Shares of Netflix (NFLX) started Tuesday on a high note, with the shares gaining more than 1% out of the gate. Traders appear to be responding to new comments from Jim Cramer, after the host of CNBC's Mad Money offered an upbeat opinion on the stock Monday.

Specifically, Cramer is enthusiastic about Netflix's push into streaming content, and he has high expectations for future subscriber growth. The analyst also argued that the stock's valuation is actually quite reasonable, when measured against the company's long-term growth rate. For traders looking to take part in continued gains by NFLX, Cramer suggested in-the-money call options.

Continue reading Netflix Gains Ground on Cramer Recommendation

Netflix Gains Ground on Cramer Recommendation originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Las Vegas is coming back," declared Jim Cramer on Friday's episode of Mad Money. He went on to add, "MGM's the best way to speculate on the turn, especially considering that they helped get Senate majority leader Harry Reid re-elected."

Continue reading MGM Resorts Catches a Lift from Cramer Endorsement

MGM Resorts Catches a Lift from Cramer Endorsement originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) turned higher right out of the gate Thursday morning, surging roughly 4% with the sound of the opening bell. For the catalyst behind this bullish gap, we need look no further than peripatetic CNBC analyst Jim Cramer.

On Wednesday, the Mad Money host cited MEMC as his top pick within the solar sector. To back up his bullish opinion, Cramer cited three key factors: the recent $380 million sale of subsidiary SunEdison's Italian property, lowball earnings estimates from analysts, and heavy insider buying by company execs in recent months.

Continue reading MEMC Electronic Materials Catches a Cramer Lift

MEMC Electronic Materials Catches a Cramer Lift originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I didn't find this recap of Jim Cramer's CNBC show interesting because of his recommendations. I found it interesting because he talks of an overall "bearishness of the market." Cramer noted that this bearishness began in the tech sector, spread to retail, and is now creeping into the food sector.

He notes that it is "remarkable to see how little enthusiasm there is ... even for companies that are doing well." An example of this lack of enthusiasm for good performers is that analysts will cut price targets on a stock, but will raise the company's earnings estimate at the same time.

Continue reading Jim Cramer Sees a 'Very Negative' Trend

Jim Cramer Sees a 'Very Negative' Trend originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Barron's slams Jim Cramer again

Barron's slams Jim Cramer again originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The good news from emergency gas taxes

Cramer on BloggingStocks: The good news from emergency gas taxes originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says that it should have been obvious to many more hedge fund managers that things were going totally awry.

Something better go up besides job losses and Treasuries. The central theme of everything post the Lehman Brothers imbroglio is that everything goes down: corporate and municipal debt, M&A, stocks, commodities (particularly oil and copper), industrial production, retail sales, car sales, home sales, you name it.

In that world, no one can make money, except people who are short everything, and, judging from most hedge fund returns, that ain't working either. I mean, where is it written that hedge funds should be taking losses in this environment and gating themselves? I would suspect that cautious or negative hedge funds should be up huge in this environment. That's what they are paid to do.

If they aren't up huge, maybe the managers should come up with another calling.

I look at this because when I examine the newspapers and web sites this morning, I realize that there are instruments to short pretty much everything that's out there, from bank debt and commercial mortgages to residential mortgages and commodities. Yet, day after day, I read about these hedge funds that have to gate people, and I wonder why they all had such a long-side bias.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Hedges in the Sand

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Hedges in the Sand originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: You're nothing if you're not a bank

Cramer on BloggingStocks: You're nothing if you're not a bank originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: takeovers will resume as long as banks are serious about lending

Cramer on BloggingStocks: takeovers will resume as long as banks are serious about lending originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

David Swensen has led Yale's endowment to phenomenal results since taking charge in 1988. According to the New York Times, his advice for individual investors is simple: "use index funds, exchange-traded funds and other low-cost instruments, and stick to your long-term asset allocation -- even when the markets are in tumult."

What's interesting about the Times interview is that Mr. Swensen decided to use it as an opportunity to take some shots at Mad Money host Jim Cramer: "There is nothing that Cramer says that can help people make intelligent decisions. He takes something that is very serious and turns it into a game. If you want to have fun, go to Disney World."

Mr. Swensen sure did manage to come across as an aristocratic snob. But I'm actually inclined to agree with him to a certain extent: I would never follow Cramer's stock picks. I think he gives way, way too many tips. But I do watch Mad Money regularly because Jim Cramer is a really smart guy and has been down in the trenches of money management. Some of his broader ideas are useful, and let's face it: his is one of the few really entertaining shows on CNBC.

Yale's top investor bashes Jim Cramer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

On yesterday's Mad Money, Jim Cramer offered his "Mad Money Manual" -- a guide to how to watch the show inspired by the criticism of his stock-picking track record leveled by the press.

The show is actually a recap of an episode from May, but I missed that one so I'll opine on it now. According to TheStreet.com's recap of the show:

In a given week Cramer said he might recommend a dozen stocks, excluding the ones in the "Lightning Round." But just because Cramer says he likes a stock, doesn't mean that viewers should go out and buy it.

Nor does it mean that if people buy that stock they will absolutely, positively make lots of money, Cramer said. "That's not how this game works."

Cramer stresses the importance of doing your own homework, but here's the problem with that advice: Can the Average Joe with a 10-inch TV and Yahoo! Finance really expect to uncover something that hedge fund legend Jim Cramer has missed?

