I think you are missing the point here. The point being made isnt about all the casheesh he has....he has done a tremendous job of obtaining it. My probelm (and a lot of other traders) is that the public seems to think he was some kind of skilled trader...he was not. He was handed the answers to the test before it was given....he COULDNT fail. Is he rich? Hell yeah... Is he scumbag? Hell yeah Is/ was he a talented trader? Hell no.
And since Cramer knows that a majority of his viewers will buy afterhours on his recommendations anyway, he should cancel his show to save the public.
I hear you Eprado. But look at it from the other side, too. The problem with "assessing" trading skills over the Internet with 3rd hand information is the lack of comparability. It's a very subjective matter to say a guy is a good trader or not. To be honest I have no idea if Cramer is a good trader. Or anybody else for that matter. That's why - in my humble opinion - we use a common metric to compare if somebody is/was good or not -> "HOW MUCH MONEY DID THEY TAKE OUT OF THE MARKET AND MADE IT THEIR OWN". Cramer, Buffet, Lampert, Biggs, Pabrai all qualify. Are these guys good traders by ET standards? Probably not. However, they made money by the truckload and kept it. And I defend them all the time on ET while people rip into them and write how dumb Cramer, Buffet etc. are and how they "can't trade". I'm sorry, $$$ talks, bullshit walks. Who cares if they're unable to scalp ES for 15k a day?
I doubt the fact that simply because one has money they are free from criticism or suddenly should be treated as though they are God. Does Cramer's money from The Street and his book deals and TV show salary as well as hedge fund profits and bonuses as an employee of GS make his shit not stink. Are you measuring people based on their bank accounts such that many who have less than $1 million in their bank accounts are beneath Cramer and should not even talk? I have met many rich assholes and many poor saints so if you want to defend Cramer you need to come up with something better than comparing bank accounts because money is not the measure of a person. He has turned into a TV clown and whatever credibility he may have had in your eyes as a trader he has lost some of that now in my eyes. And again his wealth does not give him a free pass.
How "homeless" can a Harvard grad ever be? I guess he eventually heard about the technique of picking up a phone and calling an alumni for a hook up.
You make good points. If it is a discussion about money and how one has held onto it then yeah....Cramer has done a great job at it. I just think the guy is a complete scumbag. He touts garbage stocks to the dumb public who sucks them up the second he mentions them (most likely he is selling his positions into these spikes with his "charitable trust"). He has really led some of these lambs to the slaughterhouse with some of his horrible calls....which he doesnt sem to mention on tv. Even worse was his taking credit for the first fed cut (after he whined and cried on tv because most likely he was stuck long in his "charitable trust"). As far as being dumb....Cramer isnt dumb and is a very knowledgeable guy...but is scum.
One has to be realistic. Cramer states that he wants to make people money through honest long-term investing. Ok, fair enough. However, Cramer never made his cash through honest long term investing. Instead, he used trickery and deceipt at a hedge fund. Cramer should have a show on how to trade through trickery and deceipt. Instead, he gives advice to school teachers from Ohio and servicemen from Pennsylvania which are essentially the crowd who watches the show. I think that his show is just another forum where he can make his buddies money. I wouldnt say Cramer is a hero, just another Wall St trickster.
He s a smart guy with a bizarre emotional schtick that backfires on him .He doesnt know if hes an investor or trader and seems to change his strategy often.Some of his picks are great some arent.Some of his picks are just plain crazy risky junk(RAD and the majority of his small cap nasdaq stuff).Way too risky for novices. I dont think he should be allowed to post his stockpicks on TV.He's kind of like a guy selling an ARMS/NO document loan to a first time home buyer.