umm, chood... buy high, sell higher DOES work. it works better for individuals than funds, because individuals will only buy a few hundred-thousand of a stock, and can get in / out quickly without moving the market. and as long as you have stops, and just buy strong stocks on pullbacks, you'll do better than trying to bottom-fish when the tides are against you. now, if people don't have stops? their problem. but buy high, sell higher has higher % reward, with (if properly done) lower % risk than buy low, sell high. (edit - and obviously, in a bear market, you prefer to sell breakouts a little more, and short breakdowns heavy - thus, sell low, buy lower).
How is it working LATELY? Because LATELY, or RECENTLY, is when Cramer spake the promotion. And, another poster above says Cramer was touting precisely the opposite a year ago. I wouldn't know myself (usually, I see the guy only for the latency of my channel changer, ie. thumb), but that would seem in character.
Is there an objective list of how well Cramer actually does on his recommendations? His TV show doesn't seem to go into money management much (and for a non watcher, I've never seen him make a really good call) but maybe his premium services.
well, buy high sell higher (on non-big caps) has worked well. now, if you took cramer's picks, you were basically treading water with the s&p. but i didn't reply to defend cramer's picks, just the buy high / sell higher part. i haven't watched the show because he's no longer giving me anything i can trade. for a while, i could at least fade his 'picks', but the reliability of that has dropped relative to my risk. buying the picks hasn't been consistently profitable for a real long time. btw, if you want a good laugh, check out his comments RE: ebay. something close to this: (december) recos ebay. 'going to 40!' or something like that. stock drops a few points. earnings come out. it gaps up, i think at .25 over where he reco'd it. "sell 1/4 position!". so risking a few bucks to make 25c. then, yesterday? a buy again. btw, i do have the 'short cramer picks' blog on my reading, and i continue to do the research on action, hoping i can again make some money from cramer...but hasn't been that way in a while. i'd take trading with him if it made money, but nothing there.
semi - as of last november, his 5 year performance on action alerts (his premium services, which he always refers ppl to on his show - "sell this, buy this which is part of my action alerts portfolio" was roughly 24%. the s&p performance over the same time was roughly 22%. if you search through the archives here you can find out the exact numbers. doesn't go into money management - because he doesn't believe in stops. he's written before on it years ago...does some bad things like doubling down on losers, among other things (see NT).
I'd guess that Cramer isn't anywhere as amateurish as your example suggests, only his audience is. Obviously, he's not an amateur (anymore than I'm a professional). Leonard isn't either for that matter. Just goes to show you the heights anyone can reach in America.