Jim Cramer, Action Alert Plus

[Indiana]

Anybody like Jim Cramer or tried his action alert plus system? Lots of people at my company believe in this guy.

Indy

[Ed Miller]

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Lots of people at my company believe in this guy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know what the action alert system is, but this is the only piece of info I need to know to conclude that it's nonsense.

[Indiana]

Sorry Ed, but I haven't yet been titrated with caffeine this morning. What do you mean by this?

Indy

[Mr. Now]

Ed,

Thanks for responding to this. I elaborate here. Anyone that wants to play winning poker has to take 100% responsibility for all results. That is what gets you from A to B; from assigning blame to some other force or individual towards realizing you have all the solutions in your decision-making and choices.

99% of the players in the market want a simple answer to complex questions and do not want to work. They consequently want to be told what to do. It's a very natural consequence of being human.

Enter Cramer. Now Jim Cramer here is tapping into not just these universal facts of human nature, but also the current zeitgeist-- the "spirit of the times". He's tapping into some large forces at work here.

We are in a very confusing time in terms of investing. We have come off the recent dotcom/NASDAQ crash, the recent boom in real estate and the ongoing misleading stats (propaganda) coming from the government about inflation etc. The financial press is always bullish to appease advertisers, etc. Stocks appear safe and everyone wants to be long. "Core inflation" is supposedly low but commodities are in strong uptrends. It's a confusing time with many cross currents and transitions taking place against a backdrop of "perpetual war".

Cramer taps into the zeitgeiest and the universal need to be led. As such he is pure genius in terms of sensing the mass-psychological mood and speaking to it.

I suspect the existence of Cramer's MAD MONEY is a very valid indicator of the current mass mood and the zeitgeist. His show is leading in the ratings for the channel that carries him. There was an article about what Cramer means in terms of the state of investing in the NY Times just last week.

He is having his day in the sun now and his show will fade when the format and content no longer reflects the spirit of the times. Cramer is highly entertaining and completely understands trading and The Crowd. I'm not sure the show will continue after a real drop in the indexes occurs, because his show panders to the crowd and the crowd wants to be long. YOu dont hear him recommending any shorts on his show very often and there are very strong reasons for that, again related to advertising revenues.

Cramer is a Wall Street pro and part of investing's pop culture. He represents a dangerous obstacle to your success by reducing a complex problem to a soundbyte. His show strongly encourages popular limiting beliefs about the market.

Here is a great quote from the dedication inside the out-of-print book, SUPERPERFORMANCE STOCKS by Richard Love:

To the individual investor,
Whose investments are
manipulated by his government,
whipsawed by Wall Street professionals,
and dominated by institutions.

"...let me warn you that the fruits of your success will be in direct ratio to the honesty and sincerity of your own effort in keeping your own records, doing your own thinking, and reaching your own conclusions." -Livermore

[zerosum]

Kudos to you, Mr. Now.

[Mr. Now]

I'm pleased you enjoy the post. I typically expect an underwhelming response to this type of essay. You can see why.

Belief change is a difficult business at best. Peace to you, zerosum.

[mrbaseball]

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I'm pleased you enjoy the post

[/ QUOTE ]

I liked it too!

[cookmg]

Mr. Now,

I liked your post too! Still, some of your comment seem to indicate that you have not read Cramer's book. While he may be capitalizing on the current trends of investors, to his credit, Cramer focuses on homework and fundamentals as the backbone of investing. In fact, he publically says that most investors are better off just investing in index funds because they don't have the time or interest to work hard at investing. Cramer's entertaining style is more than just a gag for ratings. According to his book, he believes that one of the most important things he can do for investors is "keep them in the game." By making investing entertaining, he gets people to put in the work. However, his book also covers options, shorts, and other speculative investing. I've heard Cramer say that the reason he doesn't endorse shorts on his show is because of the touble people can get into with them. He says that while a long can only go to zero, a short could (in theory) go up for ever. This could criple anyone who listens to only his "soundbytes" despite his warnings to do their own homework. So, in spite of the obvious drawbacks to a 1 hour investing show, Cramer seems to realize some of its problems and tries to compensate by making his advice more conservative on air.

Now, all this being said, as an amateur, I didn't much care for the book. I found it to be somewhat disorganized and lacked a comprehensive apporach to stock picking. I like Peter Lynch's books much better.

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
Now, all this being said, as an amateur, I didn't much care for the book. I found it to be somewhat disorganized and lacked a comprehensive apporach to stock picking. I like Peter Lynch's books much better.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which of Cramer's books are you basing this comment on?

[Sniper]

You can follow some of his commentary on The Street, his free web site along with a group of other commentators that he has brought together.

You should not be subscribing to any of their premium products until you are satisfied that you are gaining value from their free content!

fwiw, I have at various times subscribed to their realmoney pay site... I found the information there more valuable than the cost!

If you are looking for assistance in evaluating stocks or the state of the market, there are worse places you could throw some money!