TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says if you're short, you don't want the bill passed. Let's look at that perspective.

First, let's make an important point: Nothing from Congress is going to make this market go up. We need the market go up because it is cheap and it attracts buyers, and because there are companies out there that are worth more than they are trading at -- perhaps as private companies, perhaps as investments right now, if anyone had cash and confidence.

Right now it seems there is neither. All we have are the futures, on stocks and on oil, and they bounce around and we do what they tell us at the start. Then the hedge funds come in and start selling because of their broken models and their redemptions. Then the short-sellers come in and figure out ways to knock down things. Then the rumors start about another bank failure and then we go down.

I want to break that spiral because I own stocks. If I am short stocks, I love the spiral.

Now, the bill in Congress does not break the spiral by any means. What breaks the spiral is a sense that the system is not falling apart, which it most certainly is.

Anything that could help break that spiral is encouraging. Consider that we had the equivalent of Pearl Harbor -- the collapse of so many banks -- and now we need an effective response, which must be massive and persuasive.

Two days before its second-quarter earnings report, lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was hit this morning with a steep price-target cut. RBC slashed its price target on LULU from $47 to $30, noting "a 200 basis-point increase in our cost of equity assumption." The analysts tempered their bearish note by reiterating an Outperform rating on the shares.

The brokerage firm's downwardly revised target represents a 64% premium to the stock's closing price Monday. By contrast, the average 12-month price target on LULU is $39.72, according to Thomson Financial. This consensus estimate is 117% higher than yesterday's close, which seems to indicate that further price-target cuts could be in the offing, particularly if second-quarter earnings fail to impress.

During the past four quarters, First Call reports that lululemon has met or exceeded analysts' per-share profit expectations every time. However, it's safe to say that nobody on Wall Street was particularly impressed by LULU's last quarterly earnings report. Since the company announced inline earnings of 12 cents per share on June 2, its shares have shed 43% of their value. Even more compelling, institutional investors have reduced their stake in LULU by a net total of 5% since last quarter.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says struggling banks can be shorted to oblivion now that the rules won't be enforced.

Memo to the FDIC: Watch your back. The SEC just flipped its allegiance to the bad guys, the guys who want to break not just certain banks, but your bank! That's right, with the scrapping of the emergency rule that eliminated naked shorting, where you don't have to find the stock, and with the end of the vigilance against bear raiding, the SEC may have just caused a run at the FDIC.

I had hoped that the SEC would see that these financials have been manipulated to unreasonable levels, making the confidence in all institutions so low that nobody wanted to give them money. The rule change -- which when you think of it, wasn't much of a rule change as much as an enforcement of the way things are supposed to be, where you actually have to find the stock you sold short first so you don't fail to deliver -- worked!

It gave the system some breathing room. I think the rule change might have saved Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) (Cramer's Take) from being shorted into oblivion so it couldn't have done its deal. Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer's Take) didn't do a deal, those bad boys be back on the griddle now for unknown European exposure. AIG (NYSE: AIG) (Cramer's Take) wasn't protected in the first place and I believe will need to raise $10 billion to $15 billion in the teens to cover its European exposure. Now there's little hope at all for Fannie (NYSE: FNM) (Cramer's Take) or Freddie (NYSE: FRE) (Cramer's Take), as their stocks will be blitzed into oblivion and Hank Paulson will have to start the planning of cash infusions as opposed to what he said last Sunday -- why did he say that, for heaven's sake? Maybe he's too close to John "We don't need capital" Thain from their Goldman (NYSE: GS) (Cramer's Take) days.

Fossil, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOSL), the maker of watches and trendy apparel, surprised the Street this morning with stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings. The retailer multiplied the positive momentum by boosting its full-year forecast. This double dose of good news has sent shares of Fossil more than 8% higher in early-morning trading.

For the recently concluded quarter, net income soared 71% to $25.1 million, or 36 cents per share, while net sales jumped 15% to $353.2 million. The results exceeded Fossil's own forecast, provided in May, for a profit of 29 cents per share on sales growth of 12% to 14%. Analysts had even more modest expectations, with the consensus calling for a profit of 25 cents per share on $346.9 million in revenue.

Digging deeper into the second-quarter figures, gross margin rose from 49.1% to 53.9%, thanks to cost-cutting initiatives and inventory management. Same-store sales climbed 5.7%, while direct-to-consumer sales surged 25%. Domestic watch sales grew by 2.3%, and international wholesale sales rose 20% (or 9.5%, excluding currency fluctuations).

There are many factors that affect oil prices. Fundamental factors such as global supply and demand and dollar moves are often cited. But many also say that traders play a big role in affecting oil prices fluctuations. No doubt, fundamentals are behind oil's long-term uptrend. And it is the dollar's weakness of the past few years that has supported the trend. But short term? Could traders' short covering be the reason behind oil's recent run-up to nearly $150 a barrel?

