Rule No. 24: Explain Your Picks

Editor's note: Jim Cramer's new book, Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World, is available in selected bookstores now. As a special bonus to RealMoney readers, we will be running Cramer's "Twenty-Five Rules of Investing." For more about the new book and to order it, click here. Today, we present Cramer's twenty-fourth rule of investing. Read more about his rules:

1. Pigs Get Slaughtered
2. It's OK to Pay the Taxes
3. Don't Buy All at Once
4. Buy Damaged Stocks
5. Diversify to Control Risk
6. Do Your Homework
7. Don't Panic
8. Buy Best-of-Breed
9. Defend Some Stocks
10. Don't Bet on Bad Stocks
11. Don't Own Too Many Names
12. Cash Is for Winners
13. No Woulda, Shoulda, Couldas
14. Expect Corrections
15. Watch Bonds
16. Don't Subsidize Losers
17. Check Hope at the Door
18. Be Flexible
19. Quit When Execs Do
20. Patience Is a Virtue
21. Be a TV Critic
22. When to Wait 30 Days
23. Beware Stock Hype

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One of the worst things that ever happened to stock picking was the Internet, because it took away one of the most important brakes on the process, one of the most important warning systems, which is talking to someone about a buy. Now you can, with a stroke of a key, buy the stock of Sirius(SIRI Quote) or Avaya(AV Quote) without ever having to explain to another human being why you are doing so. ...