Bear Stearns, Financial Investing and You

Updated from 1:39 p.m. EDT

With the current financial sector news roiling markets (see "JPMorgan Chase to Purchase Bear Stearns"), the following is some advice from TheStreet.com.

Cramer: The Past Is a Game Plan for the Present: Jim Cramer writes, "I want to go back to 1987, 1990 and to 2000. Those were three fulcrum years where, if you had a game plan, you could think more clearly than if you were winging it -- which, by the way, is what the Fed is doing." Read the full article.

Should You Own Financials Right Now?: Roger Nusbaum writes, "When the yield curve inverts or takes on an abnormal shape, it creates a bad fundamental environment for financial stocks. Accessing capital becomes more difficult and normal lending becomes less profitable.

The simple act of underweighting financials and waiting for things to normalize is the best positioning for an investor (as differentiated from a trader). Read the full article.

Kass: Ready to Take the Bear Stearns Challenge?: Doug Kass writes, "While it was an illiquid balance sheet and the lack of institutional confidence that brought Bear Stearns (BSC Quote) down (as panic and margin clerks are today's voting machines), the price tag of $2 per share could raise more questions than it answers. After all, the general impression was that the company's headquarters were worth over $1 billion and that the prime brokerage business was worth at least $2 billion, or 4 times last year's cash flow of $550 million. These factors suggest that there must be more to the story. Read the full article.

Altucher: Don't Panic -- Make Money: James Altucher gives investment advice in this turbulent market and explains why the Russell 2000 Value ETF (IWN Quote) is worth looking at. See the full video.

Media Missed Several Marks On Bear Stearns' Throes: Marek Fuchs writes, "Bear Stearns' sudden denouement creates a valuable lesson for the savvy investor looking to understand high finance through the typically low level of business media coverage. "Read the full article.

Who Traded 55,000 Bear $30 Puts Tuesday?: Steve Smith writes that last week on Tuesday, March 11, "when Bear Stearns was trading around $65 a share, there was huge put volume in the March $30 strike ."

"Over 55,000 contracts traded that day at an average price of 15 cents a contract. This is an extremely unusual trade in terms of the number of contracts and how far out-of-the money those options were at the time. This begs the question of why someone would execute such a transaction." Read the full article.

Know What You Own: Bear Stearns operates in the financial services industry, and some of the other stocks in its field include Citigroup (C Quote), Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), Morgan Stanley (MS Quote), Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) and Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote). These stocks ended the trading day at $18.62 (down 5.86%), $151.02 (up 3.72%), $36.38 (down 8.02%), $41.18 (down 5.36%) and $31.75 (down 19.13%) respectively. For more on the value of knowing what you own, visit TheStreet.com's Investing A-to-Z section.