Cramer- "Crawling to Dow 7200 Is Easier With Cash"
Enviado: 12/3/2003 16:53"Crawling to Dow 7200 Is Easier With Cash"
By James J. Cramer
03/12/2003 10:04 AM EST
"Remember that septic pipe that Andy Dufresne crawled out of in Shawshank Redemption, that half-mile of raw sewage that must have been one of the most miserable moments imaginable? Well, we're in it now. We are smack in the middle of the pipe crawl, and it doesn't matter if I tell you there is light at the end of the pipe because it is so doggone awful to look, see and feel.
Don't I know it. I am sitting on a pile of cash, loaded with stocks that have good dividends, and I feel like I have protected myself to the best of my ability. And all it's done is get me swimming through the pipe with a little less stench than I might have had otherwise. Every stock's in the cesspool now.
On the Today show this morning, I tried my best to explain why Larry Kudlow ultimately could be right, but that the pain to getting to where we have to go is just too overwhelming. It is the reason I have told everyone who will listen that if you can't take the heat of getting to Dow 7200, get out of the pipe if you can for some cash -- if only just to be in better shape when we get there.
The news today that we might give the "coalition" more time to gel, or congeal, or go bad or whatever, only makes it even more painful. As Jeff Cooper wrote last night, if we push this thing past March expiration, where all of the hedgies have their protection on, then we could have a real rout on our hands because people have to roll into April puts. That, frankly, is the scenario of the Dow 6700 retreating to October '97 lows. And that scenario has to be in your mind, given what we see out there as the quarters are beginning to shape up so poorly for so many companies.
So get ready. Keep crawling if you have cash. If you don't, go back, get some. You won't be able to make it through without it. "
(in www.realmoney.com)
By James J. Cramer
03/12/2003 10:04 AM EST
"Remember that septic pipe that Andy Dufresne crawled out of in Shawshank Redemption, that half-mile of raw sewage that must have been one of the most miserable moments imaginable? Well, we're in it now. We are smack in the middle of the pipe crawl, and it doesn't matter if I tell you there is light at the end of the pipe because it is so doggone awful to look, see and feel.
Don't I know it. I am sitting on a pile of cash, loaded with stocks that have good dividends, and I feel like I have protected myself to the best of my ability. And all it's done is get me swimming through the pipe with a little less stench than I might have had otherwise. Every stock's in the cesspool now.
On the Today show this morning, I tried my best to explain why Larry Kudlow ultimately could be right, but that the pain to getting to where we have to go is just too overwhelming. It is the reason I have told everyone who will listen that if you can't take the heat of getting to Dow 7200, get out of the pipe if you can for some cash -- if only just to be in better shape when we get there.
The news today that we might give the "coalition" more time to gel, or congeal, or go bad or whatever, only makes it even more painful. As Jeff Cooper wrote last night, if we push this thing past March expiration, where all of the hedgies have their protection on, then we could have a real rout on our hands because people have to roll into April puts. That, frankly, is the scenario of the Dow 6700 retreating to October '97 lows. And that scenario has to be in your mind, given what we see out there as the quarters are beginning to shape up so poorly for so many companies.
So get ready. Keep crawling if you have cash. If you don't, go back, get some. You won't be able to make it through without it. "
(in www.realmoney.com)