📈 Jim Cramer: Why You Should Never Buy "Normal" Stocks

0:01Yetis, whip out your wallets and pop open your portfolio. Because today's interview is financial advice. The lawyers don't want us to say it, but we just did. And careful, because he has a lot of greed. Today, we're standing up with Jim Cramer, America's biggest stock-owning evangelist. The man who simplifies Wall Street like it's Sesame Street. And breaks down the S &P 500 like it's the Indy 500. From Philadelphia to Goldman Sachs. He has interviewed every CEO from Apple to Zillow. Love him or love to challenge him, Jim Cramer pulled off one market win that no one else had. He was the first to make finance fun.

0:38And make millions of Americans care about companies they can't even pronounce. His dog, it's named NVIDIA. True story. And that was five years before you even knew what AI stood for. 2017, stocked at two bucks. 2017. He is not just the most recognizable face on financial TV. He is a New York Times bestselling author. We read his new book, we called his agent, and we said we got to get him on the show. So Jim is going to reveal today that what the finance industry tells you is wrong. And why the best wealth advisor may actually be yourself. Plus, we'll share Jim's playbook to pick five stocks and fall in love with them.

1:14Because that's how you make money in any market. And that's the title of his book. Besties, please welcome the sultan of stocks, the baron of bullishness, the high priest of price targets. And the regent of rolled up sleeves, although today he's wearing a suit. Tim Kramer is the man from CNBC's Mad Money and the author of How to Make Money in Any Market. I am honored. And today's interview with Jim is the best one yet. You're going to want to go long on this one. All right, so I'm going to... Thank you. That was just terrific. I think I want a copy. I can transcribe it, but that's... We got you.

1:47Everything you said, I have to show my wife because she thinks, do you have a show? This will reveal that I have a show. This is true. Honestly, what I try to do in life is more captured by that poem than almost anyone's been able to capture what I do. So I really appreciate it. Now I'm going to pay you a compliment. One of the reasons why I wanted to come on the show. At 7 o 'clock every night, which at the end of the show, I get a phone call. It's flashed pop. And he would say, Jamesy, that was the best one yet. No way. Every night. Your dad. Every night. Jamesy, that was the best one yet. And now when I do my club meeting, which I have once a month, my daughter texts me and says, Dad, that was the best one yet.

2:35Oh, that is so cool. Because she knows that it made me so happy. You know, by the way, for a while I got tired of it. Yeah. And then I realized, well, Pop's not always going to be with us. And now it's just like, it's killing me that at seven, nothing happens. Yeah. But anyway, the best one yet. It's really cool. It's a great title. So. And all the young people listen and all the older people don't know what they're doing. Thank you so much. Nick and I launched this startup when we were working at banks, and we did it in secret. Secret side hustle. Because we weren't sure our compliance would approve it.

3:03We even sent each other emails with white font, thinking that that would somehow protect us from oversight. We had our Series 7 licenses, but we thought that would get through. And after each edition, it was a newsletter back then, we would reply to the email in the morning and say that was the best one yet. Yeah. That's how we came up with it. Now, 13, 14 years later, we have the show, and we really feel like every episode is the best one yet. Well, the franchise is unassailable. Thank you. And a lot of it is because the poem, what you do in the poem, which is that you had genuine knowledge of what I've tried to do, and you paid homage.

3:36But more importantly, your audience doesn't know me, now they do. I mean, just plain and simple. It's a montage. That poem was a montage, and it is much appreciated. Thank you, Jim. Well, our audience does know you. Our audience loves you. We got more DMs related to this interview than any other interview we've ever done. With questions ranging from just tell Jim I say hi to my dad got me watching Jim five years ago. Should I buy Elf stock or not? You know, it's funny. A lot of people, a lot of father-daughter, a lot of father-son. And if I can do that, given the fact it was hard for me to connect with my father, we had to connect over sports because he was very conservative.