Perhaps, but that's behind us. Oil prices have retreated more than $20 dollars since. What caused that? Have the fundamentals changed? Some say global demand is bound to slow as the global economy weakens, but others say supply concerns due to geopolitical unrest are also growing. Has the dollar strengthened? A little, but then it declined right back Thursday after a housing report showed recovery is still far off. And what about traders?

Well, here's where The Wall Street Journal as well as Reuters bring an interesting theory. They say that the rise and fall in oil prices coincided with energy company SemGroup L.P.'s (mis)fortunes. SemGroup is a little known private company that transports, stores and distributes crude oil and refined products. It is also the parent of pipeline operator SemGroup Energy Partners L.P. (NADSAQ: SGLP). SemGroup L.P. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday. According to the Journal, "Changes in its hedging strategies coincided with big moves in oil recently."

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says we're back in the same predicament, and more bank runs could be the result.

No one did a deal. The financials rallied gigantically, there was tremendous enthusiasm, and yet no bank was ready with an offering. It is amazing, especially when you consider that the natural gas companies, like Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) (Cramer's Take) and XTO Energy (NYSE: XTO) (Cramer's Take) were ready, despite horrible declines in their stocks.

The moment that Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) got through $20 or Merrill (NYSE: MER) (Cramer's Take) through $30 or Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer's Take) through $20, they should have peddled billions more in preferred stock or even common stock.

Just spot 'em right out there. For about a week, people decided the rally could - and would - last if these banks had built up some fortresses. They didn't.

And that's why we are back in the same predicament. I don't want to write here which bank is next to fail. There are enough of them (particularly one that just changed its CEO) that the FDIC will have to have a plan to keep the bad loans and sell the banks, maybe not even with the branches because all that's worth anything is the deposits.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says they're not just the opposite of longs -- they have the power to destroy companies.

Today will be riotously ugly. Today's a day where you could take down a Capital One (NYSE: COF) (Cramer's Take) or a Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) -- some bad credit card exposure there -- off of American Express (NYSE: AXP) (Cramer's Take). You can bang down Nat City (NYSE: NCC) (Cramer's Take) into oblivionville off of it and hammer Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) (Cramer's Take) to the point where you could hear the rumors fly of capital needs. Freddie (NYSE: FRE) (Cramer's Take), merciless Freddie, right at ya. Today's the day when the uptick rule would be the only friend to the notion of owning stocks without fear every minute, fear that they will break your stock. Today's the day that the uptick rule can save Lehman (NYSE: LEH) (Cramer's Take) from $14 or lower. Today's why we need it.

Yet, every time I do a piece that talks about the need to reinstate the uptick rule or enforce the naked short laws, I am immediately greeted with the same nonsense: why should the longs get protection the shorts shouldn't? In fact, other than the usual gang of two -- Patrick Byrne and David Patch -- I don't get any positive feedback on these pieces like the one I did last night on "Mad Money."

How the mighty have fallen, at least in the stock market. GE (NYSE: GE) trades near a 52-week low at $31.

Now, short sellers have added insult to injury. The short interest in GE has moved up 11 million to 68.7 million between May 15 and May 30. That percent increase is almost as high as the jump in the short interest at US Air (NYSE: LCC).

The fact that so many shares are bet that GE will fall further is extraordinary. The company still holds one of the best credit ratings of any corporation in the US. Its infrastructure business, the firm's largest division, continues to do remarkably well.

But investors are assuming that GE's industrial, medical and financial operations could have more bad quarters ahead of them.

Shares in rival conglomerate United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) have far outperformed GE during the last year.

That says a mouthful.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has joined the baloney brigade -- the term Gary Weiss coined for the tinfoil hat crowd of conspiracy theorists who blame corporate problems on short-sellers.

Referring to the collapse of Bear Stearns, which some have blamed on shorts, Senator Dodd said that "This goes beyond rumors. This is about collusion."

Hold up. So Bear Stearns didn't collapse because of massive losses and a balance sheet like something out of a 1950s horror movie? No, apparently not. Bear Stearns collapsed because short sellers were betting it would collapse.

But isn't that like saying that the Patriots lost the Super Bowl because people bet against them in Las Vegas? The soaring short interest in Bear Stearns was an indicator of the company's problems, not a cause of them. The fact that JPMorgan needed guarantees from the Federal Reserve to acquire the company is proof of that.

It is usually an interesting read to see what is going on in overall NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ short selling. Today we looked over various short interest reports based upon November 15, 2007, on the NYSE, which is fresh data for U.S. traders because of the Thanksgiving holiday. The total NYSE Short Interest went up from 11.932 billion shares on October 31 up to 12.387 billion shares as of November 15. This is the second increase in a row but within recent month data.

