Cramer fan sites seek fun and profit

The hyper-active, chair-throwing, knife-wielding CNBC stock picker has inspired a small industry of Cramer-watchers.  At least three free Web sites and a podcast monitor the performance of Jim Cramer's daily dozens of stock recommendations.

Besides Cramer, what they all have in common is their use of Google AdSense to generate revenue through advertising click-throughs by his fans. 

Yahoo.com's Search Marketing service reports advertisers bid as much as 90 cents for the key words "Jim Cramer" and "Mad Money".  By comparison, "mortgage" is going for $4.73 and "HDTV" fetches $1.47.  The Cramer sites also generate income using Amazon.com affiliations to sell investment books, and collect leads for insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and Web hosting services.

The newest site is CramerWatch.org, based in Winnipeg.  It launched Monday and publishes a roster of Cramer's CNBC stock picks and tracks their performance for 30 days.  The goal of the site, said its publisher Kevin Hill, "is "to review if Cramer is good for investors." 

The site's "resident stock picker", Leonard, the Wonder Monkey, also makes recommendations on Cramer's picks, by flipping a coin.  "Randomly buying or selling thrm will actually make the investor more money than following all of Mr. Cramer's recommendations," Hill has concluded.

Paul Douglas Boyer's Mad Money Machine launched earlier this year.  He's a software consultant living in Leesburg, Va. and has been an investor for 20 years. "My goal with the podcast and this Web site is to bring more people up to a higher level of understanding of how they should be allocating the money in their investments." Boyer's Virginia license plate reads "MAD MNY."

YourMoneyWatch.com slices, dices, and ranks Cramer's picks.  It also has charts comparing Cramer's picks with the S&P 500, NASDAQ, and Dow.  (He's beating all three.)

MadMoneyRecap.com is dedicated to "the refreshing logic that now flows freely across Cramerica."  It offers daily summaries of Cramer's stock picks and also includes a blog-like record of "the Master's" comments and explanation.  It's not a transcript, but it's more than "Buy, Buy! Buy" or "Sell! Sell! Sell!"

Comments

[Retirement investment advisor]

I did a study of Jim Cramer's stock pick performance. The result is (not) surprising!

http://investmentscientist.com/2008/03/06/

[B. Jacob]

Just wanted to let Mad Money viewers know about my site MadMoneyStocks.com which has a nicely organized archive of stocks profiled by Cramer on his show, including his comments. I have also transcribed (painstakingly) some of his best monologues on stocks and the market in general.

Thanks,
B. Jacob
www.MadMoneyStocks.com

[Cramer-holic]

Wow, the below commenter's url redirects the the very website they are 'praising'. Does not seem like it is an impartial review or recomendation. I have to give MMR a big "sell!sell!sell!" for their dishonest shilling. Lame asses.

[F. Gordon Childress]

Although I like him very much, I find it hard to listen to Jim Cramer's whole show (esp. the lightning round). I look for objectivity from these sites, so a fairly accurate recap (without the yelling) is important to me. I am almost 75, but still an active investor. The site you mention above, Mad Money Recap (http://www.madmoneyrecap.com/) is one I really appreciate - no opinions, just a simple recap that I believe is pretty accurate to reflect each show - and it's done nightly for free.

[Trading Goddess]

Hello everyone!

And Booyah to the Cramer fans! :)

I just wanted to let everyone know that the www.TradingGoddess.com stock forum is now open to everyone! It seems that the men want to post their thought as well, so take a look around. It's free! It is also a lot saner than the Yahoo forums, where new investors are preyed upon and scammed out of their hard earned money. Oooops! Forgot to say, IMO (in my opinion) LOL! Keep up the good work Frank! Your site is great! Happy trading!

[Chris Mello]

Great article. I think you may have overlooked my site, The Cramer Report
http://www.thecramerreport.com
It is a site similar to the others listed above except that there is no editorial content, except for in the forum. I have alot of respect for the other sites that you listed, and am glad to be in healthy competition with them. Also, love the Trading Goddess site!!

[The Trading Goddess]

I always say ... "Behind every great man, there is an even greater woman!" Let's see how we measure up to "The Big Boys" in trading these more expensive stocks. These stocks can provide an excellent return on investment! Have a question about a "Big Boy" stock - bounce it off the other ladies here and see what they have to say. Buy, sell, or hold - it's all here!

Please join us in the female stock forum at http://www.TradingGoddess.com

A softer, saner approach to the stock market.

:)

[Greg S]

Jim is an easy target, if people would use common sense and use his ideas as a place to start looking for stock ideas. I prefer someone like Jim who has ideas rather than analysts that say buy all large cap because in 12 months they will be up 10%. If Cramer mentions a stock than do your own research, but to say his picks were down 94% in 2 years is moronic, it doesn't take into account that any stocks would have been sold.

[Sandi Lynne]

According to TV Ratings agencies, Cramer has all of 124K viewers. Additionally, an analysis of TSCM's recent Q1 earnings demonstrate that all of 13K new subs signed up for paid services in the qtr. My guess is that Cramer costs more in chairs and other products he tosses, bites, and shreds than he's bringing into TSCM.

Whether he makes money for his viewers or not is almost besides the point (though he has managed to pound the table on a number of stocks minutes before they blew up in his face by warning). Why would someone who really can consistently beat the market by a wide margin have to resort to such antics to draw viewers?.If those 124K are dumb enough to watch (and dial-in), and another 13K were even more stupid to pay to get more, they deserve exactly what they get--good or bad.

Despite the disclaimers, CNBC should be ashamed of itself, and destroys any remaining credibility it retains as a serious financial broadcast station.

Sandi Lynne, Publisher

[Asher Z. Haft]

I am currently reading The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. On page 16 it speaks about Jim Cramer and the "spectacular" performance of his favorite picks made in February 2000. The book states "By year-end 2002, 1 of the 10 had already gone bankrupt, and a $10,000 investment spread equally across Cramer's picks would have lost 94%, leaving you with a grand total of $597.44.

Jim Cramer is not worth following. He may look like a great stock picker in a up-market (I know many people whom knew nothing about investing and made money). His horrendous performance during the most recent bear market speaks for itself.

Asher Z. Haft
Meridian Capital Group