4:17And so we would just fight. But we found things to talk about. Stocks are a great neutral thing to talk about. Yeah, to save space. Right? Yeah. Transense politics. Elf is a very complicated story, right? It's a short, it's heavily short. Okay. And Tarang Amin comes on and he tells a great story. And then the next thing you know, a China tariff is really high. Cosmetic sales. Yeah. And then, well, he got into support. Yes. But at the same time that that happened, he had the shortfall. So, I mean, Wall Street's complicated. Well, this is what we love about you, Jim, is because we could have thrown any ticker symbol at you right now, and you could have given us the full synopsis, and we were here for it.

4:57Well, the rest of my life is a shambles because that's what I'm good at. I have the edge on the stocks, but could you please help me with the rest? But, Jim, as Jack and I were preparing for this interview, it's funny. It's not as good as you prepared for that analysis of Google versus OpenAI. Now, it's funny because I was going to use it today, and I wasn't going to credit you to laughter. And the reason I was doing that because I thought it was so brilliant. I wanted people to say it was brilliant. I said, well, I got it from you guys. Instead, I said, I got it from you guys. And then I told it.

5:27And these guys are like, yeah. I mean, really? If I had said that it came from John Malone. Oh, really? But no, and a lot of that is because of what I regard as this reluctance for the new guard to be recognized. and I think the New Guard, one of the reasons why I wrote the book, you're never supposed to say that, but you're supposed to say, oh, the book, the book, is because we got to change the notion of who should be buying stocks because most of what happens in stocks is a Wall Street fashion show. And if you're not involved in the Wall Street fashion show, you really have no idea why you would be interested in buying a company like Spotify.

6:09Yetis, quick break for a couple of ads. Bureau Premium Non-Alcoholic Beer. All right, Yetis, a little behind the scenes here. Before our New York City live show back in April, Jack and I went sober for two weeks. True story. Couldn't risk getting sick. I didn't want to be groggy. I couldn't afford a hangover. It was New York, baby. Okay, but Jack, celebrating the wins is what we do. And so for our live shows, we crack open something special. So we drank Bureau, the premium non-alcoholic beer brand co-founded by Tom Holland. Yeah, I actually first saw it at my grocery store. Delicious tastes like a celebration.

6:43Feels fantastic and looks legit. More on the looks in a sec. And if it's good enough for the actor who played Spider-Man,

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7:20So use code T-Boy for 20 % off your first order at BureauBrewing.com. Monarch. All right, yetis. One lobster roll, no joke, 50 bucks on Nantucket. And why is that a problem, Jack? Because we're going to Nantucket this summer on a joint family T-Boy trip. It's a write-off. It is expensive, but we will travel with peace of mind because our finances are organized in Monarch despite the lobster rolls. Monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything. Accounts, investments, savings goals, and spending. Get your first year of Monarch Core for half off, just$50 with promo code T-Boy. Monarch shows visually how much you're spending this month compared to the average month, which is really useful.

7:59So like, honestly, this month, been a doozy jack. Booked a lot of travel, but I know the future months won't be as bad after lobster roll season. You know because Monarch showed you. Last year, you had a spike in May for travel bookings, but a dip in the summer because the travel was already paid for. You can even ask Monarch's AI assistant anything about your finances. Like, what are the key changes in my spending so far this year compared to last year?

8:20Jim Cramer: And how much was spent on lobster rolls last summer? Use code TBY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core at half off, just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code T-Boy. Well, let's talk about like why buying stocks specifically, you know, what we thought was kind of the biggest thing that jumped out into the book to us. The biggest theme is that the financial industry is lying to you. Nick and I have worked in finance. We learned in school that diversification is the only way to go. Diversify, diversify, diversify. No matter how hard you work to beat the market, it's a waste of time.

8:59It's not going to happen. Even the best hedge funds don't beat the market. So why try? What do you think about that? Okay, I am a believer that when I started out, I had to go to the New York Public Library to read really old transcripts and get what was called microfiche. And the transcripts weren't really of the quarter because they didn't have that. We never knew what the prices were during the day, and there was no accessibility, and there were no websites. All that's changed. And now you even have throw-in chat to your perplexity. You have the same things that these hotshots have. And yet we're still considered, individuals are still considered to be as stupid as they were without any tools.

