MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Whoo-boy. Another fun day on Wall Street. I just got done watching another episode of Jim Cramer's Mad Money and I gotta vent a little bit here.
I like Cramer. A lot of people think he's a buffoon, but I think he's incredibly smart, and he entertains and informs like few others in the business. And there is no denying his stellar record as a hedge fund manager in his former career (though I would venture that a lot of the practices he now rails against as a voice for the common man- like naked short selling - helped contribute to a lot of that performance).
But Cramer's really beginning to annoy me. This year, i feel like he's called the bottom at least a half-dozen times. Even from a short-term trading perspective, he's been wrong on a lot of those calls, and obviously, from a longer-term perspective, he's been painfully pollyannish.
Back in February, I wrote Cramer a long email saying he was being too cavalier and stating my concerns about the market. Among other things, I wrote:
Not surprisingly, Cramer never responded to me. One of the best things about Cramer used to be his ability to admit he was wrong (When he first created Thestreet.com financial website, his column was in fact even called Wrong!). He understood that Mister Market was a humbling beast, that one day you'd think you got it all down, and the next it'd have you whimpering in the corner like a scolded puppy.
But you don't hear mea culpas much from Cramer anymore. Because he's on every day, Cramer can and does change his mind about the market so often that he can claim he's 'right' no matter what happens.
I don't really want to castigate Cramer. He's been right a lot in his career and obviously made a lot of money in his lifetime, while I'm a nobody who can't even begin to count all the times I've been wrong in my short career. All I'm asking for is a little more humility and a recognition that maybe his show is better served as a vehicle for entertainment and education rather than making money.