Jim Cramer's Best Blogs

But that, as intellectually satisfying as it sounds, may not make you as much money as being long a lot of stocks that are in bull-market mode.

I think the easiest thing in the world today is to say, "This market is horrible, and you should short everything, particularly commodities, financials, retail, agriculture and tech."

But I am stuck in the real world: That strategy, except commodities, hasn't worked since July 15.

What can I do? I am so stuck with these darned facts that it infuriates me. Nothing would be more satisfying to then to say, smugly, that it is all a big joke and I am 100% short things that are bad.

Or, even better, I am short everything that is bad and long everything that is good.

What a luxury. But the facts haven't supported that thesis.

Maybe they will, but in the end, I am stuck with the facts.

Those prices I quoted aren't illusory. Billions of dollars traded there.

They are the facts. I am betting they will withstand the onslaught.

If I am wrong, then I'm wrong. I am not paid to say nothing or to report the news. Others do that. I am paid to try to figure it out.

My work says those prices will hold, that they were the bottom. Only one stock of the major financials, just one stock, has violated those lows -- Merrill Lynch. And because it did, that broker's in the best shape to survive of all but Morgan (MS Quote) and Goldman (GS Quote). I don't want to own it, but I doubt anyone now questions Merrill's viability, even though Doug Kass is right about the potential captive managers (although the people in those funds are wealthy, not like the holders of auction rate preferreds).

To me, it is still in the bears' court to prove that those levels will get taken out, or at least taken out in non-Merrill Lynch style. Until then, I am sticking by my call, because so far it is right.

At the time of publication, Cramer was long Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.

 

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