Below is a summary of some key NYSE short interest changes:

Stock	(Ticker)	11/15/2007	10/31/2007	%Change
Corning	(NYSE: GLW)	12,678,622	16,112,839	-21.31%
EMC 	(NYSE: EMC)	50,028,872	61,281,674	-18.36%  
VMware	(NYSE: VMW)	11,681,831	10,440,110	+11.89%

There were also many key net share changes in short interest, and here are a few of the key names:

Stock		(Ticker)	11/15/2007	10/31/2007	Net Change
CVS Caremark 	(NYSE: CVS)	67,661,461	37,871,140	+29,790,321
Mirant Corp 	(NYSE: MIR)	50,241,294   	23,796,710   	+26,444,584
Qwest Comm. 	(NYSE: Q) 	66,747,528   	82,000,170   	-15,252,642
General Electric(NYSE: GE) 	61,608,091   	66,708,279   	-5,100,188

Out of financials, Countrywide Financial NYSE:CFC) led the charge with more than 112 million shares. Here are some expanded short interest notes:

• Financial and general
• Key decreases in NYSE short interest
• Key increases on NYSE short interest

A review of the short interest in stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange shows that some investors are willing to bet that shares in big financial institutions may go ever lower.

The figures from the exchange take the short interest in companies on November 15 and compare it to the numbers from October 31.

The short interest in Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) moved up 5.5 million shares to 112.5 million. It was the second most-shorted stock listed on the NYSE. In the last five trading days, the stock has moved from above $12 to below $9, so traders may have already made some money. Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) saw a sharp increase in shares sold short, up 12.3 million to 74.6 million. Trading in the stock over the last five days has made that bet look good. And, short sellers may hold their positions for a while longer, hoping for more bad news from the sector.

Wall Street's shorts also moved into positions that assume shares in commercial banks could sell off more. Shares sold short in Wachovia (NYSE: WB) spiked almost 7 million to 37 million, and the short interest in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) moved up almost 6 million to 53.7 million.

If more mortgage-related write-offs come out of the financial services industry, the gambles against stocks in the sector will pay off handsomely.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the just released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

There's a way to make money on falling stocks. It's called "going short" or short selling. But before you put in your order, you need to know exactly what you're doing and the consequences. One of them: You can lose an infinite amount of money when you short a stock. Maybe reading further is a good idea.

We've all had stocks that have dropped dramatically in a day or two or week, sometimes 50% or more. What took months or years to achieve is lost in a matter of hours. Wouldn't it be nice if you could make money that fast, or at least make money from stocks when they go down? You can if you short a stock and understand the total concept.

First, shorting a stock means you sell something you don't own. The process is simple: You put in an order to Sell Short a stock, and your broker executes the order, if the stock can be shorted. Sometimes certain stocks aren't allowed to be shorted but that's another column. Let's deal with the ones that can.

On today's STOP TRADING! segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer said that Thornburg Mortgage Inc. (NYSE:TMA) is one of the companies in mortgage land that is a bad short that will hurt the traders betting against it. Cramer thinks that many of these mortgage companies are really at risk, but Thornburg isn't one of them.

We'll see how these mortgage plays pan out. Obviously there are going to be more failures. But there will also be winners, at least history dictates that there always are. Thornburg shares are down under $24 and its trading range this year is $22.39 to $28.40. It is also still profitable. Cramer just created his "Mortgage Market Madness Index" on Friday, and this was one of the components. With the FOMC meeting tomorrow, financials are going to be the wildcard the first half of this week.

Short interest in Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) rose 7.5 million share to 81.3 million in July.

Someone had regrets about getting into that short pool.

AMD, which has been left for dead in its competition with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), could well have traded lower on earnings. Gross margins could have fallen from Q1 and revenue could have dropped. Intel's gross margins dropped a point and the stock fell on earnings.

But, AMD had a surprise in store for the markets. After trading as low as $15.06 the day before earnings, the stock jumped to $15.85 the day after. Gross margin improved to 33% in Q2 from 28% in Q1, a sign that the company was doing less discounting. And, management expects margin to improve again in Q3.

Revenue rose, both over Q1 and over Q2 last year. The topline hit $1.378 billion, In Q1 that number was $1.223 billion and in Q2 last year, $1.216 billion.

AMD's numbers indicated that it is still a competitive threat to Intel. And, new IDC and Gartner figures show PC growth moving at a faster pace than expected. That is one more reason the stock should regain some health.

Someone bet the wrong way.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) is seeing a blip in its short interest levels of late. This may be for hedging purposes and it may just be bets against the company. The May short interest in Time Warner shares rose to 86.7 million shares from the April shortest of 71.018 million shares.

Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) also saw a small increase in its April to May short interest: 2.598 million shares grew to 2.67 million shares in May's short interest.

Time Warner was acting strangely, with the shorters increasing the short sales while the stock was rising. Shares closed yesterday at $21.75, up roughly $1 from the prior month. The same was noted in the month before, which you can see the trend here. On Time Warner, this is still fairly puny in the grand scheme of things with more than 3 billion shares outstanding, although this represents closer to four days of average trading volume.