‘Sometimes you have to hold your nose’ and buy stocks

While buying stocks during highly volatile times may not feel like the right move, history has proven that’s often exactly what investors should do, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday.

“Sometimes you just have to hold your nose and buy,” Cramer said on “Mad Money,” admitting it’s hard to keep your emotions in check. It’s also difficult because you may see short-term losses before long-term gains. “When averages fall too much, too quickly, history says you have to be a buyer because when the market is oversold it will inevitably bounce.”

Cramer’s advice follows a second straight day of losses on Wall Street fueled by the escalating Iran war. Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500And Nasdaq All closed lower but remained well off the session’s worst levels, with international crude rising 1.2% to $108.65 a barrel. Brent briefly hit $119 after attacks on energy facilities in Qatar and Iran. Oil prices eased later in the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was assisting U.S. efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Middle Eastern waterway for oil transportation that Iran has pledged to keep closed.

To help identify these historical buy signals, Cramer uses the S&P Short Range Oscillator, a momentum indicator he has relied on for decades. As of Thursday’s close, the Oscillator remained oversold for eight consecutive sessions. Cramer for CNBC Investment Club is considering buying when the Oscillator is this oversold. Club members received trading alerts for two stocks around noon. (Cramer aims to preserve profits in overbought markets we haven’t seen since July 2025.)

“I’ve been studying this Oscillator since 1987… and it rarely steers me wrong. If you buy in an oversold market… you’ll be making out like a bandit in the next 30 days,” Cramer said. Pointing to an even more severe oversold pattern in April 2025 following President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement, Cramer said 30 days later the S&P 500 was higher.

“History tells us that when we get this oversold, there will be a meaningful uptick, something that will last,” Cramer said. “I’m going with history. It’s too clear and definitive to do otherwise.”