9:38I think people justifiably, the great beards, were right when you could have looked at something and said, look, I like this, but I don't know how to look at Apple. But now there's so many different ways to be able to look at it that why should you be denied it? And what I did, instead of just trashing the whole notion of diversification, I say 50 % should be S &P. Now, those people say no stock. I'm only now 50 % S &P. But what bothers me the most is that it is, you know, you have kids, say. And my daughter had an iPod, the initial stuff. And she asked me for a pink one after I bought a blue one.

10:19I said, how could you? Okay, what happened? Where'd you lose it? Where'd you lose it? She goes, dad, they're fashion accessories. And that's how I caught that stock at five. Apple. That's why you bought Apple at$5. Because your daughter asked for a second iPhone. Yeah, well, because I said, oh, my God, this is a, what a franchise. Yeah. What a franchise. And it is. So that was your edge, that little anecdote from your daughter. We'll talk about your edge in a second. Yeah. But the thesis we learned in school is that the prices in the stock market are correct. Well, see, but that's, I don't want to curse on your show, but that's BS.

10:50because the stocks are wrong all the time. Yeah. I mean, constantly. And I think that I happen to love Warren Buffett like everybody else, but the fact is he never told you to buy his stock. He told you to buy the S &P. You would have crushed the S &P with his stock. But no one's thinking that's duplicitous except for me because it bothers me tremendously. So you say put half of your money in the S &P 500. Yes. In the other half, do something else. But why not all your money in the S &P 500? Okay, because I genuinely believe that people can observe and have curiosity and therefore can examine.

11:25And there are many, many people who have the power of observation who are denied by Wall Street the notion that they can examine and do the work. That was understandable when it was impossible, like when I was trying. But to say that nothing's changed and it's just as opaque as it was and it's just, that's absurd. It's ridiculous. And is it perfect? Well, I mean, NVIDIA, is it still in two bucks? What a loser. I mean, honest to God, I mean, I'm a living, breathing reason to believe that it's not true, that diversification is the only free lunch. And I used to believe it. I used to come in with that rap.

12:08And I realized I was hurting people. Yeah, Jack and I have always said, you can just buy the SPY. But there's a cool, and we should get it. 50%, I'm with that 50%. But I listen to you on Google, okay? Well, what do I do when I listen to you on Google? I could say, yeah, but those clowns, don't they know that Google's just one of 500 and we just put all real bad ones with that one and we do better? Huh? You know, let's put some really bad food with some good food. It'll really be tastier that way. No! I mean, it doesn't work like that for any other thing other than this notion. The Sotovacian notion is you don't know what you're doing because you didn't go to the right schools and you're not rich.

12:47And you never will be. That's what you never will be because frankly, the door is closed. That's how I feel. So you've said that a well-informed amateur can beat the pros. Absolutely. In fact, you've promised that. Absolutely. How much homework does a regular person have to do to beat the pros? I spent a lot of time talking about that in the chapter where I go into how to read a conference call. But I teach you how to read a balance sheet. Boy, that was another one that not everybody really wanted to have. But I'm not going to, I can't recommend people to buy stocks individually unless they know how to do balance sheet and how to do income statement, how to read conference school.

13:21You can't give somebody a car until you teach them at school. No, even that Lamborghini I see advertised there, although my wife would disagree. But once you find how to do those things, I believe that if you have the time and inclination, it doesn't take as long as you used to because everything's available at your fingertips and you can actually just wait from quarter to quarter. And to our besties listening right out there, you know, Jack and I do this when we're reporting. So Jack and I go into the transcripts of an earnings call. We will just Google. We will Google a, you know, Elf Beauty earnings call.

