Tracy Byrnes
Editor's note: Welcome to "Booyah Breakdown," an explanation of certain terms and topics Jim Cramer discusses on his "Mad Money" TV show. Feel free to ask a question if you're confused about something Cramer talks about, but please keep in mind that we do not provide advice on specific stocks. Your questions keep coming. Yippee! Rather than focus on one topic, this week's edition of Booyah Breakdown will tackle a few of your smaller Cramer queries. Keep sending your questions, and we'll keep answering them! What does Cramer mean when he says that he would trade a stock "if his restrictions let him?" What are the restrictions that he is talking about? -- H.H. Cramer has legal restrictions on when he can buy and sell stocks because, let's face it, what the guy says can move the market. So the higher-ups have placed some limitations on him so that no one can accuse him of touting or slamming a stock for his own personal gain. As a result, Cramer is restricted from making trades in his charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, for five days after he mentions a stock on his television or radio show. In addition, he must also hold any stock he buys for at least one month. Finally, he cannot short stocks or trade options. Talk about having your hands tied. But the guy's mission is to educate Cramerica these days, so he has no choice but to follow the rules. In your article on calculating EPS, you said: "While I think everyone should crunch a few numbers now and again, there's really no need. Top-notch research firms have done all this number crunching for you, and many of them offer their reports on the Web for free." But where? Where are the good places where you can get such numbers? -- J.S. Thanks to the Internet, you've got a ton of options these days. But make sure you're reading research from reputable organizations. The best place to start is with the broker you use to make trades. Odds are good there are research reports available to you, as a customer, on its Web site. For instance, I have an account with Fidelity. So I can go to my home page, click on "research," then "stocks" and then "browse research reports" and a bunch of different reputable options come up, including reports from top firms like Lehman Brothers, Standard & Poor's and Thomson Financial. So I pop in the ticker of the company I'm researching, and a list of research reports pops up. Same goes for a Charles Schwab (SCHW Quote - Cramer on SCHW - Stock Picks) account. Just recently, the company announced that all of its proprietary and third-party research will be available to all clients free of charge, says spokeswoman Lara Edge.
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