Citizen-T
Active Member
OK, going to try to not derail the thread too much and draw the wrath of the mods...
Jon Stewart's show is one of mostly show and little substance. There are plenty of incredibly sophisticated portfolio managers that dislike what Cramer teaches, you don't need to stoop down to a talk show host to find a reason to not listen to Cramer. IMO this is as bad as taking advice on whether or not to buy a Tesla from Top Gear.
That said, there are a lot of people worth listening to that like Cramer a lot; and there is no denying that he has done fantastically well trading stocks on the average in his life. Does he get it wrong sometimes when he picks specific companies? Absolutely, and he'll be the first to admit it; but on the whole, I believe he knows what he is talking about, and there is a lot to be learned from the strategies that he teaches on his show and in his books (for instance, those of you who have trouble wrapping your head around options might want to pick up a copy of Getting Back to Even). There is certainly a lot of showmanship in the way he presents that material, but that just makes these incredibly boring topics all the easier to consume and therefore accessible to the general public.
I've read a lot of investing and personal finance material since graduating college, and learned a lot more the hard way. While I wouldn't say that reading and watching Cramer is the be-all-and-end-all of investing, it is what got me interested in the first place and was a terrific "investing 101". I haven't watched his show in a quite some time now, but there is no doubt that much of what I still do today has evolved from the basic strategies I first adopted from him. When I put aside the buzzers and silly costumes, and reflect on the core principles of investing that he teaches: diversification; buy and homework; sell on the way up, buy on the way down; no market orders; believe in the fundamentals, pay attention to the technicals; etc., etc. I find that I still largely agree with them, and they have served me very, very well.
My problem with Cramer as it pertains to TSLA is simply that I think he has dismissed it out of hand without doing the work that he himself prescribes. I think this comes from his bias toward Nat Gas as a transportation fuel (he seems absolutely convinced this is the future). I don't really blame him for not doing the work though, TSLA is small and arguably not worth his time, but then I think he should admit that he doesn't know enough about the company to make a call on it and let it go (as he has done countless times with other small speculative companies that callers ask about).
I think that if he did the homework that he taught me to do, he'd come to the same conclusion that I came to, and he'd recommend buying it.
Jon Stewart's show is one of mostly show and little substance. There are plenty of incredibly sophisticated portfolio managers that dislike what Cramer teaches, you don't need to stoop down to a talk show host to find a reason to not listen to Cramer. IMO this is as bad as taking advice on whether or not to buy a Tesla from Top Gear.
That said, there are a lot of people worth listening to that like Cramer a lot; and there is no denying that he has done fantastically well trading stocks on the average in his life. Does he get it wrong sometimes when he picks specific companies? Absolutely, and he'll be the first to admit it; but on the whole, I believe he knows what he is talking about, and there is a lot to be learned from the strategies that he teaches on his show and in his books (for instance, those of you who have trouble wrapping your head around options might want to pick up a copy of Getting Back to Even). There is certainly a lot of showmanship in the way he presents that material, but that just makes these incredibly boring topics all the easier to consume and therefore accessible to the general public.
I've read a lot of investing and personal finance material since graduating college, and learned a lot more the hard way. While I wouldn't say that reading and watching Cramer is the be-all-and-end-all of investing, it is what got me interested in the first place and was a terrific "investing 101". I haven't watched his show in a quite some time now, but there is no doubt that much of what I still do today has evolved from the basic strategies I first adopted from him. When I put aside the buzzers and silly costumes, and reflect on the core principles of investing that he teaches: diversification; buy and homework; sell on the way up, buy on the way down; no market orders; believe in the fundamentals, pay attention to the technicals; etc., etc. I find that I still largely agree with them, and they have served me very, very well.
My problem with Cramer as it pertains to TSLA is simply that I think he has dismissed it out of hand without doing the work that he himself prescribes. I think this comes from his bias toward Nat Gas as a transportation fuel (he seems absolutely convinced this is the future). I don't really blame him for not doing the work though, TSLA is small and arguably not worth his time, but then I think he should admit that he doesn't know enough about the company to make a call on it and let it go (as he has done countless times with other small speculative companies that callers ask about).
I think that if he did the homework that he taught me to do, he'd come to the same conclusion that I came to, and he'd recommend buying it.