Continue reading How Jim Cramer should defend his Mad Money stock picks

How Jim Cramer should defend his Mad Money stock picks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• An even more interesting analyst call in alternative energy today was where Lazard Capital called Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST) as a potential double to $2.50 per share. This one has been around forever and used to be considerably higher.
  
• If you want a more diversified play, you can always look at the best ETF in the sector: PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (AMEX: PBW).

Looking at Cramer's favorite green stocks (WFR, CPST, PBW) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Pay attention to Jim Cramer when he talks about small-caps originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Barron's cover story on Jim Cramer this week is a perfect August cover: beach reading about whether Cramer is a good stock picker.

Cramer and I went to college together and I was a board member at TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM), so I am not unfamiliar with Jim's career.

The Barron's piece starts out by saying the viewer of Cramer's show Mad Money would only have made 12% on Cramer's picks over the last two years. The magazine uses a firm called YourMoneyWatch to determine that. It tracks Cramer's stocks from when he tells viewers to buy them up until he says that they are "sells." In a chart, Barron's shows Cramer's performance against the two year advances of the Dow at 22% and the S&P at 16%.

Cramer has a wide following. His Mad Money show has 138,000 viewing homes according to Nielsen. Several hundred thousand more people read him through products at TheStreet. He is written about in the press several times a month, so Cramer is almost certainly the most widely followed stock guru in the country.

Continue reading Leave Jim Cramer alone

Leave Jim Cramer alone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The cover story on this week's Barron's is likely to get attention for a long time, and may even serve to drive down the price of TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM), Jim Cramer's company. Journalist Bill Alpert takes a look at the track record for Cramer's picks on his show Mad Money.

According to Alpert, "a comprehensive and careful review of his stock picks by Barron's finds that his picks haven't beaten the market. Over the past two years, viewers holding Cramer's stocks would be up 12% while the Dow rose 22% and the S&P 500 16%, according to a record of 1,300 of the CNBC star's Buy recommendations compiled by YourMoneyWatch.com, a Website run by a retired stock analyst and loyal Cramer-watcher."

I would never dream of buying any stock based on Cramer's recommendation, and here's why: Warren Buffett, one of the greatest investors in the world ever, has often said that he can only find a few good investment ideas per year. All you need is a few in your life to do well. How about Jim Cramer? He gives a few stock picks per show, five days a week, and then gives dozens more buy and sell calls on the Lightning Round each week.

This flies in the face of what most people understand about the markets. We can argue about the extent of their efficiency (Burton Malkiel would argue that nearly every stock is perfectly priced all the time) but the idea that anyone, even a guy who bites heads off of bears, could find so many market inefficiencies each day is absurd. If Cramer can do that, how come almost no one can beat the market? Cramer makes it too easy -- except, according to the Barron's report, he doesn't really. He just pretends to on TV.

Continue reading Jim Cramer: Too much Lightning Round, not enough sound advice

Jim Cramer: Too much Lightning Round, not enough sound advice originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Fed Chair" James Cramer enjoyed taking credit for yesterday's announcement that the Fed had eased its Discount Rate. But today's Barron's takes him to task for trying to keep Mad Money viewers from measuring the extent to which his stock picks underperform the market indices.

Cramer has accomplished many things. He managed a hedge fund, started TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM) which survived the dot-com bust, he writes columns for New York magazine, and he provides a unique blend of entertainment and stock touting on CNBC.

But Barron's analysis of his stock picks over the last two years suggests that you would have been better off buying a low-cost stock index fund. Barron's cites an analysis by YourMoneyWatch.com that analyzed his stock picks between 7/28/05 and 8/17/07 -- finding that Cramer's picks lagged the general market averages. Specifically, his picks were up 12%, the Dow Jones Industrials Average rose 22%, the S&P 500 gained 16% and the NASDAQ was up 14%.

Continue reading Fed Chair Cramer's stock pix lag the market

Fed Chair Cramer's stock pix lag the market originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Fed Chair James Cramer -- or was that Ben Bernanke? -- announced that the Fed was cutting its discount rate 50 basis points this morning.

If you have not watched James Cramer's tantrum about interest rate cuts, view this clip. I heard about this rate cut as I was driving this morning at 8:30 -- NPR reported the Fed had cut the rate by half a percent to 5.75%. The important thing here is that the Fed cut the Discount Rate -- which is largely symbolic since it is a rate charged only to qualified banks -- not the one that Cramer was ranting about. That rate, the Fed Funds rate -- which affects rates that consumers pay on various types of loans -- remains at 5.25%.

Cramer sounded ecstatic on CNBC this morning. He predicted that today would be the biggest point move in history. Now, he said he "loves" Bernanke. Yesterday's goat is today's hero.

Markets have responded with jubilation this morning. But it remains to be seen how much of that jubilation is traders covering the short positions they put on after watching Asian markets tumble. The bigger issue is that the Fed obviously is scared of something big that we don't know about. It decided that the negatives of the rate cut -- bailing out Wall Street for its risky bets and taking the pressure off persistent inflation -- are dwarfed by something much worse.

Continue reading Fed Chair James Cramer cuts rates 50 basis points

Fed Chair James Cramer cuts rates 50 basis points originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cramer gets defensive with Reynolds American (RAI), Altria (MO) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cramer goes for a new technology pick originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jim Cramer's meltdown was juvenile originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.