Cramer hates himself more than you do

If you're a fan of James Cramer then you have to read Cramer vs. Cramer, his latest column in New York Magazine.

I learned two things from this article.

• Cramer believes that the way to make money in the market is to predict where institutional investors are heading. I really like this idea and wish he provided more insight in the article into how he does this. As he suggests, investment fashions change and to make money stock buyers need to know those changes before the institutional investors.
• Cramer appeals to 28-year-olds because his show is co-written with his 22-year-old nephew, Cliff Mason, who manages to fill the script with all sorts of references and thought patterns that appeal to younger viewers. To quote him: "I come up with the ideas and the serious content, then I write a preliminary story with as much smart and funny stuff as I have time and brains enough to dream up, and I e-mail it to Cliff. Then he e-mails me back with a revised story that ranges from having a handful of changes to being barely recognizable, then I make changes and tell Cliff to fix any problems or make clarifications, and we keep batting it back and forth like that until it's done-usually four or five different cuts between 1:30 and 3:30 (the show starts taping at about 4:30 and airs at six)."

One thing I had a hard time with was his conclusion. For all the critics who attack him for creating lemmings who blindly follow his stock recommendations, Cramer wants them to know that he hates himself more than they do. I'll give him the last word: "I remain completely and utterly repulsive to myself." Do you feel sorry for him now?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.