To: Jim McMannis who wrote (76278 ) 3/12/1999 4:31:00 PM From: Burt Masnick Read Replies (1) | Respond to
The New York Times article was answered item by item in Cramer's TheStreet.com article the day the NYTimes article appeared and it seemed to me from reading both articles that Cramer was maltreated and mischaracterised in the article. First of all let me say that Cramer is the quintessential momentum player. He'll get in for a day, a week, a month to capture a move either way. That kind of investing involves a ton of timing smarts. Cramer claims that he did great in 97, way above the S&P. He was OK in 98 till last October when he zigged instead of zagged. To his credit, Cramer entitles his column WRONG! because he is very quick to point out his own trading errors. Like the next day. He immediately acknowledged last October that he blew it. I personally don't buy because Cramer says he is buying or sell because Cramer says he is selling or shorting. Having been following Cramer's column on TheStreet.com my scorecard on him is that he is right much more often than he is wrong, that he does his homework, but that he follows too many issues to have great depth on any one. He relies on his partner, Berkowitz to follow the techs closely and together they reach trading opinions. He is far too hair trigger for my personal tastes but he has the ability to admit that he has goofed. That's a lot more than I've seen in other self-proclaimed market gurus. And being a momentum player, he's not likely to get wiped out. He wrote a series of articles descibing October '87 and how he was fortunate enough (through the advice of his wife, whom he calls "the trading goddess")to liquidate before the big blowup. He just trys to smell trends real early and join/play them. He has made a ton of money on Intel and avoids AMD because he can't trust management's info and guidance. If nothing else, he is probably the most honest and self-critical pro I've seen. He's not afraid to say that he is clueless about market directions if that's the way he feels. When is the last time you heard a market timer say that they were clueless?
