In 2014, before I knew better, I briefly lost my mind and decided that investing in single stocks was a good idea. I started researching the best stocks and how to find “value picks”. Of course I stumbled across many stock gurus ad’s, promising to deliver impressive returns.
Before long, I became jaded and wondered how on earth anyone could figure out which were good stocks to buy at a given time. I watched many companies beat analyst expectations and deliver great profit reports only to see their stock prices take a negative plunge. What sense does that make?
Jim Cramer was the final straw for me. Cramer is an American stock picking guru who has a crazy financial show on CNBC. I wanted to see Cramer’s long term stock picking results so I signed up for his 30 day Action Alerts Plus website trial. For me, long term results paint the only viable picture. I prefer to look at 20-30 year results but Cramer’s history on his Action Alerts Plus only went back to 2001.
Here’s the results:
Action Alerts Plus lagged the market by almost 42% from 2002-2014.
If you’d like to see the full breakdown, Here is the proof.
To me this was shocking. Others may say what they want about Jim Cramer since he’s a t.v. personality, but the bottom line is this guy lives and breathes the stock market and is far more knowledgable than the average recreational investor.
So if Cramer can’t beat the market, what chance do we have? Very little which is why investing long term into Index Funds makes more sense than anything.
