accidental high yielders work better than any other stock during the financial crisis. the dow went down to 6500 and these still work and they still work whenever the market gives you these dividend bargains. and by the way, those big dividends for companies that can afford them, well, they are bargains. mark in my home state of new jersey, mark? >> caller: yes. boo-yah, jim. >> boo-yah, mark. >> caller: do companies have to publish their dividend dates and how many days before that date do they have to publish it? >> he will w. all of the different finance dates have it. i care more about the price that you buy the stock at. not the price -- if you're on the dividend, you buy without the dividend. it's cheaper without it. these are things that are all -- they are not something you should worry about. what you should worry about is buying high quality stocks. the dividend stock adviser, which is a fantastic newsletter that the street.com has, it's a great place to look. let's go to louie in california. louie? >> caller: good afternoon, dr. cramer. >> oh, thank you. what

accidental high yielders work better than any other stock during the financial crisis. remember, the dow went down to 6500 and these still worked, and they still work whenever the market gives you these dividend bargains. and by the way, those big dividends for companies that can afford them, well, they are bargains. mark in my home state of new jersey, mark? >> caller: yes. boo-yah, jim. >> boo-yah, mark. >> caller: do companies have to publish their dividend dates and how many days before that date do they have to publish it? >> well, everything's on -- all the different finance sites have it. but remember, i care more about the price that you buy the stock at. not the price -- if you don't have the dividend, you buy without the dividend. it's cheaper without it. i don't want to say they're sleight of hand, but they are not something you should worry about. what you should worry about is buying high quality stocks. the dividend stock adviser, which is a fantastic newsletter that the street.com has, it's a great place to look. let's go to louie in california. louie? >>

i think this 4.2 percent yielder is already down 3% for the year. of course, you should buy these gradually as we go lower. the market will break down for certain as the deadline draws closer, and of course, we go over the deadline, that's going to be a bad day. but dividends won't give these a real floor. dominion, pfizer, altria, southern company, fabulous records of dividends. just what you might need as we approach and even go over the debt ceiling deadline. ben in california, ben? >> caller: jim? >> ben? >> caller: thank you for what you do. >> you're welcome. >> caller: my question is jcpenney's. and what i thought i detected was a cyclical pattern and my cyclical pattern quickly turned into a downward slide. i tried to use your incremental buying system and pretty soon i ran out of money. and i was just wondering, should i just cut and run, get rid of it, or hold on to it? >> a lot of people are cutting and running, getting rid of it. i've lost faith in the company. i thought the company, i believed in the company and thought that it could fi

this is quality 8.5, 9% yielder and selling close to book value and i think they can grow the book value and income stream over time. so it's not without risk. if you went into a 2008 period, these stocks would not do well but i think we're in a stable economic environment. so in the sweet spot that we're in, i think it would be a good total return stock. >> sounds good, jim. any disclosures to make? >> i own tcp for myself and my clients and we own the morgan stanley and g.e. bonds for my clients and myself. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> and coming up next, video gaming was a sector in decline so why is it suddenly powering up? first, how commodities, currencies and treasuries performed today. >>> the 16-day partial shut down of the government had a big impact on shopping when americans pulled back on spending during the few days of the work stoppage. shopper track reports sales fell 7.5% in the first week of october compared with one year ago. >>> but sales of video games are booming. they shot up 27% in september. they got a huge boost from the highly anticipated release last month

the high yielders where the federal reserve bond buying program continues to keep the yields from fixedcially low? given what the capital could do to the economy, the fed might hold off on tapering for some time. consider dominion resources, the nation's largest -- one of the largest gas and electric utilities and sports a 3.65% yield. dominion roared last month when it became clear that the fed wasn't going to ease up on the bond buying and even after getting dinged with the rest of the market, off of the 52-week high. it's not just a utility, though it gets 80% from the regulated activities. it has a distribution business in the marcellus shale positions. and an export terminal they're building in virginia. this is a dependable company boosted its dividend by 7% annually by 2010, you don't get that from treasuries and with a potential debt ceiling looming -- let's check with the chairman and ceo of dominion resources, find out more about how his company is doing. welcome back to "mad money." >> it's great to be with you. thank you. >> because of where your utility's located, it to kno

as much as we like high yielders, you don't want to buy master limited partners.hink the pipeline stocks, kinder morgan. as their distributions are considered return of capital which means you don't pay any taxes on them until you sell the stock. but thanks to an arcane tax rule, if you buy too many of these stocks within a retirement account, you could actually end up giving that -- giving up that tax favored status and paying the irs taxes that you wouldn't have paid if you'd simply bought the mlps. i always try to figure out how much you could buy, the mlps not worth it. too hard, too many people say it's too hard. same rule, by the way, can hit you with certain real estate investment trusts. therefore worth owning in your i.r.a., please be careful of the mortgage reits. and the reits for your retirement accounts, that's all up to the individual. beyond that, you need to use same metrics to apply to any other dividend-paying stocks. looking for high yielding stocks but the dividend needs to be safe. meaning the company better have earnings to cover the payout.

i will tell you it's a 3.7% yielder. 3.7%.harge steered him through vioxx, and there's a good reason why he's there and his strategy was to do it case by case. and you know that anything if you take too much of can be -- if you, you know, what is that dyhydroxide can be fatal if you drown. so they took the ambulance chasers with the vioxx situation that saw huge dollar signs, did it one by one. and the stock got down into the teens and it's back to $47 with almost a 4% yield. so merck is back and we're probably all the better for it. we want the best drug companies and the best innovation in the world. >>> telling you bt about a few other things happening this week. more congressional hearings over the glitches that have kept many americans from signing up for health insurance under president obama's signature health care law. the one that may get the most attention comes on wednesday when secretary kathleen sebelius appears before the house energy and commerce committee. >>> also, toyota is holding on to its lead as the world