Stocks are not hitting a top, and they are not hitting a bottom. For Jim Cramer, they are in a trough.

A trough indicates that the numbers for a company have finally bottomed, which was a major reason for stocks to rally recently.

"Troughs give you sustained moves. We have had number cut after number cut after number cut from all of these bedraggled banking, mineral, mining and machinery companies. Now the fun part — raising numbers — begins, so don't be too quick to sell," the "Mad Money" host said.

At first glance, Goldman Sachs reported a number that was absolutely hideous to Cramer on Tuesday. Given that Goldman had fewer employees and expenses reigned in, Cramer could only conclude that there was a ton of employees doing a lot of work.

In pre-market trading, the stock plummeted. After the opening bell, the stock began its upward ascent.

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"A stock that rallies after that putrid quarter is a stock that says, look at me, the worst is over, get on board because we're ready to roll up river," Cramer said.

Even after Cramer did his homework and looked at all of the earnings models, listened to the conference call and studied each individual division, he concluded that the stock was in a trough and would do better next time around.

"Or if you want to put it another way, Goldman Sachs has been down so long it looks like up to me," he said.

And it wasn't just the banks. The mineral and mining stocks were rolling up a river, too. Alcoa kicked off earnings season with a miss, but now the stock has roared back and brought the group with it.

Cramer pointed to the rally stemming from the Baltic freight index — which he uses to measure emerging markets like China — which has been a giant flashing green light lately.

Where is all the money coming from?

It is pouring out from safety stocks, consumer packaged goods and utilities. It has also flown from the high flying growth stocks like cybersecurity and cloud plays.

"China is coming back and the financial playing field is becoming more hospitable, you better believe the money is not done flooding into the trough," Cramer said.

That means get ready for numbers to be raised and stocks to rally, possibly even further than Cramer thought just a few short months ago.

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