What do you think?
Rate this book
Confessions of a Street Addict
Bestselling author Jim Cramer takes readers on a wild Wall Street ride—revealing how to play the game, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.
Everyone on Wall Street knows Jim Cramer, and Cramer knows Wall Street better than anyone. In the most candid and outrageous look at Wall Street since Liar's Poker, Cramer, co-founder of TheStreet.com, radio and television commentator, and for years a premier money manager, takes readers on the wild ride that is Wall Street -- revealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.
Confessions of a Street Addict takes us from Cramer's roots in the middle-class Philadelphia suburbs to Harvard, where he began managing money, and then to Goldman Sachs, where he went into business with his wife -- Karen, the "Trading Goddess" -- as his partner. He brilliantly describes the life of a money the frenetic pace, the constant pressure to outperform the market and other fund managers, and the sharklike attacks fund managers make as they circle a fund perceived to be in trouble.
Throughout the book Cramer is characteristically outspoken, offering his hard-won insights about the market and everyone in it, himself included. There has never been a more eloquent market insider than Cramer, nor a more high-octane book about Wall Street.
Everyone on Wall Street knows Jim Cramer, and Cramer knows Wall Street better than anyone. In the most candid and outrageous look at Wall Street since Liar's Poker, Cramer, co-founder of TheStreet.com, radio and television commentator, and for years a premier money manager, takes readers on the wild ride that is Wall Street -- revealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.
Confessions of a Street Addict takes us from Cramer's roots in the middle-class Philadelphia suburbs to Harvard, where he began managing money, and then to Goldman Sachs, where he went into business with his wife -- Karen, the "Trading Goddess" -- as his partner. He brilliantly describes the life of a money the frenetic pace, the constant pressure to outperform the market and other fund managers, and the sharklike attacks fund managers make as they circle a fund perceived to be in trouble.
Throughout the book Cramer is characteristically outspoken, offering his hard-won insights about the market and everyone in it, himself included. There has never been a more eloquent market insider than Cramer, nor a more high-octane book about Wall Street.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
112 people are currently reading
1145 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
March 16, 2017
This guy is way smarter than people think.
June 27, 2020
This book is not for everybody, but being a stock market geek since the mid 90s, and following Cramer, loving him and hating him along the way, this book was a fascinating look into the maniacal, hysterical, genius brain that make him such a polarizing figure. This book helps make sense of all his seemingly schizophrenic and hyperbolic rants about stocks and the markets that have left me saying "Huh?" so many times. And it's well written and quite funny at times (writing was his first passion). I came out still pulling for him. He has a good heart. And now that I understand where he's coming from, I think I'll be able to interpret his pontifications a little better now.
March 5, 2008
Archived at http://web.archive.org/web/2002101306...
Confessions of A Street Addict by James J. Cramer
Okay, first thing you need to know: "Confessions of A Street Addict" is not some world-weary tale of heroin abuse, which the title and the author's hardboiled cover photo might make you assume. (Okay, maybe that was just me.) The "Street" referred to is Wall Street, and the experiences James Cramer relates here describe his time in the trenches.
Cramer wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His passion for the stock market begins in his youth in a middle-class home in Philadelphia, and is an enduring hobby through his scholarship years at Harvard and blossoming career as a newspaper reporter. A later stint writing for the magazine American Lawyer convinces Cramer that he should be a prosecutor, and he gets into Harvard Law School. Cramer does get the degree--he's even picked up by Alan Dershowitz to be one of a handful of the school's students working with him on the infamous Klaus Von Bulow appeal case--but by then Cramer's realized that his destiny is with his real first love, the stock market. Professional boot camp comes in the form of time served at the brokerage desk of the legendary Goldman Sachs, which formally introduces Cramer to The Street. More importantly, it introduces Wall Street to James Cramer. Neither has ever been the same since, especially once Cramer left Goldman Sachs and began his own hedge fund company, Cramer Partners.
What follows is comparable to an athlete's story--the fast and furious game of the contemporary American trading desk. Cramer makes sure to explain the often mysterious jargon and terms of the stock market, in clear descriptions for the layman, so that everyone is along for the ride. He revisits the highs and lows of both his career and his life, and we see how one affects the other. In the earliest days of having his own firm, renting office space at brokerage firm Steinhardt Partners, he has his first audience with one of their traders, Wall Street's so-called Trading Goddess, Karen Backfisch, who not only uncannily predicts the stock market crash of October 1987, keeping Cramer's company from becoming a dim memory, but also comes to join Cramer in both professional and very personal partnerships. Another major player in the life of James Cramer is Marty Peretz, a wealthy college professor whose faith and direction are invaluable in Cramer's trek from law student who leaves weekly stock picks on his telephone answering machine (Peretz makes so much money off these picks he arranges a meeting with then student Cramer and simply hands him $500,000 to invest) to head of a successful Wall Street hedge fund responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the stock market. A summer research associate hired in 1992 named Jeff Berkowitz proves so impressive in his stock picks that by 1998, Cramer officially recognizes his partnership status and renames the company Cramer Berkowitz.
Most extraordinarily, this isn't enough for Cramer. In the 1990s he teams up with Peretz to begin TheStreet.com, a website dedicated to informing people about the stock market--an update of sorts of his old telephone answering machine announcements. His market expertise, coupled with his volatile personality and journalism talents, make Cramer the stock market's "king of all media," as he writes and is written about in newspapers and magazines, makes regular appearances on cable television financial news programs (including "Squawk Box" on CNBC) and on various network television programs, and, to this day, continues to contribute to the hard-won success of the now publicly-traded TheStreet.com.
It has not been easy. Cramer makes sure we see the trail of broken promises to his family and wrong-headed personal choices and decisions behind the big, bright dollar signs. He's been guilty of several missteps with the press since his days at Goldman, and these are well documented. You can see how TheStreet.com was either his most brilliant idea or his dumbest; its creation and maintenance and eventual IPO (initial public offering) brought him into contact with some very colorful characters who did some real damage to his career and reputation, and nearly destroyed his longtime friendship and partnership with Peretz.
