Jon Stewart, take note: Jim Cramer is not that bad at picking stocks, the New York Times reports. A study of Cramer’s televised market advice shows that the former hedge fund manager beat the market in 2005-07. The raw numbers from the fictional “Cramer portfolio” outperformed the S&P and other indices. With the addition of other factors, the CNBC host was merely so-so.
“While Cramer may be entertaining and mesmerizing to many of his viewers,” the study says, “his aggregate or average stock recommendations are neither extraordinarily good nor unusually bad.”