wait and buy on a positive catalyst; with Marvell, he urged viewers to "do your homework ... decide if you like the stock, and then wait for some weakness."

"How you buy it, when you sell it -- these things are all critical," Cramer said, "and you need to work them out yourself. ... Stop thinking of short-term investments as trades with all the associated stigma and evaluate them based on their merits."

Real Rigged Potential

"Short-term focus," said Cramer, is the Achilles' heel of Wall Street. Short-term focus, while not inherently problematic, becomes a problem when it "clouds the bigger picture," he said. Whereas the Street has "abandoned" oil stocks, Cramer's long-term view still sees potential there, particularly in National Oilwell Varco(NOV - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

National Oilwell is the "biggest maker of oil rigs on earth," he said, and it reported an "amazing" quarter last week. It's "really cheap," Cramer said, and the company has "practically ... a monopoly on making deep-water rigs. That's where the money is."

Plus, Cramer said, the "real buyer could be another company." This morning, Teneris(TS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) agreed to pay $97 a share in cash for Hydril(HYDL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), another stock the Street didn't like, he said. Cramer believes something similar could happen to National Oilwell.

"Buy National Oilwell while it's still cheap ... and buy it before it could get a takeover bid," Cramer said.