Jim Cramer's Portfolios of the Week

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By Roberto Pedone

PEWAUKEE, Wis. (TheStreet) -- According to Jim Cramer, if investors want to make money in the market, they have to break the rules. Cramer said that market players need to forget about "buy and hold" and the notion of investing only in index funds.

Cramer thinks investors can pick their own stocks if they're willing to put in the time and effort. In fact, Cramer believes that if investors do their homework, they'll have the edge over much of Wall Street. But homework isn't easy, and it's time consuming, so Cramer advised viewers to stay interested in the markets by speculating with up to 20% of their non-IRA portfolios.

Speculating in the markets is fun, and it can pay off in a big way. In fact, Cramer's speculative stock pick of the year has turned out to be a huge winner for anyone who followed his advice. Back on June 5, Cramer named Sallie Mae(SLM) his speculative stock of the year. Since that recommendation, shares of Sallie Mae have risen 62%. Even after that huge move, Cramer still sees SLM trading much higher.

Recently, Cramer found opportunity in 12 stocks to play for an economic recovery, oil companies that benefit from being in Iraq and stocks worth buying before the end of the year. Here are some Cramer highlights from over the past week as aggregated from his "Mad Money" TV show, the "Stop Trading!" segment on CNBC and his RealMoney blog posts (these blog posts might require a RealMoney subscription).