But Cramer is the very definition of a survivor. Plus, how can you lose if the Trading Goddess is by your side? Even though Cramer has many talents working for him, Harvard does play a pivotal role in his success--and skirmishes. Noticeable are the times a situation has spun around to his favor simply because certain roles were played by former school friends and classmates. But to be fair, this same association has occasionally left him vulnerable to sudden attack from former school nemeses. It's not what you know or who you know; it's how they know you and what they think of you.
"Confessions of a Street Addict" is a very grand ride through the ups and downs of the financial world in the last 15 years. From his bead on Reebok as a good buy in the early 1980s to the unprecedented, violent stock market activity (due to economic downturns in Russia, overvalued tech stocks, and the new Internet day trading) in the late 1990s which almost led to the closing of his firm, Cramer gives you a front row seat. Put down that "Investing for Dummies" book! It may teach you the words, but you need Cramer to teach you the music. Three and a half stars.
Simon & Schuster, 2002, $26
Reviewed by Valerie Hawkins
Confessions of A Street Addict by James J. Cramer
Okay, first thing you need to know: "Confessions of A Street Addict" is not some world-weary tale of heroin abuse, which the title and the author's hardboiled cover photo might make you assume. (Okay, maybe that was just me.) The "Street" referred to is Wall Street, and the experiences James Cramer relates here describe his time in the trenches.
Cramer wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His passion for the stock market begins in his youth in a middle-class home in Philadelphia, and is an enduring hobby through his scholarship years at Harvard and blossoming career as a newspaper reporter. A later stint writing for the magazine American Lawyer convinces Cramer that he should be a prosecutor, and he gets into Harvard Law School. Cramer does get the degree--he's even picked up by Alan Dershowitz to be one of a handful of the school's students working with him on the infamous Klaus Von Bulow appeal case--but by then Cramer's realized that his destiny is with his real first love, the stock market. Professional boot camp comes in the form of time served at the brokerage desk of the legendary Goldman Sachs, which formally introduces Cramer to The Street. More importantly, it introduces Wall Street to James Cramer. Neither has ever been the same since, especially once Cramer left Goldman Sachs and began his own hedge fund company, Cramer Partners.
What follows is comparable to an athlete's story--the fast and furious game of the contemporary American trading desk. Cramer makes sure to explain the often mysterious jargon and terms of the stock market, in clear descriptions for the layman, so that everyone is along for the ride. He revisits the highs and lows of both his career and his life, and we see how one affects the other. In the earliest days of having his own firm, renting office space at brokerage firm Steinhardt Partners, he has his first audience with one of their traders, Wall Street's so-called Trading Goddess, Karen Backfisch, who not only uncannily predicts the stock market crash of October 1987, keeping Cramer's company from becoming a dim memory, but also comes to join Cramer in both professional and very personal partnerships. Another major player in the life of James Cramer is Marty Peretz, a wealthy college professor whose faith and direction are invaluable in Cramer's trek from law student who leaves weekly stock picks on his telephone answering machine (Peretz makes so much money off these picks he arranges a meeting with then student Cramer and simply hands him $500,000 to invest) to head of a successful Wall Street hedge fund responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the stock market. A summer research associate hired in 1992 named Jeff Berkowitz proves so impressive in his stock picks that by 1998, Cramer officially recognizes his partnership status and renames the company Cramer Berkowitz.
Most extraordinarily, this isn't enough for Cramer. In the 1990s he teams up with Peretz to begin TheStreet.com, a website dedicated to informing people about the stock market--an update of sorts of his old telephone answering machine announcements. His market expertise, coupled with his volatile personality and journalism talents, make Cramer the stock market's "king of all media," as he writes and is written about in newspapers and magazines, makes regular appearances on cable television financial news programs (including "Squawk Box" on CNBC) and on various network television programs, and, to this day, continues to contribute to the hard-won success of the now publicly-traded TheStreet.com.
It has not been easy. Cramer makes sure we see the trail of broken promises to his family and wrong-headed personal choices and decisions behind the big, bright dollar signs. He's been guilty of several missteps with the press since his days at Goldman, and these are well documented. You can see how TheStreet.com was either his most brilliant idea or his dumbest; its creation and maintenance and eventual IPO (initial public offering) brought him into contact with some very colorful characters who did some real damage to his career and reputation, and nearly destroyed his longtime friendship and partnership with Peretz.
But Cramer is the very definition of a survivor. Plus, how can you lose if the Trading Goddess is by your side? Even though Cramer has many talents working for him, Harvard does play a pivotal role in his success--and skirmishes. Noticeable are the times a situation has spun around to his favor simply because certain roles were played by former school friends and classmates. But to be fair, this same association has occasionally left him vulnerable to sudden attack from former school nemeses. It's not what you know or who you know; it's how they know you and what they think of you.
"Confessions of a Street Addict" is a very grand ride through the ups and downs of the financial world in the last 15 years. From his bead on Reebok as a good buy in the early 1980s to the unprecedented, violent stock market activity (due to economic downturns in Russia, overvalued tech stocks, and the new Internet day trading) in the late 1990s which almost led to the closing of his firm, Cramer gives you a front row seat. Put down that "Investing for Dummies" book! It may teach you the words, but you need Cramer to teach you the music. Three and a half stars.
Simon & Schuster, 2002, $26
Reviewed by Valerie Hawkins
Read
June 21, 2025I parlayed the first expense dollars into enough money to rent an apartment by taking up betting on the horses. I had taken a handicapping tutorial in college taught by a fellow who had studied with Andy Beyer, the Washington Post racing columnist, who had dropped out of Harvard a week before he graduated because he was making too much money at the track.
