Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #567992 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Interesting but incomplete
Jim Cramer certainly knows a lot about stocks, and I enjoy his enthusiastic approach to teaching, using fundamental and economic analysis.

However, one of the downfalls of this book is that Cramer ignores technical and charting analysis. This is unfortunate because the price of a stock is the most important indicator. He talks relentlessly about P/E ratios, growth, balance sheets, industry performance etc. But at the end of the day, it is the price and the trend of a stock that matters most - particularly if you are a trend following investor.

Using technical analysis, I backtested some of the stocks he claims he lost money on. I observed that had he also used some degree of charting analysis he would not have lost money on those stocks. In fact, many of the stocks he recommended people to buy on his show, were in bearish trends at the time. This demonstrates why pure fundamental analysis cannot give you a complete picture of how a stock is performing or is likely to perform.

The Man Makes The Book
It would be hard for someone who's never seen the Mad Money television show to appreciate the greatness of the man behind this book.

I'm an Australian and I've seen his show on a couple of lay-overs between Oceania and Europe - so maybe I've seen a total of four episodes; and already I'm in love with it.

I believe the way Jim Cramer likes to teach the principles behind his choices are great. He appears very genuine, very enthusiastic, and very very knowledgeable.

I'm an Engineer, so I'm not well versed in finance, but I find stock markets interesting, and I will be applying the principles I found in this book to the UK market (Jim Cramer's shows and books are almost entirely focussed on US shares, and the effect of world markets on US shares).

If you are doubtful about whether this book will be a good read, find an episode or a segment of Jim Cramer's Mad Money show on YouTube. Judge for yourself whether you believe this man knows what he is talking about!

Lastly, I will say that this book is very readable - almost as if you're in a conversation with the man. I found myself, at times, unable to put the book down as I was keen for the next paragraph!

Great Guide for individual investors
I am a professional investor and I truly admire what Jim Cramer does for his viewers. Yes, it is true that he makes more money when more people watch it because more advertisers are interested to buy their 30-second pitch, but Jim simply wants to educate and protect the average investor from being burned by the big and unscrupulous guys on Wall Street. In this book, Jim explains that Mad Money is a tool and that investors should not be buying the stock he recommends during after hour-trading because they will get burned by short-sellers. He ideally wants the viewers to buy the stock after a week or even longer. But most importantly he stresses that investors do their homework. Every investor has a different investment strategy and not all of his picks will fit into everyone's portfolio. As Jim writes, everyone should know themselves and their goals. I highly recommend this book to anyone watching MAD MONEY.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market