Getting Out When the Getting Is Bad
Name me three groups of people who don't care at what price they sell stock: the insiders, the venture capitalists and the margin butchers.
I see their footprints everywhere today. They are getting out when the getting is
bad
. They don't care. They want out because they have bases that are so low that these prices still seem like gifts.
Against that are the mutual funds, which are in the midst of figuring out whether they are going to get redemptions or additions. If they get additions, they can make something of a stand, but are they going to make a stand in
Kana
(KANA)
and
Business Objects
(BOBJ)
? Are they going to stop the downturn in
AskJeeves
(ASKJ)
? Are they going to say "
FreeMarkets
(FMKT)
TheStreet Recommends
bottoms here"? Are they going to defend
Be Free
(BFRE)
14 points below last week's secondary?
Nah. They are cowards. They are going to go buy some drugs and some foods. They are full-up on these recent underwritings and they are looking at a calendar that is still merciless in its supply.
Keep the helmet on. Wait for the shelling. Now that the
Nasdaq
is flat on the year, somebody will come in and buy it. Won't be the cavalry, but it will be better than this. We just bought a round of 5000s of our favorite tech stocks and we were down three on every one of them by the time we got the reports.
Not confidence-inspiring. But we couldn't resist, given these down levels for some of our faves, like
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Cisco Systems, Inc. Report
and
Sun
(SUNW) - Get Sunworks, Inc. Report
.
James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund was long Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems. His fund often buys and sells securities that are the subject of his columns, both before and after the columns are published, and the positions that his fund takes may 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
jjcletters@thestreet.com.
