"Sticking to a Pre-War Strategy"
By James J. Cramer
01/10/2003 09:20 AM EST
"When you play the market in the context of world events, you better get a world view and stick with it.
I was selling stocks into the rally Thursday because I believe that despite all the rhetoric, nothing has changed, and we are going to war with Iraq.
Just as in 1990, there are many days on which it looks like there could be rationality, that Saddam Hussein could do the right thing or that the United Nations could cause us to avoid going to war. Thursday was one of them. Predictably, the market rallied. Last night on "Kudlow& Cramer," I had as guests two of the best observers on the scene, Jill Abramson, the brainy Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, and Time's Karen Tumulty, one of the most dogged reporters in Washington. Both said almost in unison that nothing that happened Thursday made war less likely, and that, in fact, war seems most likely around the last week of January.
I can't tell you how many times we had peace runs like this that had to be sold in 1990. I am taking no chances. I want a cash hoard to be able to be put to work when the shooting starts. I think that's the most prudent way to go. And I am not going to change that view unless or until Saddam Hussein goes into exile in whatever country -- North Korea, maybe? -- will take him.
I intend to do more selling today. "
(in
www.realmoney.com)