You get disconcerted on days like Friday. Should you have banged out some more tech when you had the chance? Were the banks worth shooting when you don't know when the next merger will strike? Was it a giant head fake, or will we have to hear all next week about our failure to vault past Dow 10,000 and what it REALLY means?

For a trader, the propensity to want to take even more cash off the table on days like Friday is very great. As I have mentioned repeatedly, I am raising some cash and I did at the opening again. But I am not being aggressive and I am not banging out bids.

But I fear the upside, especially after last year, when I would have sold more on days like today and then miss an opportunity to get back in in time. (That was one of the many things I did wrong, but it was certainly to avoid the long-and-wrong feeling I was having on Friday.)

I've been thinking about this conundrum a lot because hardly a day goes by without a reporter calling me and badgering me about whether I am any good or not or whether I have a right to write. I patiently cite my 10-year record, which is better than almost anyone, and I go into how I did well in the bad times as well as the good ones. How I have never had a down year. Blah, blah, blah. And they nod and then they switch and ask whether I have a right to trade, and I talk about my disclosure rules and how they are more strict than anyone else's -- on or off the Web. And they nod and ask me why I trade so much. And I discuss my style and how I don't want to be long at the top, and how I take trading gains.

What's so amazing to me is that very few of these people ever read my columns, which, as you all know by now, have more to do with the nuts and bolts and inner workings of trading and investing than about telling you what to do. That said, I thought long and hard on Friday about the freedom to blow out of your great stocks in order not to get "MARKED" at bad prices as the end of the day.

Fear of getting marked badly is at the root of a lot of my anxiety on days like Friday. For example, I love

AT&T

(T) - Get Report

and I have a nice-sized position in the stock. I knew there would be an S&P rebalancing at the close, and I knew that the stock would be for sale. Every one of my brokers alerted me to this trade.

But did I sell all of my stock to buy it back at the bell? No. I did not think the stock would drop almost five points from where it opened. I had done my homework. We saw the company twice this week. All the news is fine. I didn't want to fool around with the March Madness expiration.

At the same time, however, I violated one of my rules that I wrote about on Thursday. You have to try to take advantage of the machinations of the programs when you can. I left the office kicking myself that I didn't react to the T imbalance swiftly and immediately by booting T and buying it back. As of 4:02, that was the right thing to do.

I know that one of the reporters who was asking me questions would have been gratified that I held on, because she seemed very worried that I was taking too many gains. Another would have been upset because I didn't live up to my trading prowess.

Ultimately, I answer to my partners and not to these reporters. I tried to do the right thing, which was hang on to T, and I bought more on the print at the bell, which I also think was right. Sometimes you can't do any more than what you think is right.

Oh, and one other thing: I know from my wife, who says, "Second-guessing is always wrong."

See you Monday.

James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund was long AT&T, although positions can change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Cramer's writings provide insights into the dynamics of money management and are not a solicitation for transactions. While he cannot provide investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to comment on his column at

letters@thestreet.com.