
Big Oil Has Become Too Hard
This column was originally published on RealMoney on March 6 at 11:50 a.m. EST. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.
At what point do people just say, "Owning oil's too hard?"
I believe that point is rapidly approaching. Despite my affinity for the group, it's just playing too much havoc with performance.
I thought of that this weekend when I recognized that almost none of the stocks that
Investor's Business Daily
focuses on in its 100 list is still oil. The momentum is gone, courtesy of the endless backing and filling. The incredible decline in natural gas has made people feel that the whole run has been an aberration. Which is too bad, because that's just untrue. But fighting it has been way too hard.
Here's what I would do going forward: Pick one driller, pick one oil and trade around them. I am picking
Occidental
(OXY) - Get Occidental Petroleum Corporation Report
and
Halliburton
(HAL) - Get Halliburton Company Report
for
Action Alerts PLUS. I also like
Amerada Hess
(AHC) - Get A.H. Belo Corporation Class A Report
TheStreet Recommends
,
Schlumberger
(SLB) - Get Schlumberger NV Report
and
Transocean
(RIG) - Get Transocean Ltd. Report
as well as
Ultra Petroleum
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. I would make sure you have a little on the sheets of these at all times and buy them on days like today.
But the big oil thesis has become too hard, and to not recognize it is to court underperformance against both the
Dow
and the
S&P 500
for the foreseeable future.
Which we know in this game is the
only
future.
Random musings:
Are you ready,
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At the time of publication, Cramer was long Occidental Petroleum and Halliburton.
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