The Trader, Reluctantly, Is Switching to Banks

Here's a switch. The bonds look good. Reluctantly, given the

PNC Bank

(PNC) - Get Report

rally, we are trying to make a little money in the banks. We note that

Bank One

(ONE) - Get Report

is now above its price when it preannounced. That's monumental.

Join the discussion on

TSC

Message Boards.

And

Schwab

(SCH)

, unlike

America Online

(AOL)

, rallied off of its buy of

U.S. Trust

(UTC)

. Is it too dangerous to own the bonds and own banks ahead of

Greenspan's

talk tonight?

I think that's what is making this stuff so cheap to begin with. When two of the worst banks, in terms of perception, PNC and Bank One, rally, what does that say about the good ones like

Citi

(C) - Get Report

and

Chase

(CMB)

?

I think it says they work here. They are boring. They trade in smaller increments than the

Nasdaq

. They haven't been that facile on the Net.

In other words, they are everything I want right now.

Chat one-on-one with me on

Yahoo!

today at 5 p.m. ET. Register for Yahoo! Chat at:

http://chat.yahoo.com. It's free!

James J. Cramer is manager of a hedge fund and co-founder of TheStreet.com. At time of publication, his fund was long America Online, Chase Manhattan and Citigroup. 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.