Abelson Chose to Miss the Point

My ethos could not be more different from Mr. Abelson's. First, I am a practitioner, and I chronicle my every move in Action Alerts PLUS, my private money that I run publicly. I never shirk from admitting my mistakes; instead, I dwell on them to learn from them. I change my mind, I take losses, I own up to them -- all things that are emphatically antithetical to Abelson's style.

Second, from the very beginning of TheStreet.com, from its inception, I strove to have as many negative voices and voices opposite mine, if only because I was so repulsed by the negative, anti-accountable group-think that was that of Barron's and Mr. Abelson.

Third, despite the repeated attempts by Mr. Abelson to portray me and this company as dot-com bull-market flameouts, we, in our seventh year, are nicely profitable on a cash flow basis, and are expanding into honest brokerage while simultaneously building cash. I don't ask Mr. Abelson to acknowledge that we are here to stay; that would be asking too much. I am asking that we at least be acknowledged as one of the few companies that survived a brutal period and have prospered despite the naysayers, of whom the principal survival-denier is indeed Mr. Abelson.

Finally, I completely reject his characterization of me as a terrible money manager who has repeatedly encouraged buying and holding bad speculative companies. First, there's an empirical record that is never referred to in any of his diatribes: my 24% compound after all fees at Cramer Berkowitz. Can any manager claim to have beaten me over the 14-year period that I managed my hedge fund? Second, as far as my Winners of the New World speech, which my critics endlessly and scathingly refer to, I have said repeatedly in these pages and others that I was asked to give a speech about what my hedge fund owned and why. I didn't want to do it; I didn't want to because at my hedge fund, I changed my mind when I thought the market dictated it and I didn't want to be locked into any position. But I was asked and I delivered. Anyone who reads me knows that in the next month, I said that I was, alas, too bullish and I urged people to take things off the table, including my own recommendations. Not long after that, I suggested that the surge in tech was over and I detailed repeatedly that the so-called "Red Hot" stocks that I had praised had become shorts because we had gone from being in a bull market to being in a bear market. I admitted that I was buying bonds for the first time in my life, an excellent call that the naysayers would sooner go to their grave than admit I made.

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At the time of publication, Cramer was long TheStreet.com.

James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to [e-mail]. Listen to Cramer's RealMoney Radio show on your computer; just click here. Click here to buy Cramer's latest book, "You Got Screwed!" Click here to order Cramer's autobiography, "Confessions of a Street Addict."