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Written by: Jim Cramer 03/24/12 - 12:43 PM EDT
Tickers in this article: AAPL GS

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Jim Cramer fills his blog on RealMoney every day with his up-to-the-minute reactions to what's happening in the market and his legendary ahead-of-the-crowd ideas. This week he blogged on:

  • the behavior of retail investors;
  • why the market's recent response to acquisitions is a positive; and
  • Goldman's response to the infamous New York Times op-ed.

Click here for information on RealMoney, where you can see all the blogs, including Jim Cramer's -- and reader comments -- in real time.

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Is the Retail Investor Back?

Posted at 6:44 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 22.

Is the retail investor back, or not? The other day I propounded the notion that quintessential retail stocks, such as Apple(AAPL) , Panera Bread(PNRA) and Chipotle Mexican Grill(CMG) keep running, and I have to believe it is because of individuals buying stocks.

But the mutual fund outflows were also pretty staggering -- about $2.8 billion in the data released today. That would seem to indicate my thesis might be wrong. Plus, my friend Bob Pisani from the floor made it really clear that the low volume is further confirmation that there really isn't much retail investing to speak of.

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But what if we are all right? What if individuals have stopped caring for mutual funds -- the love affair over because of poor performance -- and they have decided to concentrate on buying actual stocks? Is that so far-fetched?

I haven't seen any other explanation for what doesn't seem to me to be mutual fund buying. Take Apple. We know the mutual funds are underinvested in the name. We have had exhaustive studies on the issue. Doesn't that mean individuals are buying it? Doesn't that mean people think they can do better than the managers themselves, (which is something I wholeheartedly agree with)?

I think that stocks may be a shrinking asset class, but that individual stocks are actually being bought if the story is good and the product or service is loved.

Yep, this is an "out there" thesis, but unless someone has a better one, it's mine and I am sticking with it.