I only had enough money to buy five shares at a clip, and sometimes the commissions were as expensive as the stocks! But that didn’t deter me.
the tail end of the 1970s bear market
after getting into Harvard Law in 1980, and then deferring to 1981, I had set my sights more toward business
The Financial News Network had just started, and a UHF channel in Boston had picked up the feed. Along with constant commentary about stocks, FNN gave you a ticker, an actual tape of the action, delayed by fifteen minutes, of what was happening on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I was mesmerized. After months of having to sneak into the Merrill Lynch booth at Grand Central Terminal to get quotes, suddenly I had the whole market in front of me on my nine-inch black and white Sony.
“Meet me at the Coffee Connection tomorrow morning at 8:30. Bring your best stock tips,” said the message.
company I had picked out of the Value Line Special Situation Survey report.
$500,000 I had now turned into $422,000.
looked up the biggest and toughest investment banks and applied to every one of them. Within a week every firm rejected me, except the best one, Goldman Sachs. I got a letter from Goldman saying that it would consider me for its summer associate program but that I would have to battle hundreds of others.
merger and acquisitions associate
It was a precision-crafted money factory.
when you are a broker at a firm, even a great firm like Goldman Sachs, you only have one task in mind, and it isn’t making money for your clients. It is finding new money and bringing in “elephants,” as we called them at Goldman. Every day, day in and day out, I would have to make thirty cold calls to people I didn’t know and who had no desire to talk to me.
I would give people presents if I could find out it was their birthday, or buy them flowers. They would eventually let me, that nice guy from Goldman Sachs, through to the elephant. I know, I know, it sounds familiar, sounds like Bud Fox from the movie Wall Street. It sure should; as part of their research for the movie I met with the filmmakers to describe how I would get through to Gordon Gekko. Bud did exactly as he should have and it worked.
Soon, I exhausted Manhattan and would rent a car to go to the libraries of rich neighborhoods and read the local paper about who the big movers and shakers were in those towns.
Reebok, a stock in the low teens, had just come public. Nobody knew much about it. I read up on the documents in the Goldman library and found out that the stock was barely covered by analysts, including Goldman Sachs. I knew I had a home run.
Goldman didn’t want me to open an account unless the individual had $10 million to buy stocks or bonds, and, frankly, there weren’t a lot of multimillionaires in Glens Falls, Horseheads, or Binghamton.
These doctors had always been trying to find a broker who could translate their medical insights into profits.
flamboyant personality
Toward the end of 1986, a few months after the Times incident, I made up my mind that I was going to leave the firm to start my own hedge fund with Larry Levy, another fellow from the company. As much as I thought that Goldman Sachs was the best company in the United States to work for, a firm that allowed me to make millions of dollars personally in a very short period of time, I wanted to be free to pick stocks for a living, and not spend the rest of my days prospecting for business. Perhaps one day the brokerage business will be based more on performance than on attracting new clients, but until then I knew I could make more money taking a percentage of what I made for people than I could in commissions from trading. Marty thought the move out of Goldman a wise one. He vowed to help me raise as much money as possible, and made good on that promise. I went to everyone I had made a lot of money for in the last few years and asked them to give me some of the profits that I had made so I could run that money for them
Goldman job—I was making $1 million a year in my fourth year
a hedge fund is simply the only legal method allowed by the U.S. government to pool people’s money and take a percentage of the winnings. After the Depression, the federal government decided that it wanted to regulate money managers, allowing them to take a percentage of the money they managed as a fee, not a percentage of the gains. That’s the mutual fund model. The government also created an exception that allowed managers to run money unregulated by the government, provided that all of the clients of that manager were wealthy. Rich people didn’t need the protection of regulation, according to the intent of the legislation. They could fend for themselves. That’s a hedge fund.
Ironically, the hedge fund model would do much better for those who are not wealthy. Right now they are at the mercy of the market and mutual fund managers who don’t give a hoot if they lose their clients’ money; they get paid anyway. That’s not how it works in the hedge fund world. You get paid only if you make people money. Here’s why: hedge funds typically take 1 percent of the assets as a management fee and 20 percent of the gains—both realized and unrealized (that is, whether you sell your holdings or not)—as payment for the fund. If you make money you do extremely well. But if you lose money, you have to get back to even before you can take a fee again. That’s known as the “highwater mark” provision
compounded at 24 percent after all fees for the next fourteen years.
worried that the country wouldn’t pull out of its tailspin. I thought we had a recession and an inflation problem; a banking system that was teetering; and a budget deficit that was mushrooming out of control.
dialing for dollars
I only had enough money to buy five shares at a clip, and sometimes the commissions were as expensive as the stocks! But that didn’t deter me.
the tail end of the 1970s bear market
after getting into Harvard Law in 1980, and then deferring to 1981, I had set my sights more toward business
The Financial News Network had just started, and a UHF channel in Boston had picked up the feed. Along with constant commentary about stocks, FNN gave you a ticker, an actual tape of the action, delayed by fifteen minutes, of what was happening on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I was mesmerized. After months of having to sneak into the Merrill Lynch booth at Grand Central Terminal to get quotes, suddenly I had the whole market in front of me on my nine-inch black and white Sony.
“Meet me at the Coffee Connection tomorrow morning at 8:30. Bring your best stock tips,” said the message.
company I had picked out of the Value Line Special Situation Survey report.
$500,000 I had now turned into $422,000.
looked up the biggest and toughest investment banks and applied to every one of them. Within a week every firm rejected me, except the best one, Goldman Sachs. I got a letter from Goldman saying that it would consider me for its summer associate program but that I would have to battle hundreds of others.
merger and acquisitions associate
It was a precision-crafted money factory.
when you are a broker at a firm, even a great firm like Goldman Sachs, you only have one task in mind, and it isn’t making money for your clients. It is finding new money and bringing in “elephants,” as we called them at Goldman. Every day, day in and day out, I would have to make thirty cold calls to people I didn’t know and who had no desire to talk to me.
I would give people presents if I could find out it was their birthday, or buy them flowers. They would eventually let me, that nice guy from Goldman Sachs, through to the elephant. I know, I know, it sounds familiar, sounds like Bud Fox from the movie Wall Street. It sure should; as part of their research for the movie I met with the filmmakers to describe how I would get through to Gordon Gekko. Bud did exactly as he should have and it worked.
