Skip to main content
Paralysis Strikes

Paralysis Strikes

No one is doing anything, frozen by the terrible action -- and waiting to be rescued by a rally.
  • Author:
  • Publish date:

No one is doing anything, frozen by the terrible action -- and waiting to be rescued by a rally.

This is one of those Interstate 5 crashes, lost in the fog at the Grapevine. The destruction is palpable but it is not slowing down the traffic further south.

The silence is still deafening . Nobody is calling and asking for bids to get out of bad stocks. Nobody is panicking. The only thing we have seen so far are people wanting to buy the market.

We sense that the despair has become paralyzing. Nobody's doing anything because they are afraid. Everybody wants to be bailed out by the rally. Everybody figures that someone, somewhere will add cash or keep the balls in the air. Everybody seems to think that somebody will lend a hand or throw a life raft.

We are staying disciplined. We love our cash. Our fear is not of a whoosh up, but of the accident on the Grapevine winding its way down to the Santa Monica freeway. Maybe in time for

Ron Insana's

show?

We still have not taken out the 3250 level in the

NDX

that we touched a while ago. But we are in the process of buying May 3500 NDX calls to play a bounce when we get to within a few points of there. Oops -- there goes

Todd-o

. That didn't take long. And we are buying

Merck

(MRK) - Get Free Report

and

Procter

(PG) - Get Free Report

and more

Amercian Home Products

(AHP)

and

Intel

(INTC) - Get Free Report

and

Mellon Bank

undefined

.

Borrrrinngggggg.

James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund was long NDX calls, Procter & Gamble, Intel, Merck, American Home Products and Mellon Bank. 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.