It's been two weeks since I moved over full-time to
TheStreet.com Inc. (TSCM Quote - Cramer on TSCM - Stock Picks), publisher of this Web site, and all I can say is, "It is about time." Finally, after four years of trying to please everyone -- my partners and associates at the hedge fund, the fine folks in business and my editors at TSC (and pleasing no one!) -- I have declared where my heart is, writing for
TheStreet.com.
Yesterday I got an email from someone telling me that for the first time in two years he felt like reading me, that I had something of value, something that wasn't fleeting. And you know something, he was right! My allegiances, my core, my brain was deeply mired in the extreme short term. They had to be and I had to be. I lived under the constant threat that the money would go elsewhere if I didn't deliver every day of the week. That's a legacy of my ill-fated 1998 when I stumbled -- no, I didn't lose any money, but I didn't make much -- and a slew of partners pulled out in disgust. My crime? Sticking with a lot of value, particularly in the financials, when they fell out of favor. My punishment? One hundred million in withdrawals.
Ever since then, whatever longer-term survival instincts I might have developed went out the window -- along with the fun of the process. After (at the time) 17 years of running money, a one-strike-and-you're-out policy seemed a little harsh. But that was the reality of the marketplace.
Now I am freed, and you are seeing me unshackled. I have to laugh at all of those folks who said, "Now that you are not at your trading turret, you will lose your edge." They obviously don't know how many ways there are to make money. Sure, I have lost my edge to take and bid and then sell
Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) during the conference call. Good riddance. But my edge for picking stocks? Heck, I picked stocks when I didn't have two nickels. I picked stocks when I was living in my car. I picked stocks when I was taking Evidence and Civil Procedure at law school. I picked stocks during the bar exam breaks, and on every vacation for years.
Now, I am free to do it again, for you. It is much more fun to pick them for the longer term than for the minute-to-minute. It is much more fun to write, not caring that the
NDX is about to break out of the 2500 level or that the
SOX might tank and I have to exit stage right
Texas Instruments(TXN Quote - Cramer on TXN - Stock Picks), even as I might have loved it for the intermediate or long term. (I do.)
It is just much more fun coming to work here than there. Wow, I said it. Didn't think it would happen. Yes, many people figured I would be back over there wanting to trade by now, if not last week. Nah, I love it here. So, now as I prepare to travel with my family, I am saying goodbye to my personal computer for a couple of days, which, by the way, will be the longest I have ever left the darned thing. Bear with me, email monster. I will be back, rested -- probably not tanned judging by the forecast -- giving this great company and you all I have on Tuesday of next week.
Random musings: Make my vacation great by buying a copy of
TheStreet.com's
new book. You won't regret it. In fact, it probably answers the very question you were thinking of emailing me just now!
Jim Cramer
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