Soon, I exhausted Manhattan and would rent a car to go to the libraries of rich neighborhoods and read the local paper about who the big movers and shakers were in those towns.
Reebok, a stock in the low teens, had just come public. Nobody knew much about it. I read up on the documents in the Goldman library and found out that the stock was barely covered by analysts, including Goldman Sachs. I knew I had a home run.
Goldman didn’t want me to open an account unless the individual had $10 million to buy stocks or bonds, and, frankly, there weren’t a lot of multimillionaires in Glens Falls, Horseheads, or Binghamton.
These doctors had always been trying to find a broker who could translate their medical insights into profits.
flamboyant personality
Toward the end of 1986, a few months after the Times incident, I made up my mind that I was going to leave the firm to start my own hedge fund with Larry Levy, another fellow from the company. As much as I thought that Goldman Sachs was the best company in the United States to work for, a firm that allowed me to make millions of dollars personally in a very short period of time, I wanted to be free to pick stocks for a living, and not spend the rest of my days prospecting for business. Perhaps one day the brokerage business will be based more on performance than on attracting new clients, but until then I knew I could make more money taking a percentage of what I made for people than I could in commissions from trading. Marty thought the move out of Goldman a wise one. He vowed to help me raise as much money as possible, and made good on that promise. I went to everyone I had made a lot of money for in the last few years and asked them to give me some of the profits that I had made so I could run that money for them
Goldman job—I was making $1 million a year in my fourth year
a hedge fund is simply the only legal method allowed by the U.S. government to pool people’s money and take a percentage of the winnings. After the Depression, the federal government decided that it wanted to regulate money managers, allowing them to take a percentage of the money they managed as a fee, not a percentage of the gains. That’s the mutual fund model. The government also created an exception that allowed managers to run money unregulated by the government, provided that all of the clients of that manager were wealthy. Rich people didn’t need the protection of regulation, according to the intent of the legislation. They could fend for themselves. That’s a hedge fund.
Ironically, the hedge fund model would do much better for those who are not wealthy. Right now they are at the mercy of the market and mutual fund managers who don’t give a hoot if they lose their clients’ money; they get paid anyway. That’s not how it works in the hedge fund world. You get paid only if you make people money. Here’s why: hedge funds typically take 1 percent of the assets as a management fee and 20 percent of the gains—both realized and unrealized (that is, whether you sell your holdings or not)—as payment for the fund. If you make money you do extremely well. But if you lose money, you have to get back to even before you can take a fee again. That’s known as the “highwater mark” provision
compounded at 24 percent after all fees for the next fourteen years.
worried that the country wouldn’t pull out of its tailspin. I thought we had a recession and an inflation problem; a banking system that was teetering; and a budget deficit that was mushrooming out of control.
dialing for dollars
October 21, 2015
I have always enjoyed Jim Cramer on his show and the radio. This book was a look at him and his life in such a manner that you would not expect. The honesty in the book is a breath of fresh air and his insights are amazing. It is also a book that shows that Wall Street is not for the faint of heart. It shows exactly what kinds of sacrifices one must make it in order to really be successful doing what he and his group did year after year. There are some amazing stories about not only his hedge fund but his life on the personal side. He shows a level of in depth look at his life that will amaze just about anyone. He is much more than the person you watch on CNBC and deserves our respect as a human being.
August 30, 2010
Before the Mad Money craze, this autobiography takes you from his struggling days as a journalist for newspapers on the west coast to his days at Goldman to his hugely successful (mostly because of his wife) management of his hedge fund and ends at his retirement from that fund. For one of the most notable personalities in personal finance of recent years, it was hard to believe in his words, "It is better to be lucky than good." Reads exactly like his personality would tell it to you. Great read!
December 29, 2024
This is a pretty good about Jim Cramer's hedge fund from inception until the time he retired and left the hedge fund industry. Great book about the insights of the dotcom mania too. The book does a good job of highlighting how crazy the period and how everybody was trying to get the bag. I forgot how I learned about this book. I think I heard it from Martin Shrekli, who use to work at Cramer hedge fund and use to work for Cramer before he left the hedge fund.
The modern, 2020s deciption of Jim Cramer is a crazy, loud guy on TV who is always wrong about his stock picks and every stock he picks is wrong and loses value. The whole Cramer-curse is now a thing.
Cramer is still inluential, even after almost 30 years in fiancial media. It's crazy he is still revelant to this day and his sayings go thru popular culture. In the 2010s, he coined the phrase "FAANG" - Facebook, Apple, Amazon Netflix, and Google, and that became the norm to talking about tech stock and tech companies in general. Even tech employees used FAANG phrase, even tho they never watched Jim Cramer. I also think he came up with the phrase of magnificent 7 - the 7 AI related companies leading the market. So Cramer still has a big-lasting prenese in culture which is cool. But, according to this book and Martin Shereki, Cramer is actually a great stock picker and he knows how to get great performance. In the book, he gets outperform performance for every year he works in hedge funds aside from 1998. A good interesting lesson from the book, is that you should do well no matter what the market is doing. You should not be at the whims of the market, that you can produce returns no matter if the market is up or down. Cramer's famous saying is "There is a bull market" somewhere. Another great lesson is to always take losing money personally. Since most of Cramer's money was invested in the hedge fund, of course he took daily market losses personally. But employees didn't take it personally, since they were just on payroll. So he made it clear it was unacceptable to lose client's money and got very anger at people for making trades that lose client's money. He got very anger and toxic, but it might have been necessary to stop anaylsts or traders from losing money. If an employee lost money with a trade, Cramer wrote the ticker symbol on a Post-It and forced it on the employee's forehead and maybe them wear it all day, to the embrassement of everyone else in the office. It was like a public shaming. But it made it clear that losing client money was unacceptable and would face harsh reprecussion. Also Cramer fired lots of employees if they made too many losing trades. I learned from Martin Sherekli that in hedge funds, no employees stays at a place long. They usually trade there for a little while and then move on to another firm. Traders/analysts will not say "I'm working for Point72", they will say they are "trading at Point72" or something like that. The reason they don't stay long is because once their performance gets sour, they are then kicked out of the firm. It happens to all traders, so its totally normal in the hedge fund world. Cramer was a great hedge fund manager and he shows how made great performance every year. Definitely different than the view have we of him today of being a bad stock picker. Tho this might be Cramer propanagda of course! Tho Cramer does show bad performance times like in 1998!
