And now for some light Wednesday reading: ABC News.com’s Alice Gomstyn writes a lengthy article taking a look at the history of Jim Cramer‘s stock tips. The CNBC anchor has recently been attacked for telling a viewer, “don’t move your money from Bear” (although he was talking about the liquidity and not the stock, which he later called “worthless”).
“Whether Cramer’s viewers understood that the host and former hedge fund manager was not talking about Bear Stearns’ stocks is unclear,” writes Gomstyn.
So how has Cramer performed in the past? Some takes from the article:
• “He empowers people to feel confident about buying and selling individual stocks, when in fact most people are ill-qualified to invest in that manner.” — Roger Ehrenberg, managing partner of IA Capital Partners
• “Canadian stock picks Cramer made in April 2006 resulted in a 13.7 percent one-year return.” — National Post
• “The Jim Cramer show is really making a lot of people trigger-happy.” — Michael Zhuang, president of MZ Capital
• “The bottom line is his show is called ‘Mad Money,’ and it’s exactly that: It’s money that you can afford to lose. If viewers can take that under consideration, there are some very educational points that the show makes.” — Gail Liberman, co-author of “Quick Steps to Financial Stability”