Gyroscopic Investing

NOTE: I am not endorsing his views. I do not encourage speculative investing which Cramer is mostly about. That said, unlike so many of the talking heads who are just entertainers in expensive suits, Cramer is not a tool and sometimes does have a clue about what he chooses to talk about.

Caveat Emptor
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100647043

The fact that Cramer is touting gold makes me even less likely to believe in its rebound..  then again, if an anonymous person posted this analysis on the internet, I might actually believe it more..  seems reasonable that gold may continue to decline to shake out the weak hands before the next leg up comes, whether it's in 5 weeks, 5 months, or 5 years.

I'm lost now...

Cramer has been bullish on gold since before 2007, and in the last couple of years he has moved his language towards looking at it in the context of a portfolio. People love to hate Cramer but he is not a terrible investor. His hedge fund had a good record.

Another thing that many people miss with Cramer is that his show is called Mad Money. For Cramer your mad money is your variable portfolio. That's why it is called mad money, its money you can afford to lose but hopefully shoot the lights out with. In some of his books he talks about having an index fund core for your money that you can't afford to lose. Not terribly different from the PP/VP distinction. 

Anybody actually have a mad money fund?  I've been tempted to set aside maybe 10% as a mad money fund, but I've been too chicken to roll the dice and play a high stakes game with my money.  Maybe I'll start with 1% and ease myself into it slowly... you know, like into a vat of boiling oil. 

Cramer is an old Goldman guy.
Not that I know how we play it...

I believe Cramer was originally hired for his financial expertise, errr, opinion.  When his contract was renewed, I believe it was strictly for entertainment.

rocketdog wrote: Anybody actually have a mad money fund?  I've been tempted to set aside maybe 10% as a mad money fund, but I've been too chicken to roll the dice and play a high stakes game with my money.  Maybe I'll start with 1% and ease myself into it slowly... you know, like into a vat of boiling oil. 

A Mad Money fund would be an exercise in stupidity as Cramer's track record is simply average and unimpressive.  I'll stick to more rigorous speculations for my VP.

I haven't met too many people whose long term track record in speculative investing was better than average.

Alanw wrote: I believe Cramer was originally hired for his financial expertise, errr, opinion.  When his contract was renewed, I believe it was strictly for entertainment.

This show has no value outside of entertainment, pure and simple.  It's something to be enjoyed after a hard day's worth of work, like 2 and a Half Men, Family Feud, American Idol, etc.

blackomen wrote:

Alanw wrote: I believe Cramer was originally hired for his financial expertise, errr, opinion.  When his contract was renewed, I believe it was strictly for entertainment.

This show has no value outside of entertainment, pure and simple.  It's something to be enjoyed after a hard day's worth of work, like 2 and a Half Men, Family Feud, American Idol, etc.

...or any "news" program, which is what you might call entertainment masquerading as relevant and timely information and analysis.

MachineGhost wrote:A Mad Money fund would be an exercise in stupidity as Cramer's track record is simply average and unimpressive.  I'll stick to more rigorous speculations for my VP.

I didn't mean a mad money fund that followed Cramer's advice, I meant a mad money fund that you use to really shoot for the moon and speculate heavily with.  Like a mini-VP on steroids, just a small chunk of money that you'll invest in penny stocks or pork bellies or African shea butter or whatever else you think might skyrocket. 

rocketdog wrote:

MachineGhost wrote:A Mad Money fund would be an exercise in stupidity as Cramer's track record is simply average and unimpressive.  I'll stick to more rigorous speculations for my VP.

I didn't mean a mad money fund that followed Cramer's advice, I meant a mad money fund that you use to really shoot for the moon and speculate heavily with.  Like a mini-VP on steroids, just a small chunk of money that you'll invest in penny stocks or pork bellies or African shea butter or whatever else you think might skyrocket.

With the caveat that I don't really speculate and have no VP right now, I have always thought that this was the point of spec investing. I mean if you just want to beat the index by a little bit then buy an index fund and reinvest the dividends. You pretty much have a guaranteed winner. If you're going to speculate, I think you should follow Mark Cuban's otherwise horrible advice and swing for the fences.