Taking stock of Jim Cramer’s ‘Mad Money’ picks —
Morton Downey, Jr. meets Steve Ballmer meets Rudy Giuliani meets Robert Tilton meets Jim Rome meets Chris Farley’s motivational speaker guy. That’s the current mixture that makes up Jim Cramer on Mad Money.
It’s essentially old-fashioned trading floor mania brought to TV. There is the distinct possibility that Mad Money on CNBC will become one of the top cable shows ever. Watch it once and you realize you are watching sheer mad genius. Having done both TV and radio myself I appreciate the energy that it takes. Doing what Cramer does, which is an hour of sheer mania each day, is incredible to me. He sweats. He shouts. He throws chairs. He screams. It’s great TV. He must pass out afterwards.
The show is all Jim Cramer, with only an occasional CEO on the phone and the “home players” who call in during the “lightning round” when he tells them to buy or sell – NOW!
Most of the time it’s just Cramer telling us his financial theories and stock picks. It’s hard to tell how much is scripted since he’s done enough TV to hide any hints that he’s reading from a prompter. He does lectures that I am certain are on prompter, though.
While there is no evidence that he’s hitting home runs left and right with his stock picks it’s actually his insights and takes which makes the show phenomenal. There is a little bit of sports talk in the style. And he does make you think about a hidden dimension in regards to markets. And what’s particularly unlike any CNBC fare of days gone by he’s honest about the dogs out there. There are a lot of bad stocks and at one time it was suspected that anyone working at CNBC who had any bearish notions whatsoever would never get invited back. This is a big change. But the market isn’t great either.
This show has been on since March and is already a cult favorite amongst investors. It’s great fun and highly recommended.
Watching Jim Cramer host his hyperkinetic stock-picking show produces a range of emotional reactions.
There’s laughter. There’s concern. There’s amazement. And let’s not forget horror.
To say Cramer is animated is like saying Al Gore is calm — a gross understatement of character corrected only by an exponential increase in adjective. Al Gore is bone-crushingly dull. Jim Cramer is flat-out insane.
His old partner, Kudlow, however — I believe, was responsible for the acronym RINO, Republicans In Name Only, for Conservatives who refuse to capitulate to the Rove/Cheney/Bush party line.
Morton Downey Jr… Now there’s a name I hadn’t heard since, oh, 1989…
Why oh why is obnoxiousness confused with talent?
It’s funny that you would go on about how great this guy is because I can only take five minutes of this guy MAX before I absolutely have to change the channel. It’s like watching a heart attack waiting to happen, or a psychoitc individual. His histrionic yelling makes my head hurt.
Personlly, I would never watch a TV show that yelled at me for an hour – I avoid yelling in real life and just because he’s doing it while talking about stocks, that doesn’t make it better.
Yuck, Jim Cramer has bugged the shit out of me since he started showing up on CNBC in 1998. Loud mouthed blow-hard.
I don’t even think you need to be an investor to enjoy this show! Just watch it for 5 minutes and TRY to turn away. It’s hilarious!
The guy reminds me of a bipolar in maniac phase. Kind of hard to take his financial advice that seriously. You went to sneak some lithium and klonopin in his coffee before he has a stroke.
I can somewhat deal with his manic character since the show’s takes are interesting, but what do you all think of the show’s funhouse gimmicks? buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buh, buy.
I admit he’s fun to watch, but if you track his recommended Bear/Bulls over a few weeks, he’s no better than a coin flip. But he sweats and drools more than the average coin-flipper would, so that’s a plus.
This is worth noting:
http://www.booyahboyaudit.com/performance.html
I caught Cramer several times when it first came on and TIVOed it for
awhile. I think his investment ideas are better than average, but still
geared toward too much trading. I think his television persona will wear out pretty fast if he doesn’t wear out first. I unTIVOed it after about 3 shows.
What’s all this yelling and carrying on? It’s only about money after all. But I think , more than anything else, I’ve grown tired of watching men my age acting like children. If the shoe fits wear it: When oh when are you guys going to grow up at long last? I pass.
I can’t stand this guy. The few times I’ve tried to watch, I was interested in his theories, but I had to switch the channel after five minutes. I just couldn’t take him.
For those of you knocking Cramer, at least give him credit that his show is the only thing near-watchable on CNBC this year. Hell, the show after his, “The Big Idea”, gets dashes in the ratings every night.
Most of CNBC has gone to hell, and will probably die a slow death once Uncle Rupert’s Fox Money gets going. Support Cramer: He’s CNBC’s last, best hope.
The booyahboyaudit.com is a great link. Some of the other tracking pages go back a little further and give Cramer a more favorable success rate. However, the end result is that he is there as a gimmick for amusing tv.
There are countless other programs which have “smart” people making buy and sell recs but can only attract the serious investors. You put on a bald guy that salivates and jumps around like a howler monkey and you’ve got a recipe to bring in new viewers… until the novelty wears off.
As an 18 year old who was never interested in stocks before, I can tell you that if nothing else, Jim Cramer brings young people’s interest to investing. Young people don’t have the attention span to sit down and watch Nightly Business Report; Attention Deficit is running rampant through our generation! The only clear message that gets through to us is one delivered by a guy throwing chairs through windows and ripping the heads off of things.
Even some of my friends who don’t care about stocks still watch Cramer for the entertainment.
Keep Cramer going, he is attracting a completely new demographic to CNBC!