The Importance of Informed Worrying

By reading different viewpoints here, we challenge ourselves to become better investors.
By Jim Cramer ,

Editor's Note: James J. Cramer's column runs exclusively on RealMoney.com; this is a special free look at his column. For a free trial subscription to RealMoney.com, click here. This article appeared on RealMoney earlier today.

Aren't you worried about the weak dollar? Aren't you worried about

Bill Fleckenstein's

comments? Aren't you concerned about the bigger macro picture?

I've gotten about a two dozen pieces of email like that since Bill Fleckenstein's series of downbeat articles about structural issues including the dollar. Here is my response, and it isn't what many of you think it will be: I am deeply worried about what Fleckenstein writes. I don't want to see the dollar fall off a cliff. I am worried that sales in the end markets are weak. I worry about the role of America overseas and what it means. I think the tax package is too big now, vs. what I'm hearing in the marketplace.

But remember: Above all, I am a stock-picker. I am picking stocks like

BP

(BP) - Get Report

and

Royal Dutch

(RD)

and

Anadarko

(APC) - Get Report

, which fit into Bill's worldview, or at least aren't opposed to it.

I am a buyer of

Raytheon

(RTN) - Get Report

and

Honeywell

(HON) - Get Report

because they have good yields and important aerospace businesses that I think are at their bottom. I have very little tech -- probably less than Bill. Because I remain suspicious of that group, I own a low-beta portfolio with high yields and a premium on safety.

That's what happens when you worry. You tailor your portfolio to your worries. I never ignore the negatives. I have too much respect for Bill's work. I use them to challenge my own views. I use lots of the great minds on the site to challenge my own views. I have been back and forth in my thinking, for example, on

Commerce Bank

(CBH) - Get Report

with every piece that

Peter Eavis writes. Why? Because time and again, Eavis has proven to be an astute questioner of the way companies work.

But my style has always been nondoctrinaire and opportunistic. I have always tried to be open-minded. Two stocks that Eavis correctly questioned,

Sears

(S) - Get Report

and

Capital One

(COF) - Get Report

, have rocketed here. Do you know why? Because they addressed Eavis' concerns. If you were wedded to the negatives, you weren't reading Eavis with an eye toward making money -- you were reading it with an eye toward doctrine. That's not my style.

It's the same with Fleck. If I didn't agree with Fleck on some of the bigger issues, I would have a very different portfolio than I do. I would also be recommending, like my TV partner Larry Kudlow, that information technology is the place to be.

It's important to recognize that the fundamental principle of

TheStreet.com

is that we publish different views. We do that because there is no "boss" here saying "I want you to write a positive article about TD Waterhouse, or mention them positively, because, well, you know." That doesn't happen here. We also don't have a party line on stocks. We try to challenge each other to make each other better investors.

When I look at all the stuff that's come out of the Spitzer issues, I come back to how much better the world would have been with more and different views. The big brokers have a true party line, bought and paid for through investment banking, enforced by bonuses. That's corrupt. And it loses you money.

We play it differently. The challenge isn't to stifle dissent and honest opinions that hurt the feelings of clients larger than you. The challenge is to stimulate dissent to make you more rigorous about what you own and why you do it.

Which is why, in the end, I read Fleck and everyone else on the site and adjust my views accordingly.

And I never stop worrying.

James J. Cramer is a director and co-founder of TheStreet.com. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet.com's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO. Outside contributing columnists for TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com, including Cramer, may, from time to time, write about stocks in which they have a position. In such cases, appropriate disclosure is made. At the time of publication, Cramer was long Anadarko Petroleum, BP, Commerce Bank, Honeywell, Raytheon and Royal Dutch.

To see his personal portfolio and find out what trades Cramer will make before he makes them, sign up for Action Alerts PLUS by

clicking here. While he cannot provide personalized investment advice or recommendations, he invites you to send comments on his column to

jjcletters@realmoney.com.

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