I definitely don't think I want to work in a hedge fund. It seems like a lot of stress for no purpose aside from just pure money. It's like working for NASA or SpaceX, where it is high stress, but at least you are making a big rocket at least! The book shows the bad side of Cramer. Of how toxic he is to his fellow employees and family and friends. Because of the stress of performance. At the end of the book, Cramer says its time to retire when stop caring about losing money and just "I lost client's money, but whatever, I'm still up for the year." If you have that attitude, then its time to stop managing money. You should always personally care about managing your money. Also Cramer said "You are only as good as your last trade." It's a toxic mindset, but its true. If your last trade wasn't good, then you feel like crap, even if your last 1000 trades were great. Only your last trade is what matters. Interesting philosophy to consider in life. Cramer cared about the day-to-day trading and he got mad if he bought a stock and was losing money on it. He got mad if he lost it every hour, to every minute. I personally, if I was an investor, would try to be a long-term investor and not worry too much about the day-to-day market. Worrying about the day to day market is way too stressful, just looking at Cramer's experience. Also Cramer advice is never to be married to a stock. Never! For every stock, you should be able to buy it and hold it, but if things change - then sell it and short it. Never stay married/loyal to any stocks! Just stay loyal to people and sports team. A great philosophy. I heard this from Martin Shrekli.
The book is also about TheStreet.com ,which was Cramer's website about finance. It was interesting to learn about the hey day of the dotcome bubble and we learn about it thru Cramer's creation of TheStreet.com. I personally care more about the hedge Fund stuff, but this was interesting too.
Great book to learn about the hedge fund industry, even if its a little outdate. Good advice on hedge fund mindset that can still be applied today.
The modern, 2020s deciption of Jim Cramer is a crazy, loud guy on TV who is always wrong about his stock picks and every stock he picks is wrong and loses value. The whole Cramer-curse is now a thing.
Cramer is still inluential, even after almost 30 years in fiancial media. It's crazy he is still revelant to this day and his sayings go thru popular culture. In the 2010s, he coined the phrase "FAANG" - Facebook, Apple, Amazon Netflix, and Google, and that became the norm to talking about tech stock and tech companies in general. Even tech employees used FAANG phrase, even tho they never watched Jim Cramer. I also think he came up with the phrase of magnificent 7 - the 7 AI related companies leading the market. So Cramer still has a big-lasting prenese in culture which is cool. But, according to this book and Martin Shereki, Cramer is actually a great stock picker and he knows how to get great performance. In the book, he gets outperform performance for every year he works in hedge funds aside from 1998. A good interesting lesson from the book, is that you should do well no matter what the market is doing. You should not be at the whims of the market, that you can produce returns no matter if the market is up or down. Cramer's famous saying is "There is a bull market" somewhere. Another great lesson is to always take losing money personally. Since most of Cramer's money was invested in the hedge fund, of course he took daily market losses personally. But employees didn't take it personally, since they were just on payroll. So he made it clear it was unacceptable to lose client's money and got very anger at people for making trades that lose client's money. He got very anger and toxic, but it might have been necessary to stop anaylsts or traders from losing money. If an employee lost money with a trade, Cramer wrote the ticker symbol on a Post-It and forced it on the employee's forehead and maybe them wear it all day, to the embrassement of everyone else in the office. It was like a public shaming. But it made it clear that losing client money was unacceptable and would face harsh reprecussion. Also Cramer fired lots of employees if they made too many losing trades. I learned from Martin Sherekli that in hedge funds, no employees stays at a place long. They usually trade there for a little while and then move on to another firm. Traders/analysts will not say "I'm working for Point72", they will say they are "trading at Point72" or something like that. The reason they don't stay long is because once their performance gets sour, they are then kicked out of the firm. It happens to all traders, so its totally normal in the hedge fund world. Cramer was a great hedge fund manager and he shows how made great performance every year. Definitely different than the view have we of him today of being a bad stock picker. Tho this might be Cramer propanagda of course! Tho Cramer does show bad performance times like in 1998!
I definitely don't think I want to work in a hedge fund. It seems like a lot of stress for no purpose aside from just pure money. It's like working for NASA or SpaceX, where it is high stress, but at least you are making a big rocket at least! The book shows the bad side of Cramer. Of how toxic he is to his fellow employees and family and friends. Because of the stress of performance. At the end of the book, Cramer says its time to retire when stop caring about losing money and just "I lost client's money, but whatever, I'm still up for the year." If you have that attitude, then its time to stop managing money. You should always personally care about managing your money. Also Cramer said "You are only as good as your last trade." It's a toxic mindset, but its true. If your last trade wasn't good, then you feel like crap, even if your last 1000 trades were great. Only your last trade is what matters. Interesting philosophy to consider in life. Cramer cared about the day-to-day trading and he got mad if he bought a stock and was losing money on it. He got mad if he lost it every hour, to every minute. I personally, if I was an investor, would try to be a long-term investor and not worry too much about the day-to-day market. Worrying about the day to day market is way too stressful, just looking at Cramer's experience. Also Cramer advice is never to be married to a stock. Never! For every stock, you should be able to buy it and hold it, but if things change - then sell it and short it. Never stay married/loyal to any stocks! Just stay loyal to people and sports team. A great philosophy. I heard this from Martin Shrekli.
