“Flamboyant Wall Street trader turned TV host Jim Cramer, not known for being the shy, retiring type, might have said too much in a video interview he did for a financial Web site,” Roddy Roddy Boyd reports for The New York Post. for The New York Post.
“The host of CNBC’s daily program ‘Mad Money’ had hedge fund-trading desks buzzing yesterday after he bragged about manipulating stock prices during his days as a trader,” Roddy Boyd reports for The New York Post.
Boyd reports, “In the video from TheStreet.com’s ‘Wall Street Confidential’ Webcast, Cramer boasts about manipulating the price of a high-flying stock down, and even acknowledges that doing so might have been illegal.”
MacDailyNews Note: Actually, in the video, Cramer says it’s legal.
Jim Cramer talks Apple and others on “Wall Street Confidential” with Aaron Task (10:38):
Full NY Post article here.
Something this obvious should not be surprising to anybody. Our own SteveJack discussed similar concepts on our Opinion page back in January (The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up). As we’ve long said, Wall Street is a game: play it well or don’t play it at all. As for Cramer, perhaps those who might be inclined should think before shooting the messenger.
Related articles:
Jim Cramer: Apple deserves a breakout – February 08, 2007
Jim Cramer: AT&T to promote Apple iPhone with 18 months of free service – January 25, 2007
Jim Cramer: Apple Computer is the ‘buy of the century’ – November 29, 2006
Mad Money’s Cramer: hammering Apple stock is much like ‘shooting Apples in a barrel’ – July 12, 2006
Cramer: ‘I have never seen a systematic, multiweek bear raid like I have on Apple Computer’ – March 27, 2006
Yes, Jim. That was out loud.
No need to beg to be dis-SEC-ted.
Actually, it was realizing this on my own after watching the market that let me make some really good purchases. Wonder if he’s going to be investigated for something now– probably prosecuted for honesty.
Cramer is tells the truth about Wall Street in his books and on his sites. He no longer engages in these activities, trading only for his non-profit fund and there only under strict restrictions.
He tones things down a bit for his TV show, but, on his pay service he is very candid. Federal investigators, by the way, talk to him all the time about generalities.
I do not blame him for telling the truth. I thank him. Wall Street is really a very high stakes game. On one had it is what it is, raw capitalism. On the other, it is becoming America’s retirement account and a cause for concern.
Okay this is the way it is. Wall Street’s job is to shift risk from the richest people in America down as far into the middle class as possible. The people most at risk are the ones who can least afford to invest. And yet people call this the “Ameircan Dream.” More like the “American Nightmare.”
You don’t know the history of Cramer, I do.
Just for clarification, this video is from the end of last year, before the iPhone was annouced. The actual examples in this discussion is not important for today.
The lesson to learn from this is about how momentum, up or down, can be manipulated by players in the market in the short term.
This is like saying Dvorak, Thurrott and Enderlie spread FUD about Apple and the Mac on their sites for hits.
Who is surprised?
The trick is to know who is in trouble and which way they need to go to get out of it.
It’s like playing the ponies. Find out which stable can’t pay their feed bills and bet big on their next long shot.
i disagree critic–what this demonstrates is motive for much of the FUD we see every week..and for products that have not even been released yet. Like he says ‘it’s a fun game’. Many times there’s some question as to why writers make blatant ‘errors’ when commenting on products–these are the scrubs that get paid to sway the readers & the tech industry. No matter how old the clip is, the behavior is still continuing. Should it shock anyone? No. But it is good to know how these markets are being manipulated behind the scenes in order to make better financial decisions–rather swallow the FUD wholesale..
Hey Tom, welcome back.
Now please turn a new trick.
Get off my back, you psych jobs. I’m Tom F-ckin’ Cruise!
I’ll crush you with my giant inflated head. What? What’s that? You don’t understand ‘ego’?
You don’t recognize the ‘id’? You don’t know the history of ‘ego’. I do.
Stocks are a pseudo-science. It all comes from Hitler. Poison.
You all need a cleansing. I’m Thetan Level XXXVII and you’re all anti-depressant abusers.
Fools. Distance yourself and get detoxed in the Scientology way.
Set up an appointment. I’ll have Katie call you.
Oh yaah . . . I’m Tom F-ckin’ Cruise!
Isn’t this a video from 4 months ago?
AAPL trades $3billion per day. A fund cannot move it with a $10million smokescreen.
There’s already a speclulative chorus every day in the press for both positive and negative spin on Apple. You do see some bogus rumors such as Steve Jobs is stepping down, grooming his replacement type of items from short funds that don’t end up moving the market at all.
Cramer is simply a market clown, entertainment for the traders.
Yeah I agree. Cramer is clearly an ego-maniac (which is why he’s perfect for his show), and although I’m sure their is a lot of truth to what he’s saying (which is why any layman who trades short term is a fool), I’d bet it’s a very exaggerated truth.
This is only relevant for DAY trader-types (i.e., very short term). The average investor is NOT penalized by this BS if he or she buy stocks or bonds for the long term (multi-year, or even multi-month). Some of what he’s saying is just blowing smoke, but there’s enough truth to it that any small investor better think twice before betting the retirement account on day-to-day swings in the market. Even when nothing nefarious is happening on a given day, there’s enough randomness in the short term that it’s much more like gambling then investing.
That said, the market is a GREAT and relatively SAFE investment for those with a long term view. It is by far the best way for small investors to get substantial returns and build wealth. In fact, it’s FAR safer than counting on the federal government and social security for retirement–we KNOW for a fact that Social Security cannot meet all the promises it is making today because the system’s own trustees tell us so!
I know someone who went with Jim Cramer to an Eagles football game about 3 years ago. He said that he is the same in person as he is on TV. He can be calm and quiet one second and then jumping around and screaming the next.
Off his meds, was he?
they sure can get away with it, you try and its bye bye
Cramer? Big deal just another dumb ass media clown. The sad part is he get paid for his drivel.
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I don’t see him being investigated for a slip of the tongue, being mis-spoken, misunderstood, joking, or anything else. (unless, of course, he is a Republican.)
What’s sad is that our society just accepts this.
Whether or not what he’s done or doing now is illegal, it’s grossly unethical, no way around that. He should lose his job as a trader, lose his job as an analyst. Zero tolerance for this nonsense. It’s irrelevant that this is common throughout the industry. Everyone who is caught should lose their jobs for unethical behavior. He brags about the whole job being lies to everyone — that should be unacceptable in any career.
People who shrug and move on are just too jaded.