'Mad Money' host and stock market pundit Jim Cramer may have built his career as the angry money guy, but often it’s his cooler-toned advice that makes the biggest impression. As many tech stocks experience a painful dip, Cramer has words for anyone checking their positions and cringing.
"I get it," he says. "Nobody ever wants to give up their gains. You don't want to watch Meta Platforms (META) -) do a U-turn and surrender everything it made after that magnificent quarter. You don't want to see Walmart (WMT) -) soar and then repeal the whole move after an amazing quarter no less. But sometimes you have no choice, and I think this is actually one of those times.”
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“What do you do in moments like this?" Cramer asks. "Rather than trying to trade in and out, selling everything and then trying to buy it all back at lower levels, I think you need to learn how to ride out these moments. Unless stocks aren’t for you.”
Bottom line: there's one thing you need if you're going to stick with the stock market, and that's patience.
“Does patience make sense for everything? Of course not. But... if you like your stocks and you like the fundamentals and they're not hurt by a rapid rate increase — that does matter, by the way — you should be thinking about buying them into this dip when the market gets really oversold, not selling them.”
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Ever the gardener, Cramer brought it back around to the weather. “We accept that there are going to be rainy days, don't we?" he asks. "The market has weather, too. Sell-offs are rainy days. They're no fun, but they're also necessary for stocks to go higher long term because they shake out the weak hands. They allow the stocks to grow."
"So I'm urging you to accept the pullback the same way you would accept the weather," he says. How do you do that? "Stop looking at your positions every day."
"Can you imagine owning a phenomenal long-term winner and then getting spooked out and selling at 100 or 200 or 300 or 400 -- each time just to avoid the short-term pain? […]You end up better off riding out the downturns rather than trying to get cute swapping in and out."
Cramer spends a good deal of time reflecting on the market dip in 2010, which he says presented better opportunities to buy rather than sell. He uses Intuit (INTU) -) as an example of a long-term growth stock.
“All I know is that there were plenty of days like today during the last 13 years, and each one of them could have been a great moment to sell… but only if you're able to get back in the lower level… I think the vast majority of you couldn't do it. I know I couldn’t, bottom line. I don't want you sacrificing huge potential gains… over perceived safety. Because when you look back, trying to sidestep these relatively small declines tends to give you worse returns than simply staying the course and riding out that rainstorm.”
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