The book is also about TheStreet.com ,which was Cramer's website about finance. It was interesting to learn about the hey day of the dotcome bubble and we learn about it thru Cramer's creation of TheStreet.com. I personally care more about the hedge Fund stuff, but this was interesting too.
Great book to learn about the hedge fund industry, even if its a little outdate. Good advice on hedge fund mindset that can still be applied today.
February 13, 2009
I always poke fun at Ryan for reading "boring business books", but this one does NOT fit that mold. This is more of a biography of Jim Cramer's life as a hedge fund manager. He currently has a show called mad money where he talks about stocks. He's hilarious - totally insane - but really interesting. He has a journalism background and loves to write, which is probably why I could hardly stand to put this book down. It's still not a "light read" for non-business people, but I really liked it.
October 23, 2014
Like "reminiscences of a stock operator" by Edwin Lefebvre, this book traces the path from a teenager interested in stocks, with an amazing memory and drive, to a successful hedge fund manager. Here, Cramer is willing to share his successes and failures, to the point of burnout.. This a wonderful memoir written by a multidimensional raconteur.
September 2, 2014
Fascinating account of Jim Cramer's life leading up to his money management career, his tenure at his hedge fund, and the IPO of Thesteet.com
January 4, 2015
Cramer's most honest book.
May 19, 2015
Love him or hate him, this is a great read. Even if you don't know him, it's a great read. The guy used to live in his car. Now he's all over the place. That's impressive.
June 9, 2017
Great account of Jim Cramer's early years, as well as his efforts to build TheStreet.com
Read
June 7, 2015FALSE
November 24, 2022
I didn't know much about Jim Cramer other than him being the wild personality with a vast knowledge of the stock market. I set out to learn more about the guy behind thestreet.com, Squawk on the Street, Mad Money, and many other outlets that have put him as the main face behind Wall Street.
Born in Pennsylvania in the mid-50s to Jewish parents, Cramer quickly took an interest in following the stock market through the daily newspaper his father would bring home. He was infatuated by the markets and had a knack for finding an edge. His talents and knowledge brought him to Harvard University where he studied business and law. He was so broke after college that he lived out of his car and barely had enough money to put a meal together. He hustled and grinded his way through the rigorous program of Goldman Sachs and eventually drew attention from a wealthy investor named Marty Peretz, who discovered Cramer from Cramer's answering machine - calling out popular stock recommendations that were all driving positive results. This would spur a lifelong friendship and partnership with Mr. Peretz.
Cramer later went on to manage his own hedge fund, first alongside his wife "The Trading Goddess," and later with his partner and mentee Jeff Berkowitz to create Cramer Berkowitz. Through the hedge fund, Cramer and his colleagues were able to play the market game, riding the ups and weathering the downs. He was able to avoid most of the '87 crash and the dot com crash of '99. It was also in 1998 that he put his website, thestreet.com, up for an IPO. The website, which had been losing millions since its inception with only $5M revenue - would be valued near $1B, bringing even more fortune to Cramer, but clearly foreshadowing the dotcom bubble that was gradually increasing.
Cramer quickly grew into the "Street Addict" as his book title implies. Although a multimillionaire and a highly regarded Wall Street guru, his family life greatly diminished during his hedge fund years, forcing him to miss vacations and spend less and less time with his wife and kids. The missed birthdays, sleepless nights, and endless thoughts and pressure from work made him come to the realization that he quit the hedge fund and turn it over to Berkowitz in the early 2000s. He walked away while still on top and turned to writing and reviewing the markets, which was his passion all along.
It was a fascinating read, and a fun lookback on the markets of the 90s and early 2000s. The messages that come out of the book are to follow your passion, work harder than the rest, but don't let the work consume every minute of your life. The markets are endless. They are working around the clock, and if you are day trading, they will keep you churning at the same rate. The book is perfect for anyone interested in business, finding out more about the way markets behave, and anyone just wanting to find out more about the genius that is Jim Cramer.
As a side note, today Jim Cramer manages a charitable trust portfolio, donating millions to charity. He also owns The Bar San Miguel in Brooklyn, where he can sometimes be found waiting tables or washing dishes.
Born in Pennsylvania in the mid-50s to Jewish parents, Cramer quickly took an interest in following the stock market through the daily newspaper his father would bring home. He was infatuated by the markets and had a knack for finding an edge. His talents and knowledge brought him to Harvard University where he studied business and law. He was so broke after college that he lived out of his car and barely had enough money to put a meal together. He hustled and grinded his way through the rigorous program of Goldman Sachs and eventually drew attention from a wealthy investor named Marty Peretz, who discovered Cramer from Cramer's answering machine - calling out popular stock recommendations that were all driving positive results. This would spur a lifelong friendship and partnership with Mr. Peretz.
Cramer later went on to manage his own hedge fund, first alongside his wife "The Trading Goddess," and later with his partner and mentee Jeff Berkowitz to create Cramer Berkowitz. Through the hedge fund, Cramer and his colleagues were able to play the market game, riding the ups and weathering the downs. He was able to avoid most of the '87 crash and the dot com crash of '99. It was also in 1998 that he put his website, thestreet.com, up for an IPO. The website, which had been losing millions since its inception with only $5M revenue - would be valued near $1B, bringing even more fortune to Cramer, but clearly foreshadowing the dotcom bubble that was gradually increasing.
Cramer quickly grew into the "Street Addict" as his book title implies. Although a multimillionaire and a highly regarded Wall Street guru, his family life greatly diminished during his hedge fund years, forcing him to miss vacations and spend less and less time with his wife and kids. The missed birthdays, sleepless nights, and endless thoughts and pressure from work made him come to the realization that he quit the hedge fund and turn it over to Berkowitz in the early 2000s. He walked away while still on top and turned to writing and reviewing the markets, which was his passion all along.
It was a fascinating read, and a fun lookback on the markets of the 90s and early 2000s. The messages that come out of the book are to follow your passion, work harder than the rest, but don't let the work consume every minute of your life. The markets are endless. They are working around the clock, and if you are day trading, they will keep you churning at the same rate. The book is perfect for anyone interested in business, finding out more about the way markets behave, and anyone just wanting to find out more about the genius that is Jim Cramer.
