Beware the Wall Street Hype

Editor's note: As a special bonus to TheStreet.com readers, we will be running an updated version of Jim Cramer's "Twenty-Five Rules of Investing," from his latest book, Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World. Here's Rule 23.

Amateurs and professionals alike simply don't have enough respect for the Wall Street promotion machine.

They don't realize that balls can stay in the air much longer than they should. They don't understand that analysts and firms get behind stocks -- sometimes irrationally, sometimes greedily -- and they can keep the stocks propelled in an up direction well beyond reason.

That's why I say,

Never underestimate the Wall Street promotion machine.

Consider American International Group(AIG Quote) and Fannie Mae(FNM Quote). Here are two companies with extensive banking opportunities dangling from one side and good track records hanging from the other. These had been two lovey blankets for the sell side for so long that they wouldn't give them up. Both stocks stayed up far too long, even in the post-Spitzer era, because the analysts viewed it as their job to keep the stocks up.

Now, I don't mind admitting that things are better now than they used to be. When I owned Cabela's(CAB Quote) right after it came public, the analysts who brought it public bent over backward not to recommend the stock, to the point that I missed the promotion machine.

Analysts now have some degree of conscience and are able to separate themselves from being flunkies for banking. But that doesn't mean they won't fall in love with some stocks and do everything they can to praise them long after they shouldn't. It tends to happen particularly to winners, stocks like the online education companies or the biotechs or some of the doggier software companies. The hope never ends. The hype never ends. Not until the cracks are so obvious that it is too late to get out.

In particular, when you short a stock remember that an analyst will twist any data point into a positive to get a stock juiced. Again, that's his job. Don't think badly of him; just be ready to reload when he does it.

	1.	Pigs Get Slaughtered		2.	It's OK to Pay the Taxes
	3.	Don't Buy All at Once		4.	Buy Damaged Stocks
	5.	Diversify to Control Risk		6.	Do Your Homework
	7.	Don't Panic		8.	Buy Best-of-Breed
	9.	Defend Some Stocks		10.	Don't Bet on Bad Stocks
	11.	Own Fewer Names		12.	Cash Is for Winners
	13.	No Regrets		14.	Expect Corrections
	15.	Know Bonds		16.	Don't Subsidize Losers
	17.	No Room for Hope		18.	Be Flexible
	19.	Quit When Execs Do		20.	Patience Is a Virtue
	21.	Be a TV Critic		22.	When to Wait 30 Days
	23.	Beware the Hype		24.	Explain Your Picks
	25.	Find the Bull Market