Monday, January 29, 2007

A sad day

In a single day, my hero is lambasted, my crush is reported to be romancing a former Citigroup exec, and a noble, inspring creature passes on.

As for Jim Cramer...my stock portfolio continues to languish, and I am tempted to believe some of the venomous spew about him in that article. But I'd caution anyone to fully swallow the bitter diatribe of one Henry Blodget, who in the tech decline of 2000 lost over $700k of his own money, while Cramer's hedge fund went up 38%. Cramer, after riding tech all the way up to Nasdaq 5000, made a bold call to 'lighten up' in tech shortly before the crash. I remember it vividly, because I did lighten up, just a little, and it saved me some serious money. I sorely wish I'd have listened even closer. Yes, it is true that Cramer incorrectly called the bottom in tech several times on the way down, but his relentlessly disciplined style of trading allowed him to be wrong without losing his shirt, as opposed to Mr. Blodgett. Cramer retired from the hedge fund racket at the end of 2000, giving his investors a 38% return in a year where the Nasdaq dropped 60%. Meanwhile, Henry Blodgett was being investigated by the SEC (he pleaded no contest to the charges, left his job at Merril, and accepted a lifetime ban from the securities industry.) While Jim makes plenty of mistakes, he's the only analyst I saw last year that recommended GOOG at $180, at $250, at $350, and at $450...and then called for a sell at $500 (GOOG topped out close to $600, then fell back to almost $400, and is now right around $500 again.) He's the only analyst who I saw recommend you sell AAPL at $40, before they reported terrible earnings and dropped to $30...then as they climbed back up to $40, he switched camps and recommended a buy. He said buy AAPL at $50, at $60, at $70, and at $80. He wants you to sell it now, and lock in that double from last year. I'm no Cramer apologist - my portfolio that is loosely based on his stock picks is suffering - but when I see a criminally bad stockpicker like Blodgett lampoon him, it's hard to stay quiet.

And Maria...sure, he may have a corporate jet and millions of dollars, but I have, uh...body hair. And a blog! Well, nevermind...I didn't really like you anyway.

As for Barbaro, thank Christ they finally put a bullet in his brain. He's a fucking horse. As a Philadelphia sports fan, I have been subjected to a constant stream of stories about his veternary care, his chances for survival, and how he inspired the people of a city with his...oh I can't even go on. He was a fucking horse. And now he's dog food, or glue, or something infinitely more useful than a limping-around-but-inspirational animal. If one more idiot writes a story about Barbaro, the only thing I'll be inspired to do is kick my cats out of frustration.

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