As a side note, today Jim Cramer manages a charitable trust portfolio, donating millions to charity. He also owns The Bar San Miguel in Brooklyn, where he can sometimes be found waiting tables or washing dishes.
May 29, 2017
Jim Cramer wrote this book long before I knew who he is, but I have read two of his books already (Real Money and Get Rich Carefully), and I have been watching his television show, Mad Money, regularly for a couple of years, so I thought I might enjoy this book. It is Cramer's story of how he went from living in his car while working as a starving reporter to managing a very successful hedge fund, to eventually retiring from that hedge fund. It is an incredible story and I found it hard to put down once I started reading.
The story starts when Cramer was a college student living in a small apartment and dealing with a thief who was breaking in day after day, despite Cramer's efforts to keep him out. The police were no help and eventually the thief took everything Cramer owned. He was left with his car and the clothes he was wearing. For the next nine months he lived in that car, depending on a crappy paying job as a reporting and the goodness of friends until he was able to buy new clothes and eventually afford the rent on another apartment.
Cramer went on to work for Goldman Sachs for a while and then to managing his own hedge fund, which he did for many years. He was literally addicted to his work, so much so that he barely had a personal life. He met and married the only woman a man like him was likely to find; a trading partner. But when his wife, Karen, was ready to try to lead some kind of normal life, Jim couldn't give up the long hours and constant pressure of the hedge fund, so home life suffered. At least until he finally gave up the hedge fund.
There is so much more to the story. If you know anything about the stock market or what it means to be a trader, you should read this. If you know who Jim Cramer is and are any kind of fan, you should read this. I learned two things about Cramer from this book. First, Jim Cramer is an idiot. Second, Jim Cramer is a genius. You should read it and see what I mean.
The story starts when Cramer was a college student living in a small apartment and dealing with a thief who was breaking in day after day, despite Cramer's efforts to keep him out. The police were no help and eventually the thief took everything Cramer owned. He was left with his car and the clothes he was wearing. For the next nine months he lived in that car, depending on a crappy paying job as a reporting and the goodness of friends until he was able to buy new clothes and eventually afford the rent on another apartment.
Cramer went on to work for Goldman Sachs for a while and then to managing his own hedge fund, which he did for many years. He was literally addicted to his work, so much so that he barely had a personal life. He met and married the only woman a man like him was likely to find; a trading partner. But when his wife, Karen, was ready to try to lead some kind of normal life, Jim couldn't give up the long hours and constant pressure of the hedge fund, so home life suffered. At least until he finally gave up the hedge fund.
There is so much more to the story. If you know anything about the stock market or what it means to be a trader, you should read this. If you know who Jim Cramer is and are any kind of fan, you should read this. I learned two things about Cramer from this book. First, Jim Cramer is an idiot. Second, Jim Cramer is a genius. You should read it and see what I mean.
July 30, 2019
If this book is rated 5-stars, why did it take me 3 months to finish it? Because it was that good.
I don’t idolize many people - if you treat people like celebrities, they’ll treat you like a fan - but Jim Cramer has written back to tweets, posted one on his show, and allowed me to phone in. He’s never treated me like a fan, and I’m grateful for his genuine desire to help people. I’m self-taught in stocks and he, through his books and Mad Money, coached me through my first 2yrs of casual trading and improving my financial literacy. If he read this review, I know he’d light up - he’s that kind of guy.
This book was my 3rd of his and, in all honesty, it should have been my 1st - it’s the ultimate origin story. And I wish I knew it earlier. But it was compelling, not so much in its ability to teach me financial literacy, but definitely in regards to its humanity, ambition, and drive, in addition to the need to walk away and spend time with family.
Sure, I was distracted by other reads in those three months, and I had my job and family - I guess this book resonates with me on many levels. But this book was REAL, genuine, and, as Mr. Cramer has said to me twice (tweet and on the phone): “It holds up, as they say.”
I don’t idolize many people - if you treat people like celebrities, they’ll treat you like a fan - but Jim Cramer has written back to tweets, posted one on his show, and allowed me to phone in. He’s never treated me like a fan, and I’m grateful for his genuine desire to help people. I’m self-taught in stocks and he, through his books and Mad Money, coached me through my first 2yrs of casual trading and improving my financial literacy. If he read this review, I know he’d light up - he’s that kind of guy.
This book was my 3rd of his and, in all honesty, it should have been my 1st - it’s the ultimate origin story. And I wish I knew it earlier. But it was compelling, not so much in its ability to teach me financial literacy, but definitely in regards to its humanity, ambition, and drive, in addition to the need to walk away and spend time with family.
Sure, I was distracted by other reads in those three months, and I had my job and family - I guess this book resonates with me on many levels. But this book was REAL, genuine, and, as Mr. Cramer has said to me twice (tweet and on the phone): “It holds up, as they say.”
February 16, 2017
I avoided reading this book for a long time mainly because I do not hold the author in high regard when it comes to investing. But boy this book is gorgeous!
Written as a memoir it clearly has personal bias and also parts that were of little interest for me, e.g. on journalism, TV appearances or media business.
However, the main part of the book is about running the hedge fund and on investing/trading in late 90ies - these were delicious!
Two chapters about his hedge fund's crisis in 1998 are the best writing on what hell fund managers actually go through in periods of crisis. Beside that, there were a lot of relevant and entertaining tidbits on trading game that hedge funds were involved in two decades ago.
Chapters on dotcom madness were also interesting to read, a good remainder how bizarre events can unfold in unchecked financial systems.
Five stars.
Written as a memoir it clearly has personal bias and also parts that were of little interest for me, e.g. on journalism, TV appearances or media business.
However, the main part of the book is about running the hedge fund and on investing/trading in late 90ies - these were delicious!
Two chapters about his hedge fund's crisis in 1998 are the best writing on what hell fund managers actually go through in periods of crisis. Beside that, there were a lot of relevant and entertaining tidbits on trading game that hedge funds were involved in two decades ago.