13:52We get the transcript and Jack and I will read it and search for keywords. I mean, the reason we did that whole story on Abercrombie's resurgence thanks to this$100 bridesmaid dress is we discover that in the transcript of the earnings call. That wasn't anywhere else. It was in the transcript. I got Gap on tonight, okay? Did you know that they've got the best rewards program and that people go... Christmas time and shop there and they, it's free. That's what they have. My daughter's, it's free. You have points. No, it's free. You won't believe you go there. You get all your presents. It's fantastic.

14:23And they actually, the points culture. Yeah. Dixon understands this, you know, understands the points culture. So the first steps to investing, as you described, for an amateur or for a pro, is that you're going to do the research. You got to understand how to get into the balance sheet, how the income statement, read the transcripts. But remember, if you can't, you got to default to the index funds. Okay. So if you're not willing to do the homework, then get the S &P 500. And I really don't want you in the bidder. But one of the coolest things we noticed in the book, and this was just like a brilliant observation, is you said never buy normal stocks.

14:58And then you just like eliminated half the market. Yes, I did. 300 of the S &P 500 are normal stocks. So don't invest in those. No, because you have to have a buy and a sell. And, you know, somebody will come on TV and say the Fed's going to tighten. And you go, do I sell that? So what's a normal stock? And why do you not want to buy them? I like secular growth. And I'm willing to overpay for secular growth. Because historically, all the work I did say, secular growth produces superior return. And secular growth means? Meaning I'm not hostage. Not hostage to the economy. NVIDIA. And what I'm trying to do is make it so people don't trade.

15:32Because I'm really anti-trading. I think trading is the scourge of performance because that's that buy high sell low thing that people do. And I want you to be certain that you like the thing and maybe use the company, know the stock. But what I don't want you to do is buy a stock that on this day, Freeport coppers down and you're going to bet the copper goes up. And when copper goes up, you sell it. Or if you think Starbucks is a coffee company, which it really isn't, and coffee prices go down, you say, oh, I've got to buy Starbucks. and they go up and say, I'm going to sell Starbucks. I don't want that.

16:05And I don't want trading because you're not good enough to trade, but you're good enough to invest. And the tax consequences are much better. So, Jim, in your book, you say put half of your money in the S &P 500 and select five stocks that you fall in love with, with the other half. But when you pick those five stocks, do not pick one of the 300 normal stocks in the S &P 500. You just said normal is not secular growth. What are some examples of normal stocks? OK. That you don't want to buy. OK. A group that I can do for my charitable trust is the banks. But don't do the banks. You can't because the banks have historically wrecked so many people.

16:46It's too hard. They're very difficult to read. It's not just a balance sheet. There are many different metrics. So it's beyond most people. And when the economy gets bad, they're the first to get thrown away. And I don't want people in those. Now, is that a crime? There's a bank stock that came public today. It's from Missouri, okay? That I could never recommend to people. It's probably great. It's probably great. But people feel, oh, God, I read that. There'll be some Ray Dalio come on. You say, you're about to get hit by a meteor. You personally, okay? It's like, oh, my God, here it comes. I mean, you can't have that.

17:18You ever notice the Doom guys? Yeah. They're so good at Doom. Yeah. Aren't they? Doom's easy. What did they read? Yeah. Maybe it was like Poe. No. Telltale. I hate the fact that people scare people out of stuff. One of the things we love is your bullishness. It's easy to find things that can go wrong. Positive bullishness. I like to be constructive because, let's say, I love Tim Cook. I think he does a great job. If he were to retire, I'd have to rethink. But I'm constructive on Apple. And I'm mentioning this because there's these stupid stories about his retirement. I think every company has to have a strategy for retirement.

17:58But I don't want to bless things permanently. I do think that there are companies that have this great growth that I do. I'm very bullish. Well, on that side of normal stocks, I think the equivalent for us would be, we often tell our audience, you know, the three F's of fads you have to beware. Food, fashion, and fitness. You know, Jack and I are... Isn't Planet Fitness? Can you believe that stock? P.O.N.T., that thing is a rocket ship. You're looking at Hamster. You're looking at Hamster. You're looking at two guys who own Peloton stocks still. Oh, well, that was, I mean, even when that guy Barry came on, no, McCaffrey, McCaffrey, he came in, guns blazing, and I thought he would have it.

