The second session takes place at approximately 11:30 a.m. ET every day and is entirely dictated by sellers. Cramer called this the "margin session" because it is driven by speculative traders who have borrowed money from their brokerage firms on margin.  On a hideous trading day, the value of collateral held in these investor's accounts will drop significantly, prompting margin clerks to send out margin calls. If the investors do not wire in more money, then securities must be sold to raise the money.  That margin selling can last until 2 p.m. and flood the market if there are a lot of margin calls. And with an abundance of margin calls, the third session called the "ETF-dominated session" is created.  The final ETF session kicks in at approximately 2:45 p.m. ET each afternoon when exchange traded funds have to settle up. When someone buys an ETF that bets heavily against stocks, it settles up by knocking down the stocks. The same thing occurs with a bullish ETF, as they use leverage to magnify their influence.  "Typically you don't see them play such an outsized role, but this is not a typical market," Cramer said.  Generally corporate buybacks will cushion the blow to ETF selling, but buybacks are halted at 3:30 p.m. ET every day so the company cannot control the price of its stock at the close. However, right now the market is so thin that these ETFs are now determining the close.  Read more from Mad Money with Jim Cramer  Cramer Remix: These stocks are China-proof Cramer: Buckle up! Oil could skyrocket Cramer: Is this the 2011 collapse all over again?  As a result, traders now spend the afternoon trying to figure out how the ETFs will settle up so they can determine the direction that the market will close.  "Ugliness can breed further ugliness," Cramer said. (Tweet This)  So with three sessions of trading each day, what do these sessions have in common?  None of these sessions has anything to do with individual stocks or the underlying fundamentals of a company. For now, the old fashioned methods of trading have been thrown out the window. Instead, it has created a new world of futures, margin and ETF dominance.
Jim Cramer provides the inside scoop on the 3 things that are controlling investors money on the market these days.