He said up and it went straight down! He said down and it jumped back up!

Anybody suspect a reverse "Cramer Effect" now?

James Cramer of TheStreet.com has been bullish on NYSE Euronext Inc. (NYSE: NYX) for quite some time and made it one of his picks of the year. Unfortunately it is his worst pick and hurt his overall average, riding this one all the way down from a November high of $112 ($97.80 to start the year) to a recent low of $73. That's a tough one because the stock may not be all that bad in time but it is never a good idea to go and pay just any old price.

Last week when I wrote Cramer retreats from NYSE Euronext: Fundamentals anyone? several people called me out because they felt that I was badmouthing a stock with great potential. Well, I still maintain that investors should look to buy stocks based on the value proposition and not just because they like it, or are worried about "missing the boat." Most investment advisers worth the time of day will tell you not to try and time the market. But Cramer followed EURONEXT down to the low $70's and then got weak in the knees, suggesting that it might be better to get out and perhaps back in at the low $60's. In my post, I chided traders for chasing a dream and not fundamentals -- a practice usually called "speculating," saying the stock could just as easily trade down even lower.

After Cramer's change of heart and my post, the stock did not trade down. Instead, it started to move up with the overall market and last night closed at $81.31 -- that's over 10% to the good in one week. So the most important lesson for me still remains: DON'T TRY AND TIME THE MARKET which I will continue to scream from the highest rooftop.

Cramer was wrong to push this stock when it was at an all-time high, and apparently, he was wrong to suggest the idea of bailing out last week. Whatever fundamentals (besides his gut and street noise) he is using looks all the more like playing momentum and a hunch rather than a long-term strategy. Perhaps long-term for a trader is one quarter.

Those of you who are new to BloggingStocks can check out my other stories and read Chasing Value or Serious Money to find more potential opportunities and verify my track record as well.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.