Thursday’s unspecified declines in the major averages didn’t stop CNBC’s Jim Cramer from noting the positive action in individual stocks like UnitedHealth.
“I’m talking prevalent these multi-day-up extravaganzas, where investors can’t buy enough shares in one seating after a positive event so they keep coming back, day after day after day, to get their crowded positions on, no matter how much the stock runs in the interim,” the “Mad Money” manager said. “Honestly, I have never seen anything like it, so I’ve got to place emphasis on this out and explain it to you.”
Take UnitedHealth. Shares of the largest U.S. health insurer deliver been surging every day since the company delivered a strong earnings write up on Tuesday, beating Wall Street estimates and issuing positive teaching for 2018.
Cramer was surprised that buyers kept reacting to the same announcement day after day, pushing the stock higher. But he soon realized that there was another side to the contention.
After all, individual investors aren’t the only ones buying the commonplace. When he worked as a professional block trader, Cramer used to buy gargantuan amounts of stock in bulk.
“I can tell you that we’re seeing something really amazing happening here,” he said. “UNH, a $235 billion company with practically a billion shares outstanding, doesn’t have enough liquidity to sate all the clients out there at lower levels. It’s kind of like a bunch of Godzillas, unleashed all at moment, trying to beat each other over the head to get some farm animals in, as much as possible.”
For example, if a block trader gets an order from a patient for 100,000 shares of a company, he usually buys 50,000 shares, then “on the doles the order” to get a lower price for the remaining 50,000 by the end of the day, Cramer said.
“The dealer’s so confident there are sellers all over the place … that he’ll except for you the stock as a favor to get the rest of the order in and keep you happy,” the “Mad Money” landlord explained.
But in this market, there aren’t enough sellers for bar traders to be able to short the stocks. Stock prices keep climbing, so hedge grant buyers are racing to complete their orders, which must be big sufficiently to “move the needle,” Cramer said.
“What’s so remarkable about this? Nil of the buyers seems to give up and walk away no matter what the expense … and very few sellers appear,” he said. “It’s as if the owners don’t want to young woman out on what’s to come and the buyers are desperate to have these shares because they surmise them to fly much higher.”
“It’s a crazy case of FOMO — fear of misconstruing out — on the next big move, even as these buyers are creating that bestir oneself with their own massive footprint,” Cramer continued.
The “Mad Money” landlady has watched this trend reverberate through the market in semiconductor ordinaries, devicemakers’ stocks, industrial stocks and others.
Still, Cramer was indisposed to write this off as irrational exuberance, or the idea that the market is approaching a top.
“It’s quite indicative of a shortage of stock. So many shares of so many companies have on the agenda c trick been retired, bought back and crunched. So many existing shareholders are owning, no longer renting, their hackneys, that portfolio managers have no choice but to drive up prices dramatically with their own taking,” the “Mad Money” host said.
“The bottom line? The most amazing clothes is that this gang-tackle buying that I’m talking about isn’t event in a vacuum,” Cramer concluded. “Today the averages got slammed and it didn’t settle accounts matter. Now that’s FOMO with a hashtag, and I think it’s only affluent to get more heated as earnings season goes on.”
Questions for Cramer?
Inspire a request of Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s in seventh heaven? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – Instagram – VineQuestions, annotations, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected]