Jim Cramer (James Cramer)

What is ‘Jim Cramer’

Former hedge fund manager, columnist and author as well as host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” and CBS radio’s “Real Money”. Cramer’s claim to fame is his bombastic and ‘in your face’ behavior in which he gives recommendations and analysis on featured and viewer-suggested stocks. Jim Cramer is also one of the founders of TheStreet.com, a popular financial website.

Explaining ‘Jim Cramer’

Although Cramer does give his opinion on the investment value of any given stock, he prefers that his viewers go out and conduct their own research on the underlying businesses before buying stocks. However, many of Cramer’s viewers do go and purchase stocks just because he recommended them. This effect is so prominent that the price of a stock can actually go up significantly for a couple of days after his recommendation, due to the increased buying pressure.

Critics often point out that Cramer can be very fickle in his investment outlook, because he appears to frequently flip-flop from a bullish position to a bearish position to reflect the market’s current sentiment.

Further Reading

  • Ahamed, Liaquat, Lords of finance: The bankers who broke the world. The Penguin Press, 2009. Allen, Gary, None Dare Call it Conspiracy. Concord Press, 1972 … – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • Content and context: Identifying the impact of qualitative information on consumer choice – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]