Giving Up on Value Is a Sin

Editor's note: As a special bonus to TheStreet.com readers, we will be running an updated version of Jim Cramer's "Twenty-Five Rules of Investing," from his latest book, Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World. Here's Rule 20.

Patience is a virtue -- giving up on value is a sin.

I see so many people throwing in the towel on companies that have real assets and real worth just because they aren't working now, and it angers me. I recall an interview I did a year or so ago with the CEO of Superior Industries(SUP Quote), a wheelmaker for auto companies. At the time, its stock was at a 52-week low. It had a big short position. It was getting lumped in with ne'er-do-well companies.

And I asked myself, "Why sell that one? It's already down so much, it has a clean balance sheet, it can make acquisitions, buy back shares, do so many things." But people didn't want to wait until the cycle turned to get the profit that most certainly would come to those who waited for Superior. That's because it was cheap and good. It was cheap because it sold at book value; it was good because it had plenty of business. ...