"A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

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Taylor Larimore
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"A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Taylor Larimore »

Bogleheads:

We have many posts warning about the danger of picking individual stocks--especially those recommended by media "experts." Boglehead Allen Roth illustrates the danger in this article about CNBC's stock guru, Jim Cramer.

A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level

Best wishes.
Taylor
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Mel Lindauer »

Another great expose by Allan!

I'm sending in my money for Allan's REMARC hedge fund. It will be a sure winner (it will do the exact opposite of Cramer's buy and sell recommendations).

Allan will be a member of the Experts Panel at Bogleheads 12 in Philly in October. http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 7#p1628287
Best Regards - Mel | | Semper Fi
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by OverTheHill »

But, you forget how well he fills in dead air space every morning on CNBC. Anyone who claims to know as much as Cramer claims to know must be totally infatuated with themselves.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by mlebuf »

Are people still taking Cramer seriously? I watched him once or twice about 10 years ago. He behaved like a middle aged man having a temper tantrum characteristic of a two year-old.

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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by ThePrune »

Jim's Mad Money show is just entertainment, like professional wrestling. Of course, there are people who think that wrestling isn't staged..... :shock:
Investment skill is often just luck in sheep's clothing.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by OverTheHill »

ThePrune wrote:Jim's Mad Money show is just entertainment, like professional wrestling. Of course, there are people who think that wrestling isn't staged..... :shock:
Well, I can say that I watch about as much Mad Money as I watch professional wrestling, which is to say that I watch neither one, although it's possible that both shows share the same audience.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by tetractys »

I think it was on NPR, on Market Place, where it was pointed out that a show of 'confidence' is much more important for market forecasters than 'accuracy.' That makes sense when one considers Cramer's minions marching to his money madness. -- Tet
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by gatsby11 »

While I agree with the premise of the article entirely, Jim Cramer is not one to listen to for stock evaluations, the author may want to look at his own statistical acumen as well:
Being a numbers guy, I couldn't resist calculating the odds of making four sell recommendations on what ends up being the four best performers out of 749 different stocks. Can we have a drum roll? The odds are 1 in 13.1 billion.

This calculation presumes that these were the only four calculations that Cramer made. This is clearly not the case. As a hypothetical counter example, let's say that Cramer made predictions about every stock, all stocks were equally likely to rise or fall, and Cramer had no inside information (meaning if markets are efficient, each stock has exactly 50/50 odds of underperforming/overperforming the index). If Cramer had made a prediction about every stock on the index, his odds of being wrong about the best performing four would be 2*2*2*2 = 1 in 16.

I think this is a lot closer to the reality of the situation, if clearly overstating the number of stock picks that Cramer made. While it's certainly great reason to not pay for the advice of an "expert", trying to use statistical exaggeration to drum up controversy and get page views is not my idea of excellence at one's job either, and unfortunately all too common in the media today.
Last edited by gatsby11 on Mon May 27, 2013 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Dandy »

I am not a Cramer fan. If you ignore all the hoopla you can see he is a smart, knowledgeable person who has some excellent reasons for his stock comments. But, that is the trap. It all sounds so smart and well thought out you think - yeah why that makes some sense -- and it does but that doesn't mean it translates into reliable stock market picks. Most of these pundits actually believe what they say.

It reminds me of the guys who tout college football picks. They all are knowledgeable and know that XYZ wins 80 of the home games, their opposition loses 70% of their away games etc, etc -- and they are lucky to get half the calls right. But they are so confident.

The secret is not to listen to these sirens who sound so good or your investment ship will end up on the rocks.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by YttriumNitrate »

deleted.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by rustymutt »

Thanks for the link Taylor. I've got a neighbor whose fascinated with Cramer. I've tried to tell him that Cramer is merely a puppet of Wall Street, and used to
sensationalize the buying and selling of stocks. I've printed off the article Allen and will let him have a copy to read.
Even educators need education. And some can be hard headed to the point of needing time out.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

YttriumNitrate wrote:I'm all for bashing Cramer, but the author of this article just cherry picked a couple of Cramer's predictions (from among hundreds if not thousands) and had the audacity to call his article a "statistical analysis"...
Not cherry picked at all. If you clicked on the links, you'd see I didn't use hindsight and actually invested prospectively with HP and Best Buy. I then looked at Cramer's calls on the only two stocks that did better than those two.

Cherry picking would have been stating "no, no, no, Bear Stearns is not in trouble, Apple is a temporary sell off in December due to cap gains tax changes, Wachovia, etc. Finally, I do think that as part of an education mission, Cramer should publicly state how his picks actually do. I'll bet you even money (okay 100 to 1 money) that you can't call the four worst performing stocks over the next six months?
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by mlewis »

YttriumNitrate wrote:I'm all for bashing Cramer, but the author of this article just cherry picked a couple of Cramer's predictions (from among hundreds if not thousands) and had the audacity to call his article a "statistical analysis"...

Here's some more good analysis by said author.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162- ... s-s-p-500/
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Levett »

And here I thought Bogleheads basically ignored noise.

So if that's the case why bother with Cramer, the entertainer?

You are preaching to the choir.

Lev
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

gatsby11 wrote: each stock has exactly 50/50 odds of underperforming/overperforming the index). If Cramer had made a prediction about every stock on the index, his odds of being wrong about the best performing four would be 2*2*2*2 = 1 in 16.
2 stocks were sampled prospectively which had a 1 in 35,062 chance of being 2 of the worst 4 of 749 stocks. IF Cramer had made a forecast of all 749 stocks then the probability of 1 in 140,248. Since I noted Cramer had made other predictions the statistical likelihood is somewhere between 1 in 140,248 and 1 in 13 billion.
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The Three Fund Portfolio

Post by Taylor Larimore »

Allan wrote:
My advice is to deploy formula X by buying a low cost-broad total index fund. Do the same for international stocks as well.
Your "advice" is the equity part of the The Three Fund Portfolio.

Best wishes.
Taylor
"Simplicity is the master key to financial success." -- Jack Bogle
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by gatsby11 »

2 stocks were sampled prospectively which had a 1 in 35,062 chance of being 2 of the worst 4 of 749 stocks.
No, YOU chose two stocks with the benefit of hindsight. Cramer forecasted many, many more than 2 of the 749 stocks.
IF Cramer had made a forecast of all 749 stocks then the probability of 1 in 140,248. Since I noted Cramer had made other predictions the statistical likelihood is somewhere between 1 in 140,248 and 1 in 13 billion.
This is just downright wrong Allan. If he had made a call of either buy or sell on every stock, then every stock has 1/2 odds of being sell. Since he predicted every stock in this hypothetical scenario he would be guaranteed to have selected the top four performers, the only question would be whether he forcasted buy or sell. Therefore:

Stock 1 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 2 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 3 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 4 sell odds: 1/2

Odds of all four being sell: 1/16

Simple intuition should tell you there's clearly no way the odds are anywhere near as low as you're saying.
Last edited by gatsby11 on Mon May 27, 2013 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Boglenaut »

Allen Roth is one of my favorite columnists, and I certainly think Jim Cramer says a lot of totally wrong things with great confidence. But I think Allen should stay away from statistical calculations for now. :oops: :oops:
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

gatsby11 wrote:
This is just downright wrong Allan. If he had made a call of either buy or sell on every stock, then every stock has 1/2 odds of being sell. Since he predicted every stock in this hypothetical scenario he would be guaranteed to have selected the top four performers, the only question would be whether he forcasted buy or sell. Therefore:

Stock 1 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 2 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 3 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 4 sell odds: 1/2

Odds of all four being sell: 1/16

Simple intuition should tell you there's clearly no way the odds are anywhere near as low as you're saying.
Overconfidence bias on your part. You would be correct IF the methodology were picking from prior forecasts. It was not though I think it will be difficult for you to re-frame now that you are convinced you are right. The odds of picking two stocks on 11/20/12 that I invested in and wrote about at that time that were two of the best 4 stocks of 749 was 1 in 35,052 . You are thinking that picking four stocks retroactively where each stock has a 50% of being a sell (1/2)^4 is 1 of 16 and you would be right if that were the methodology.

I know a great statistician by the name of John Allen Paulos if you are willing the make the bet worthwhile?
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

Boglenaut wrote:Allen Roth is one of my favorite columnists, and I certainly think Jim Cramer says a lot of totally wrong things with great confidence. But I think Allen should stay away from statistical calculations for now. :oops: :oops:
Thanks Boglenaut. I'm willing to bet it's not 1/16 if I have any takers?
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Too Bad Jim Cramer didn't really commit professional suicide

Post by arcticpineapplecorp. »

Why wasn't Cramer investigated for his 'treatise on manipulating stock prices' (see link below)?

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/ ... -the-line/

"In a long examination of the clip, Mr. Blodget — who has been barred from the securities industry for life as part of a settlement over his stock research — predicts that Mr. Cramer’s career might be over. “Can CNBC really say nothing when one of its most visible employees urges investors to use the network to engage in behavior that is questionable to say the least?” he asked.

Mr. Blodget concludes:

It is certainly possible that the whole thing will pass: Cramer has been very effective at stifling or weathering critics. It is also possible, however, that Jim Cramer has committed professional suicide."

Too bad Mr. Blodget wasn't right.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by abuss368 »

Taylor Larimore wrote:Bogleheads:

We have many posts warning about the danger of picking individual stocks--especially those recommended by media "experts." Boglehead Allen Roth illustrates the danger in this article about CNBC's stock guru, Jim Cramer.

A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level

Best wishes.
Taylor

Hi Taylor,

Thank you for posting the link to that article.

One word: incredible!

I really do not miss the individual stock picking days.

Keep investing simple. The Three Fund Portfolio does just that.
John C. Bogle: “Simplicity is the master key to financial success."
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by LadyGeek »

In reference to some earlier posts - As a reminder:
We expect this forum to be a place where people can feel comfortable asking questions and where debates and discussions are conducted in civil tones... Attacks on individuals, insults, name calling, trolling, baiting or other attempts to sow dissension are not acceptable.
The forum policy extends to Mr. Cramer.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by mlewis »

Allan Roth wrote:
gatsby11 wrote:
This is just downright wrong Allan. If he had made a call of either buy or sell on every stock, then every stock has 1/2 odds of being sell. Since he predicted every stock in this hypothetical scenario he would be guaranteed to have selected the top four performers, the only question would be whether he forcasted buy or sell. Therefore:

Stock 1 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 2 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 3 sell odds: 1/2
Stock 4 sell odds: 1/2

Odds of all four being sell: 1/16

Simple intuition should tell you there's clearly no way the odds are anywhere near as low as you're saying.
Overconfidence bias on your part. You would be correct IF the methodology were picking from prior forecasts. It was not though I think it will be difficult for you to re-frame now that you are convinced you are right. The odds of picking two stocks on 11/20/12 that I invested in and wrote about at that time that were two of the best 4 stocks of 749 was 1 in 35,052 . You are thinking that picking four stocks retroactively where each stock has a 50% of being a sell (1/2)^4 is 1 of 16 and you would be right if that were the methodology.

I know a great statistician by the name of John Allen Paulos if you are willing the make the bet worthwhile?
With respect to Cramer, I think Gatsby is closer to being correct. Cramer of course made many, many predictions, so the odds of him telling his viewers to sell 2 stocks that went on to soar are not so long.
However, Allan Roth's long odds have more to do with himself. It is more statistically interesting that Roth decided to act opposite to 2 specific stock picks that happened to be so wrong.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by gatsby11 »

Overconfidence bias on your part.
Uh, no. It's just math. In the scenario I laid out the odds are 1/16, objectively.
The odds of picking two stocks on 11/20/12 that I invested in and wrote about at that time that were two of the best 4 stocks of 749 was 1 in 35,052 .
Yes, if on 11/20/12 you looked at those two picks alone and said they were be sells and they turned out as four of the best out of 749 on a set date that you predicted beforehand, you would have very long odds. But the odds are not what you say. Here are the real odds:

4 out of 749 + 3 out of 748

OR

187.25*249.33= 1 in 46,687

The problem is this is not what you did. You are looking back retroactively, noticing that Netflix and Best Buy were high at a time you had not predicted in advance, and used this cherry-picked data rather than all of the other forecasts Cramer has made.

Say instead that Cramer had made 100 picks during a month that you've picked in advance and you've also picked an end date for evaluation in advance. That means he made 50 sell picks. So ~1/16 of all of the stocks he's picked as sell. The odds that he would have picked 2 of the 4 worst performing stocks over that time period would be roughly:

1/16 * 1/16 = 1 in 256

Of course your mistake is much worse than this. You haven't selected an end date for evaluation in advance. 3 months ago Netflix and Best Buy wouldn't have been 2 of the top 4. In another 6 months they likely won't both be at the top either. So you picked an end date that suited you, because that's when the picks looked worst. That's not the same as picking the end date in advance, as you are fitting the data to your story and therefore have multiple data sets to pick from, drastically reducing how long the odds are. Even with just two data sets instead of one your odds are reduced by half.

And although you hint at it in your article's introduction I don't see anywhere you actually predicted this in advance. Assuming you didn't your mistake is compounded even further. Cramer's career covers a huge sample size of predictions. Let's no go that far though, we'll just look at one year. If we kept our earlier sample of 100 picks per month for 12 months, all of a sudden it's 12 times more likely that Cramer would have made such poor choices in the past year. That give us roughly a 1 in 20 chance of doing so. Clearly, Cramer has made many predictions and you could have written about any of them. The fact that you chose these two is no fluke, you saw that they were performing so well and therefore chose to write about them. If I make 2,000 predictions in my career, the odds that there will eventually be two poor predictions clustered closely together is fairly high.

This is all completely disregarding the fact that being in the top 4 rather than top 2 or top 10 or top 50 is another completely arbitrary number which you've chosen only in hindsight because it makes your data look the best.
I know a great statistician by the name of John Allen Paulos if you are willing the make the bet worthwhile?
By all means, define your terms. If we're betting how likely it is that Cramer would make such poor picks without selecting two stocks in advance and setting an end evaluation date in advance while also defining the data bin for being a "top performer" in advance though, the odds that you've stated in your article are off, and it's by orders of magnitude.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

gatsby11 wrote:
Overconfidence bias on your part.

Uh, no. It's just math. In the scenario I laid out the odds are 1/16, objectively.
Not true in the scenario I wrote about - I invested int HPQ and BBY on 11/20/12 and did not know how it would turn out and this is stated in the article on how he made me money. I had to bet on his poor stock picking ahead of time and did not randomly pick stocks on 5/23/13.

To put this simply, you give me two stocks today in the Wilshire Large cap index which you can pull from Cramer or any other sources you want. If, six months later, they are two of the 4 best performers, I'll give you $16, but if you are wrong, you give me $1, which is 4x the 1 in 4 chance (1/2 x 1/2) you are claiming.

I would not recommend you take this wager as the math is not on your side.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Boglenaut »

Allan Roth wrote:
Boglenaut wrote:Allen Roth is one of my favorite columnists, and I certainly think Jim Cramer says a lot of totally wrong things with great confidence. But I think Allen should stay away from statistical calculations for now. :oops: :oops:
Thanks Boglenaut. I'm willing to bet it's not 1/16 if I have any takers?

To be honest, your methodology was so flawed it really is hard to even start. I don't think anyone expects MoneyWatch articles to be at the same level as a peer reviewed academic paper, but you should use the words "A Statistical look" a bit more cautiously. You cannot just cherry-pick a few calls after the fact and draw the conclusions you did.

I just did a Google search and found this.

http://caps.fool.com/player/trackjimcramer.aspx

Accuracy: 45.13% (33rd percentile)

It seems a bit more objective in that it shows all buy/sell and has a time frame, and has a much larger sample. It seems to track 2373 Jim Cramer calls since 05/15/06.

It's bedtime, so I didn't have time to study it in detail.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by gatsby11 »

To put this simply, you give me two stocks today in the Wilshire Large cap index which you can pull from Cramer or any other sources you want. If, six months later, they are two of the 4 best performers, I'll give you $16, but if you are wrong, you give me $1, which is 4x the 1 in 4 chance (1/2 x 1/2) you are claiming.

I would not recommend you take this wager as the math is not on your side.
That much is clear. That's also quite obviously not what I said.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Random Musings »

Jim Cramer has a reasonably high skill level when it comes to making money for himself.

In fact, much higher than most people.