Chapters on dotcom madness were also interesting to read, a good remainder how bizarre events can unfold in unchecked financial systems.
Five stars.
January 8, 2018
Very Energetic Book.
Obviously with the book written from Cramers perspective there is a major bias when understanding some of the emphasized stories in the book. The author does his best to recognize when he is wrong.
What I also appreciate is that the author does his best to unravel the details and explain some of the financial dilemmas to audience which might include individuals who are not familiar with the markets. This book is great for readers who want a personalized perspective in to the hedge fund world and some of the ups and downs. These esteemed positions in the world of high finance are humbled and accessible to readers who may aspire to join these ranks.
Thank you James J. Cramer.
Obviously with the book written from Cramers perspective there is a major bias when understanding some of the emphasized stories in the book. The author does his best to recognize when he is wrong.
What I also appreciate is that the author does his best to unravel the details and explain some of the financial dilemmas to audience which might include individuals who are not familiar with the markets. This book is great for readers who want a personalized perspective in to the hedge fund world and some of the ups and downs. These esteemed positions in the world of high finance are humbled and accessible to readers who may aspire to join these ranks.
Thank you James J. Cramer.
March 29, 2020
I really like Jim Cramer as a TV personality and have often used his stock picks over the years in building my own portfolio. While I love his personal story and how hard of a worker he is, this book drags at times. It does do a good job of balancing his egotistical nature with his brutal self awareness. I feel like it did give me some clarity on what goes through Hedge Fund manager's brains during periods of extreme volatility. But, overall, I would maybe push this one down your list of must reads. I don't think I gained enough personally from it for the time spent on it to justify recommending it.
February 11, 2022
A nice read, Cramer usually comes across a rude, brutal person, however, his autobiography gives the impression that he is grounded. In the sense, he makes mistakes but at least he admits he screwed up!! Apart from that revelation, it was nice to understand his risk taking appetite, especially the line where he says "The reason we in the hedge fund game have such a high burnout rate - the reason why there are no old hedge fund managers - is that if you don't care after watching a stock fall 10 points the moment after you bought it, then you shouldn't be in the game anymore." That's the kind of person I would like to invest my money with.
August 27, 2024
I would give this a five star, but there was too much bad language in it, which tarnished the book for me. Jim Cramer’s confessions is a good reminder of what happens to people who focus their lives on money. Thankfully he owned up to many of his mistakes throughout the book. Basically he confessed to being a jerk. The rich young fool, and the person who just keeps building bigger barns has no purpose and meaning in this life and hope for the life to come through Christ. I am thankful that at the end of the book he decided to get right with some of his friends and family. My prayer is he will get right with God through Jesus. This book certainly gives you insight into the man he is today.
June 7, 2019
I am a Cramer disciple/longtime member of his investment club, Action Alerts Plus, so it was only fitting for me to finally crank out his 2002 memoir. Some hilarious anecdotes (especially re throwing assorted objects and choking out associates), and the book ages well even after seventeen years + a technological revolution. Overall though, this was nothing groundbreaking. Each chapter covers an episode of years in Jim’s career, leading up to his expeditious decision to leave the hedge fund he co-founded.
December 24, 2020
Confessions of a Street Addict by Jim Cramer is an autobiography that starts from his childhood all the way to the dot com bubble...concluding around 2001.
This may seem dated from a 'stock market' perspective, but because it's an autobiography it's super interesting and entertaining to see how MadMoney came to be and how critical his wife was to his success.
If you're into stock picking or watch Cramer on TV every day of the week on @cnbc, this book is a must read.
Happy holidays everyone.
8/10 READ-IT-METER
#52Books52Weeks #jimcramer #madmoney
This may seem dated from a 'stock market' perspective, but because it's an autobiography it's super interesting and entertaining to see how MadMoney came to be and how critical his wife was to his success.
If you're into stock picking or watch Cramer on TV every day of the week on @cnbc, this book is a must read.
Happy holidays everyone.
8/10 READ-IT-METER
#52Books52Weeks #jimcramer #madmoney
Read
January 19, 2021This book contains a lot of useful info on what not to in investing. James Cramer is maniac speculator. He is emotional. He is also an amateur at reading people and got set up by newspapers, blackmailed by Desai. He makes bad decisions by opening his fund for redemptions for Spitzer, which caused his fund to almost collapse .His wife is also a speculator, just a bit better than him. All in all, as speculators, they wont last in the market. Jim's long run equilibrium job is to loudmouth on TV, the way he trades he or his portfolio would soon perish, whichever first.
September 15, 2020
Had to summon all my might to click buy for this book given the author, but was so highly recommended by someone I respect, I did. A slow start but came alive around a third in when he experienced a near fund death experience. This is told less subtly, but is an insight of Wall St in xthe 90s as Liar’s Poker was for the 80s. Stunned by the intensity of hedge fund manager life and the dot com boom side from a business perspective that Cramer manages to evoke.
February 21, 2021
Well written and fun, but it felt like a book where Cramer was trying to make amends and apologize to many people in his life. His (now ex) wife, his first and most influential business partner. The stories are great, and fun to relive the big financial stories of the 80-90s through his trading prism
February 3, 2025
Intriguing insight into the life of a Wall Street addict. Jim Cramer describes the constant hunger to beat the market and the toll it takes on other aspects of his life. This book taught me many new vocabulary words from the finance world, and Cramer makes it a point to convey the topics he touches on in a way so that no previous knowledge of the market is needed.
January 28, 2018
Very very good first part. In first chapter author tells the story of his hedge fund and how he traded. Very useful to a retail trader to read first hand about actions of large operator. Second part where he tells the story of his career in a media not as impressive.
February 23, 2020
Interesting perspectives related to Cramer’s hedge fund days and dot.com involvements. Copyright is 2002 so many parts are pretty dated. Some interesting corollaries between an equities trader and a commodity traders. Well written.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews