Cramer on How to Start Your Own Hedge Fund

How do you start your own fund? I get asked that question at least three times a day. I always say the same thing: You start it by making money for yourself.

It's so many peoples' dreams to run money these days that I've got to tell you how I got started in this business. For me, I was always a stock picker. I had my own stock game in fifth grade, where I tried to beat the averages. I started a stock newsletter in 1978 that I would send only to my Mom and Dad. They followed it religiously and made a few bucks to boot.

In 1982, while I was at Harvard Law, I was recommending stocks on my answering machine, something that the securities law professors at Harvard told me violated the 1940 Investment Advisers Act, so I signed up to be one immediately. Boy, that process is barely a barrier to entry, let me tell you. ...