RM
I figure the odds be fifty-fifty I just might have something to say. FZ
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Boglenaut »

To be fair to Cramer, in the above link I cited:
  • Average Pick Score is a player's total score divided by the total number of picks (active and closed). It represents the player's average return after subtracting out the market's performance.

    Average Pick Score: +1.86
So that's not bad. But if it were a fund, fees and expenses would eat much of it, with the additional risk associated with less diversity (even if he could maintain it). I wouldn't buy it.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Brian2d »

How do Jim Cramer's picks compare with Cosmo Kramer's?
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

gatsby11 wrote:
To put this simply, you give me two stocks today in the Wilshire Large cap index which you can pull from Cramer or any other sources you want. If, six months later, they are two of the 4 best performers, I'll give you $16, but if you are wrong, you give me $1, which is 4x the 1 in 4 chance (1/2 x 1/2) you are claiming.

I would not recommend you take this wager as the math is not on your side.
That much is clear. That's also quite obviously not what I said.
What you said is that my piece had a 1/16 chance even though I invested in HPQ and BBY as soon as I read Cramer's sells on 11/20/12. My wager proposal was to show that your 1/16 calculation was far off the mark for the scenario I wrote about. It would be true for the probability of getting four heads in a row on a series of coin flips. "Simple intuition" can often be wrong.
Last edited by Allan Roth on Mon May 27, 2013 10:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

Random Musings wrote:Jim Cramer has a reasonably high skill level when it comes to making money for himself.

In fact, much higher than most people.

RM
That much is true but let's not forget what Cramer does to keep the stock market efficient for us indexers.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Random Musings »

Allan Roth wrote:
Random Musings wrote:Jim Cramer has a reasonably high skill level when it comes to making money for himself.

In fact, much higher than most people.

RM
That much is true but let's not forget what Cramer does to keep the stock market efficient for us indexers.
It is comforting to know that Cramer is taking one for the team. :oops:

RM
I figure the odds be fifty-fifty I just might have something to say. FZ
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by beardsworth »

Mel Lindauer wrote:Another great expose by Allan!

I'm sending in my money for Allan's REMARC hedge fund. It will be a sure winner (it will do the exact opposite of Cramer's buy and sell recommendations).
I don't think a fund called REMARC would be right for me. :)
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Levett »

My compliments to Lady Geek who practices what this site ostensibly preaches:

"Attacks on individuals, insults, name calling, trolling, baiting or other attempts to sow dissension are not acceptable."

Would that the policy were implemented with more regularity and without exception.

If Bogleheads have a positive message, let it remain positive.

Lev
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by YttriumNitrate »

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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by rustymutt »

The problem with Cramer is that there isn't a benchmark that is used to track his picks. If fact he's got nothing to compare himself to. He dwells on confusion and hype. Sure he guesses right at times, but he's wrong just as many times. He's a Wall Street poster child, and no intelligent investor should be using his media hype as advise.
Even educators need education. And some can be hard headed to the point of needing time out.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

YttriumNitrate wrote:
Allan Roth wrote:]I'll bet you even money (okay 100 to 1 money) that you can't call the four worst performing stocks over the next six months?
At 100 to 1 I'd take that bet, even at 20 to 1 the odds would be in my favor. Of course, like Cramer I get to make a lot of calls, a LOT of calls. Unlike Cramer who tries to predict the future with insight or a crystal ball, my calls are based solely on the ticker symbol chosen by the company. I hereby declare those stocks starting with the first 13 letters of the alphabet to be strong buys while those starting with the last 13 letters of the alphabet to be strong sells.

Now, how much are we wagering?
We are on with this wager. Using the same methodology in this piece, give me two stocks today that will be in the top 4 performers of the 749 in the Wilshire Large Cap index. Then, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you to assign an equal number of buys and sells of the remaining 747 stocks (you pick which one gets the extra). If six months later, your 2 stocks chosen today and both of your random sells are in the top four, I pay you 100 to 1. You pick the amount of the bet and I look forward to hearing from you directly for this wager and one of us can post on this site.