18:35The previous guy, I was unfortunate, nice person. That's the way, you know, that means bad. So I want to summarize a big chapter of your book, which is don't buy normal stocks. You said don't buy banks because in bad economic times, they go down. Don't buy consumer packaged goods because the growth is just not there anymore. Don't buy home. Buy anything home. Don't buy Home Depot. No. I mean, Home Depot would be the one stock that it's down really, really low. I don't want to get people out of Home Depot here. But yeah. Don't buy airlines. No. Anything that's going to tank with a reception. I mean, look, do I like United?

19:13That's a trading stock. I'm trying to, like, a trading stock is equivalent of a normal stock. I don't want people to understand what a trading stock is other than the fact that if you buy United and they have a bad seat mileage, red, and car, all this stuff, the same thing with hotels, then you hear Wall Street downgrade. And if you follow TV or whatever or you read, you'll think, oh, I should sell. That just happens to be they have to have a couple of buys. This is the Wall Street fools you. It's for professionals. They have like eight buys and they have these holds and they have these sells.

19:48And that's what they have to do when they meet with the teacher's pension fund from Ohio. But that's not for you. That's not what it's about for you. So that's who we're trying to avoid, right? So let's talk about maybe who we want to hang out with in the stock market. So we're not going to buy the 300 normal stocks. No. We want one of the 200 remaining stocks. And I want to tell our audience, you know, help you guide us towards them. You want the stocks that will have, as you call it, secular growth. Right. Which means growth in a good market or a bad market. But you also want a stock that you can paint an amazing picture about what they could become if everything goes right.

20:23This is a cool concept. There's a term for it. It's called the total opportunity value. It's your term. Can you give us an example of, first of all, what is total opportunity value and what are some examples? Well, I mean, okay, if you take a look at a company, let's use Netflix, okay? Netflix started out as you get a disc kit, okay? And I could never envision what their vision was until I got streaming. And when I got streaming, I said, wait a second. They do all these incredibly cool long form. They don't do Chicago Fire, Chicago Police, Chicago Hospital. They actually do really thoughtful stuff.

20:56Yeah. And I always say people are more thoughtful than what's fed to them. And Netflix appealed to thoughtfulness. Well, that's a new concept. So then I go, and this is before AI. Before Love Island, too. Yeah. I go to meet Reed Hastings and I said, look, I wanted I wanted to watch a movie about Stalingrad. And I called it 3 a.m. and I got this customer service. Oh, we happen to have all quiet on the West. Yeah. Yes, they had that. So I said, well, that's good. So I went to then I interviewed Reed Hastings is yes, our customer service is great. But what we really do is we try to figure out what you like.

21:38So, for instance, let's say you like Scarface. Well, we have five movies for you, and we do recommending. I said, well, how do you do that? He goes, because we have a lot of people who have seen a lot of movies. And then you realize, wait a second, they get AI. Oh, yeah. And everything they push to you is fantastic. And then they're getting sports, and then they're getting really great games. And you say to yourself, this is a company that knows what it's doing. So the total opportunity value was that every TV-watching American subscribes for what was then$10 a month. Right. And to go further, what they say is they're enemies of the clock, okay, how many hours you have a day.

22:22Yeah. And I like that, too. And what it says to me, the opportunity value of this thing is almost limitless. Yeah. And that's a great stock. So the total opportunity value is if everything goes right. If management is there, CEO doesn't have a conflict. conflict if regulatory issue. Stop thinking about what could go wrong. Think about what could go right. Right, right, right. And that's what kind of opened my eyes. I really got excited. Let's take the packaged food. I can't think of what would go right. I mean, if it's really tasty, the GOP-1s kill it. They're in every country. There's no more.

