OMG Ballmer's Buddy Says "Don't Sell AAPL !"

[Panopticon]

"RealMoney" Jim Cramer told a caller today not to sell Apple & that AMD wouldn't be a wise purchase. For those who don't know, he is a friend and college buddy of Steve Ballmer. Cramer, who formerly raved about M$ stock, has, within the past month or so, bemoaned his ownership of same.

"Don't sell Apple Computer (AAPL:Nasdaq), Cramer told a caller.
Apple's stock has no debt, and the company has a plethora of new products coming out before Christmas, he said.
Because Advanced Micro Devices (AMD:NYSE) is locked in a price war with Intel (INTC:Nasdaq), Cramer believes that Apple is the better buy, especially for the next three months." http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/funds/rea...862_2.html
btw-MSFT closed @ 22.07 today (+0.19).





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[IronMac]

He's bemoaning his ownership of MS only now? That stock's been in a freefall since end of April and it's been in a range bounded by $30 and $25 for the past three years! It's no longer a growth stock!

As for AMD, it's already at least fully priced. A friend of mine made a killing on it when he purchased it about 2-3 years ago.

Of course, I don't need to remind anyone that if Cramer had said to sell AAPl, he'd be crucified on this board as a crony of Ballmer's.

[davester]

He's been saying that for a long time. Cramer has touched the reality distortion field, just as all those who post here have.

[chas_m]

NOTICE: I'm hijacking the thread to rant about Kramer/Cramer/whatever ...

I've tried to watch his show. Really I have. It's incredibly repetitive, but I stuck with it because he's such a "genius" everyone says, and to be fair he's at least more entertaining than most stock-market shows. But that's like saying that a golf game where a crazed hummer driver crashes the gate and kills Tiger Woods is more entertaining than a standard golf game. Duh.

Anyway, ignoring the theatrics, cheesy sound effects and twitchy graphics (and the lack of the man's medication), he's actually got a really BAD track record. He spends AT LEAST ten minutes PER EPISODE backtracking on stocks he previously championed. As a stock advisor, he's pretty poor actually.

Okay, back to the topic at hand:

Well DUH Apple's going to announce products between now and the end of the year. They TOLD you they would in JANUARY. Further, it's childishly simple to predict that the iPod line will be refreshed again before year's end (hello, xmas buying season!), that the Mac Pro towers will be announced (poss. even shipping!), and that Apple will do something (new product, new service, new ads, SOMETHING) to pump up consumer sales during the holidays. DUH.

In short, everything I've heard from Cramer is something ANYONE with internet access could have told you about the company by simply typing their stock symbol into one of the many financial pages like finance.yahoo.com in about 60 seconds. Wow, Jim Cramer said AAPL is hot, good products, no debt and more coming! I guess it must be true! What a genius!!

I'm not a stock pro, an analyst or even (at this time) an AAPL stockholder. I'm just a guy who can read.

[davester]

I don't know why you're ranting about cramer...his overall record is good. Also, his main mantra (perhaps you didn't hear it) is "don't buy any stocks, including the ones he rates, without doing extensive homework...detailed in his book". Granted, he is impossible to tolerate on the TV. That's why there's his book and... http://madmoneyrecap.com/

[Carthaigh]

[quote chas_m]NOTICE: I'm hijacking the thread to rant about Kramer/Cramer/whatever ...

Wow, Jim Cramer said AAPL is hot, good products, no debt and more coming! I guess it must be true! What a genius!!

I'm not a stock pro, an analyst or even (at this time) an AAPL stockholder. I'm just a guy who can read.
You are such a mindless bore. Just about every post you ever make has one message: everybody is stupid except you. Listen you venomous creep...Those who CAN, DO. Cramer has made hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars in the stock market. If you think it is as easy as you are implying it is, then go and try to do a fraction as well as Cramer has. In the meantime, shut the hell up!

[chas_m]

[quote Carthaigh]Just about every post you ever make has one message: everybody is stupid except you.
That's completely untrue. I invite ANYONE to do a search on, let's say, the last 10 days of my posts and judge for themselves. I don't think people are stupid, and furthermore didn't say Cramer was stupid. Didn't say anything even remotely resembling that, I said that as a stock advisor his track record on his show is pretty poor. And, unlike you, I can back up my assertions with some facts.

According to http://www.booyahboyaudit.com/, Cramer's "Buy" recommendations over the last 11 months has a return rate of ... drum roll ... 2.72%. I could do better by just putting my money in a typical money market account. Having said that, there are plenty of brokers out there who might have done worse. There are also plenty out there who did significantly better, including amateurs.

I recognise that during the 90s when Clinton was in office and the economy was booming, Cramer still proved himself extraordinarily canny. Since then, however, I think he's lost it. I'm hardly the only person who thinks so ... take a look at his Wikipedia entry if you don't believe me.

... ...

Cramer has made hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars in the stock market.

Really? That will certainly come as a surprise to Mr. Cramer, who estimates his own wealth at between $50 and $100 million (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/con...957001.htm).

So, 0 points for lack of facts, but you get a solid 8 for a mostly convincing imitation of his belligerent, loutish style.

[Carthaigh]

[quote chas_m]Really? That will certainly come as a surprise to Mr. Cramer, who estimates his own wealth at between $50 and $100 million
LOL!! His own net worth has NOTHING to do with how much money he has made in the stock market! Are you serious with this crap? He was a hedge fund manager! Do you know what a hedge fund manager does? Obviously not. I said that he has made hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars in the stock market. Not "he has a net worth of hundreds of millions of dollars". Wow, his picks have only made 3% over the last 11 months! Do you even follow the stock market? Millions have lost their shirts in 2006. In this market, 3% is pretty respectable. Thanks for "wowing" us once again with your prodigious intellect chaz. LOL.

[Go To Top]

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/St...newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7B64DF646D-950F-4B84-AF2D-057BA9467678%7D&keyword=

Cramer catches criticism from Jon Friedman.

[chas_m]

[quote davester]I don't know why you're ranting about cramer...his overall record is good. Also, his main mantra (perhaps you didn't hear it) is "don't buy any stocks, including the ones he rates, without doing extensive homework...detailed in his book".
He knows, and his audience knows, that most people don't listen to disclaimers. The gubmint tells you that you shouldn't drive past the speed limit, even produces proof that doing so is bad for your own gas mileage, but does anyone listen? Nah.

A large portion of Cramer's audience ignore his caveat and rely on his recommendations, and the objective record on that from, say, the last year or so isn't impressive. But the bottom line on my post above and this one isn't about one particular analyst, it's about all of them -- having a stock analyst tell you that AAPL looks attractive right now only tells me that said stock analyst has done the bare minimum of research, because anyone who has paid attention to Apple already knows where we are with their yearly buying cycles AND what they've already pre-announced AND what's incredibly likely (like an iPod refresh).

In short, professional analysts have a long and proud track record with AAPL: they're either dead wrong or they restrict themselves to "predicting" the really obvious. Relying on them to form your buying/selling decisions on AAPL is foolhardy IMHO.