Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: Picking the Right Stocks

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The world's economies won't wreak havoc on your portfolio if you have the right stocks, Jim Cramer told his "Mad Money" TV show viewers Wednesday as he sounded off against the so-called "top-down" approach to investing.

Cramer said that according to the macro-economic thinkers, all stocks are tied to their respective economies. So if the economies are accelerating, stocks will, too. But if they're decelerating, stocks will also follow suit.

There's just one problem, however -- things just don't work that way.

Cramer called the top-down approach "lazy thinking" because, in reality, the correlation just isn't there, especially if investors are picking the right stocks. He said with the interest rates in U.S. Treasuries expected to remain near zero for at least the next two or three years, stocks with dividends north of 3%, 4% and even 5% are the only place to be. Plus, with only 10% of mutual funds currently beating the S&P 500, investors will see a voracious appetite for stocks as money managers race to catch up.

Cramer once again railed against the notion that individual investors are better off simply investing in index funds rather than picking their own stocks. He said if investors do their homework, they can choose a small portfolio of stocks that will easily beat the averages and most mutual funds as well.

To illustrate his point, Cramer went through a list of his top holdings for charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS.

He said that CVS Caremark (CVS) remains his top holding as the company continues to pick up business from Express Scripts (ESRX). His second-largest holding, Apple (AAPL), has the ability to grow in spite of economic weakness.

Also making the list is J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), a bank that's making money on mortgages here in the U.S. while its losses in Europe continue to wane. Boeing (BA) is another holding as the seven-year aerospace cycle is just now gaining steam. Finally, Schlumberger (SLB) is a play on the rising price of oil.

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