Sneak Preview: Piggyback the Right Way

Editor's note: This is a special sneak preview of Jim Cramer's just-released book, Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). Look for more sneak previews every day, and get your free copy with your annual subscription to Action Alerts PLUS; click here for details. Catch Cramer in person at his last book signing event: Saturday, Jan. 12, at 1 p.m. in Westbury, Long Island's Costco.

Missed the first sneak previews? Read the book intro and the rules of getting and staying rich: Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4 and Rule 5. Know what pros do right and amateurs do wrong: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5. Learn the five mini-bull markets that will stampede for years, starting with aerospace and defense, agriculture, oil and oil service, minerals and mining and infrastructure.

5. Piggybacking can be a winning strategy if you remember to stay on the pig! If you like an idea suggested by a great stock-picker and you buy a stock, don't jettison it as long as the champion of the stock still loves it.

In the past few years, I have come to love a website that identifies stocks owned by great investors and lets you cross- reference those stocks with those of other holders: www.stockpickr.com. It also allows you to be involved in a community of investors who have posted their own portfolios and given reasons to own the stocks. I find this an incredibly worthwhile way to get started finding a stock.

Not long ago I learned that Rich Pzena, perhaps the greatest value manager of our time, had purchased a big stake in American Physicians Capital. I reached out to Rich -- he's an old friend -- to ask him the story. He pointed me to the company's website, which showed that this malpractice insurance company was beginning to benefit from a tide that had turned against the plaintiffs in lawsuits against doctors. He told me to monitor those lawsuit verdicts through the company's website and to follow his holdings on the stock to know if anything needed to be done, but that he was in it for as long as his thesis played out. Tracking Rich and others like him is what Stockpickr.com was made for.