to think i was going to write a letter to barron's. this person basically nails 90% of what i was going to say, but i didn't have numbers with it:
<i> To the Editor:
You missed a golden opportunity to give perhaps the best insight into Jim Cramer's abilities and personality by not discussing his Action Alerts newsletter service, which he has been selling to subscribers through TheStreet.com since 2002. Action Alerts consists of Cramer's own, real-life stock portfolio, which he has placed into a charitable trust.
For around $350 per year, subscribers are given advance notification of the trades Cramer makes in the portfolio so that they may duplicate those trades if they wish. The portfolio typically consists of 25 different stocks, but unlike an index fund, Cramer has the flexibility to increase cash levels if he feels the market will go down. And while he has certain restrictions in this portfolio, such as not being able to trade a stock if he has discussed it publicly within the prior few days, the restrictions have not prevented him from frequently trading the account to the tune of many hundreds of trades over the years.
The result? After 5 years and 8 months, Cramer is lagging the S&P 500 by several percentage points. But this underperformance is clouded by the fact that when Cramer reports his portfolio's overall return vs. the S&P 500, he included dividends in his own return, but removes them from the index. This causes a discrepancy of over
10% that makes it look like he has kept pace very well.
Eric Brosio
Petaluma, Calif.</i>
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB118764659839903347.html?mod=article-outset-box
<i> To the Editor:
You missed a golden opportunity to give perhaps the best insight into Jim Cramer's abilities and personality by not discussing his Action Alerts newsletter service, which he has been selling to subscribers through TheStreet.com since 2002. Action Alerts consists of Cramer's own, real-life stock portfolio, which he has placed into a charitable trust.
For around $350 per year, subscribers are given advance notification of the trades Cramer makes in the portfolio so that they may duplicate those trades if they wish. The portfolio typically consists of 25 different stocks, but unlike an index fund, Cramer has the flexibility to increase cash levels if he feels the market will go down. And while he has certain restrictions in this portfolio, such as not being able to trade a stock if he has discussed it publicly within the prior few days, the restrictions have not prevented him from frequently trading the account to the tune of many hundreds of trades over the years.
The result? After 5 years and 8 months, Cramer is lagging the S&P 500 by several percentage points. But this underperformance is clouded by the fact that when Cramer reports his portfolio's overall return vs. the S&P 500, he included dividends in his own return, but removes them from the index. This causes a discrepancy of over
10% that makes it look like he has kept pace very well.
Eric Brosio
Petaluma, Calif.</i>
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB118764659839903347.html?mod=article-outset-box