FYI, I teach a behavioral finance class at The University of Denver where I use some simple math problems to illustrate heuristic biases - mental short-cuts that lead us to gross errors in solving. I understand why you think the odds of the events in my piece are 1/16 but I caution you to reconsider accepting this bet.
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Boglenaut
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Boglenaut »

rustymutt wrote:The problem with Cramer is that there isn't a benchmark that is used to track his picks.
Didn't you see my link above? What more could you want?

http://caps.fool.com/player/trackjimcramer.aspx

I think short of a full-blown academic study, this is about as close as you are going to get.

Accuracy: 45.13%
Average Pick Score: +1.93
Average Pick Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

So about so-so.
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Boglenaut
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Boglenaut »

Allan Roth wrote:
FYI, I teach a behavioral finance class at The University of Denver where I use some simple math problems to illustrate heuristic biases - mental short-cuts that lead us to gross errors in solving. I understand why you think the odds of the events in my piece are 1/16 but I caution you to reconsider accepting this bet.
Actually, the odds of what happened in your article happening is 100%. You basically said "Given Netflix skyrocketed and given I know Jim Cramer called this a sell, what are the odds that Jim Cramer called it a sell and Netflix skyrocketed?". 100%

I like the Motley Fool methodology much better. They are tracking 100% of the calls, have a large sample size, have defined conditions for success/failure, established metrics, defined time period. I could nitpick parts of it, but overall it seems more objective.
investingdad
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by investingdad »

Allan Roth wrote:
YttriumNitrate wrote:
Allan Roth wrote:]I'll bet you even money (okay 100 to 1 money) that you can't call the four worst performing stocks over the next six months?
At 100 to 1 I'd take that bet, even at 20 to 1 the odds would be in my favor. Of course, like Cramer I get to make a lot of calls, a LOT of calls. Unlike Cramer who tries to predict the future with insight or a crystal ball, my calls are based solely on the ticker symbol chosen by the company. I hereby declare those stocks starting with the first 13 letters of the alphabet to be strong buys while those starting with the last 13 letters of the alphabet to be strong sells.

Now, how much are we wagering?
We are on with this wager. Using the same methodology in this piece, give me two stocks today that will be in the top 4 performers of the 749 in the Wilshire Large Cap index. Then, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you to assign an equal number of buys and sells of the remaining 747 stocks (you pick which one gets the extra). If six months later, your 2 stocks chosen today and both of your random sells are in the top four, I pay you 100 to 1. You pick the amount of the bet and I look forward to hearing from you directly for this wager and one of us can post on this site.

FYI, I teach a behavioral finance class at The University of Denver where I use some simple math problems to illustrate heuristic biases - mental short-cuts that lead us to gross errors in solving. I understand why you think the odds of the events in my piece are 1/16 but I caution you to reconsider accepting this bet.
May I suggest that such a wager see the proceeds donated to the winner's preferred (non political) charity in the name of Bogleheads?
YttriumNitrate
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by YttriumNitrate »

Allan Roth wrote: We are on with this wager. Using the same methodology in this piece, give me two stocks today that will be in the top 4 performers of the 749 in the Wilshire Large Cap index.
I think we’re misunderstanding the rules of the wager. I’m willing to play the role of Cramer in the article (i.e., making hundreds of blind predictions about the future) but not the role of Allan Roth in the article (picking just two of the stocks).
hicabob
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by hicabob »

Everyone seems to love to bash Cramer. Having done some work in Cramer's studio back in the Cramer /Kudlow days I have met and watched JC up close. The people that work around him (with the exception of Kudlow) appeared to adore him! He had a reputation as a very decent and kind man and he is easy to work with (and he brings bagels in!) . As with all commercial TV, the purpose of his show is to maximize viewers so maximizing ad revenues. Of course, anyone that confuses him with a financial advisor is incredibly naive to say the least.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

YttriumNitrate wrote:
Allan Roth wrote: We are on with this wager. Using the same methodology in this piece, give me two stocks today that will be in the top 4 performers of the 749 in the Wilshire Large Cap index.
I think we’re misunderstanding the rules of the wager. I’m willing to play the role of Cramer in the article (i.e., making hundreds of blind predictions about the future) but not the role of Allan Roth in the article (picking just two of the stocks).
I think you are misunderstanding the article. Cramer gave two predictions on 11/20/12 and I acted on both immediately after reading. These are the same rules as the article itself and I'm offering to let you play the same role as Cramer in the article and giving you a 100 to 1 payoff. You must give me two stocks today that will be in the top four in six months. By allowing you to predict all of the remaining 747 stocks, you are actually getting more generous rules than Cramer had in the article. I strongly recommend you not accept this wager but am willing to make it. If you do, I suggest the proceeds go to the Bogleheads. Please contact me directly if you want to proceed.
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EyeYield
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by EyeYield »

What the heck is going on in the Boglehood?? I expect an occasional speculation thread, but gambling on speculation? Please.

