Positive Signs?

Maybe Cramer's cage-rattling was like BX's IPO, in that it indicated the "top" of a market. Hopefully in this case it marked the peak of the hysteria and angst which has driven up the VIX index dramatically over the last couple of weeks as people grappled with the credit markets' unwind.

As a friend mentioned in his comment below, NFI, one of the subprime mortgage lenders to take a plummet last winter and spring, has announced that they are going to resume issuance of subprime loans after the market has been literally frozen over the last few weeks: NovaStar Will Resume Making Subprime Loans

Apparently Novastar disagrees with Indymac, who only last week stated that the secondary markets for mortgage backed securities are illiquid

The market rallied significantly today, led by the same Financial stocks who have been hammered over the last weeks, so apparently some people agree that conditions are changing.

It will be interesting to see if this is sustainable or simply a dead cat bounce before the next round of carnage.

As I have mentioned before, I am selectively diving in on both the long and short side, but cash looks pretty good right about now.