The reason people watch his show is because he expresses a black and white view. There's no "we might sell off but we might rally" language. It's the same reason people read Barons. And he makes investing sound like a game. It's fun to yell "BOUYAH!"
Cramer, and many others like him, have much less to do with finance than with entertainment, as the others have said. Why anyone should ever think about taking him seriously is somewhat beyond me.
I'll never forget the day he recommended BSC ( Bear Stearns) as the stock was imploding and the very next day Fed had to bail-out BSC into the arms of JPM.
Years ago TheStreet used to be an okay read. But only when Toddo and Rev Shark were writing and maybe a couple others. Yeah Cramer is a buffoon, but of course a very rich buffoon. I think it has been proven over and over that the only talent for trading he ever had was hiring the right people to do it for him. Mostly his hedge fund gains seemed just to be from order flow info and other tricky deals. The whole saga of "Nails" Dykstra is pretty funny though. He's still offering up DITM call picks, now that he is out of jail. He doubles down until success, or explosion. Quite the stock strategist is ol' Lenny...
No, the guy was a good read in the late 90's. Not because he had any uncanny ability to predict the future (who does), but because he had a knack for finding momentum. You still had to do all the hard work yourself but he got me into names I never knew existed. So to that regard, he provided a service. Today he is no different then turning on MSNBC and hearing some ivy league talking head tell me who is going to win the election. They make just as much money for spewing shit so why stop at Cramer.
I like Jim for what he's done personally....and all that wealth he's accumulated.... but this just says it all as to his recent performance: "Shares of TheStreet TST, +0.00% have declined nearly 40% over the past year and are now trading at around $1.10 a share."
The fact that there is even a thread about Cramer in 2016 says something doesn't it? I figured the debacle of 2008 was going to run him off the air, but he's still going...