Lets call the show Mad Money what it is: A tv show. A tv show that is sponsored by brokerage firms who make money from trading costs.

Cramer is doing a great job apparently, since the advertisers don't seem to be going away and his show is holding it's own in it's time slot.

His job is to get people to trade; and then trade some more. The viewers do, we don't. Is there really anything more that needs to be said?

If there's going to be casino action here, shouldn't there be a separate section for it? Why don't we just set up a roulette wheel and replace the numbers with ticker symbols and the colors with indexes then have at it? At least that would be actionable.

Sorry, digressing fast..... :oops:
"The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing." - Jack Bogle
Buysider
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Buysider »

Just because one might not think they can beat the market, does not mean one should not have an opinion about the price of a security. Whether for just for fun (like most folks with Cramer), or for real (AstraZeneca just bought Omthera OMTH today at a 100% premium to the prior market price), prices are just the meeting of opinions of buyers and sellers. Lots of people have opinions, you may not agree with how or why they have them, but they are setting the price you are paying to buy or receiving when selling a security...

Companies in the S&P 500 are making decisions about the price of other companies' securities, and while you might hope they are better informed than Cramer, you might be disappointed.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by mlewis »

Allan Roth wrote:
YttriumNitrate wrote:
Allan Roth wrote: We are on with this wager. Using the same methodology in this piece, give me two stocks today that will be in the top 4 performers of the 749 in the Wilshire Large Cap index.
I think we’re misunderstanding the rules of the wager. I’m willing to play the role of Cramer in the article (i.e., making hundreds of blind predictions about the future) but not the role of Allan Roth in the article (picking just two of the stocks).
I think you are misunderstanding the article. Cramer gave two predictions on 11/20/12 and I acted on both immediately after reading. These are the same rules as the article itself and I'm offering to let you play the same role as Cramer in the article and giving you a 100 to 1 payoff. You must give me two stocks today that will be in the top four in six months. By allowing you to predict all of the remaining 747 stocks, you are actually getting more generous rules than Cramer had in the article. I strongly recommend you not accept this wager but am willing to make it. If you do, I suggest the proceeds go to the Bogleheads. Please contact me directly if you want to proceed.
The role of cramer was to make predictions on many stocks. The role of Mr. Roth was to somehow choose the two predictions that were way off. Although he did note the time period and write about them before-hand, I didn't notice that he set 6-month timeframe in advance, as others have noted. My guess is that since there are such long odds of Allen choosing the 2 picks that were so far off, he probably found some time to watch more of cramers picks over multiple timeframes and could have written many different articles.
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by Allan Roth »

mlewis wrote:
The role of cramer was to make predictions on many stocks. The role of Mr. Roth was to somehow choose the two predictions that were way off. Although he did note the time period and write about them before-hand, I didn't notice that he set 6-month timeframe in advance, as others have noted. My guess is that since there are such long odds of Allen choosing the 2 picks that were so far off, he probably found some time to watch more of cramers picks over multiple timeframes and could have written many different articles.
Events happened as described in the piece and I assure you I don't often watch Cramer. I invested in the two stocks the day I read about his sell recommendations. I then looked at his calls on the only two stocks that bested those two and they turned out to be sell recommendations as well. Your guess that I was watching more of Cramer's picks isn't right but I do appreciate you characterizing it as a guess rather than fact. As far as the six month period, what period would you suggest?
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Re: "A Statistical Look at Jim Cramer's Skill Level"

Post by johnubc »

although the article seems to be factual, it is not scientific. I can look back at my own predictions and see where I should have bought and sold stocks. What would have been more interesting is if they were able to do an expose on the Action Alerts Plus newsletter where Jim actually (supposedly) has his portfolio.
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