22:52I mean, like, until we invade Mars, we're, like, dead with these things. Yeah. And you look at the ingredients, so they're all up in price. And people can't afford to eat. And they're, like, next thing you know, you're buying Conagra with an 8 % What's it at 8 %? What does that mean to you? It means to me danger, danger, Will Robinson. I don't want to throw you under, Jack. But, Jack, I know it was an emotional purchase, but you bought Ford stock. Well, Ford's hard. Is there a total opportunity? It's a warranty issue. It was an emotional investment by me. For many people. My daughter has a Bronco.

23:25I have a Maverick. And I'm thinking, yeah, but then I have like five recalls on the Maverick. But you'd call Ford a normal stock. Yeah, Ford's a normal stock. Best case scenario, it's not something exciting and unlimited like Netflix. No, Jim Barley knows it's a normal stock. Now, I will say that Mary Barra, by the end of the buyback and by just professionally just cranking them out, has done a great job and has a higher multiple. Ford's multiple is very low. Ford has a big warranty issue. And, you know, when you give a warranty for when workers were being met pre-COVID, and now it costs them so much money to honor the warranties.

24:01So I think what you'd say is Ford's total opportunity value is to do a little bit better than GM and a little bit better than Toyota. You bet. Tesla, on the other hand, their total opportunity value is robotics. Right. Robo-Hai. Self-drive. Being the home robot of every American household. Being the self-driving ride of every personal robot. Exactly. He intends to have a million humanoids. I think he can do more than that. I think that he may solve the problem of power because in the last conference call, he talked about, listen, we're going to get the batteries and we're going to be able to give energy to the data centers if we want to.

24:39I mean, I obviously enjoy it. My wife always says, by this point, you have to say, let me tell you about what a fascist is. But I really like the autonomous drivers. You've got to work that in. So I just worked in the fascist. Am I OK in the fascist box? You're good. Jack and I think about this a lot, too, with, you know, if we apply your total opportunity value to stocks where it just hasn't been realized yet. For example, Jack and I. Give me some. All right. So, Jack and I. Oh, my God. OK. Oh, Jesus. No. Stop. Stop. No. This is bad. That's why my dog does that. Stop. Stop. No. No. Reddit is unbelievably great.

25:11Reddit is unbelievably great. And I'll tell you why. And I love Hoffman. OK. So my wife has this Mascale brand. Yeah. Both for Sephora. All right. She has it? Yeah. She's number six now. We've got to talk about your restaurant. Six largest mezcal brand in the world. To move it up to 25. All right, after the show. Okay, so what is the secret of getting the word out about something? Well, you need to find people who are qualified and targeted. So you can go put an ad on Amazon, but people can't buy it. They don't buy alcohol on Amazon. Or you could put something, let's say, you decide to put a Wall Street Journal in with one ad, whatever.

25:49Reddit has a Mezcal section. So you flood the zone. And it's so inexpensive. I told her, I told her, I said, you gotta start charging more. He goes, that is, well, that's a dumb thing to say. I said, well, it just has a stock. So your wife advertises her Mezcal brand on the Reddit, subreddit for Mezcal. Okay, and how did I find it? Okay, my daughter, and I will tell you right now, she's cured. So I don't want to be more of them. Well, my daughter had melanoma. And she didn't know who to talk to because we don't have melanoma, right? melanoma is cancer. It's not Squamish, so I buy it. Basil's other.

26:20Those are not forms of cancer. And what she didn't know who to talk to, but they have a melanoma, Melahomey page. Wow. All the melanomies. Don't they do? And she talked to all the melanomies. So she found community there. Yeah. And your wife's mezcal. See, I didn't have to do that. I mean, your wife. So you were petting me. You were not disciplining me. We used to also, I mean, the other offside you're talking about with Reddit here is around AI, which is, you know, we've said it's not about seo search yo it's about chat yo i told him to charge a fortune to open ai yes and to charge a fortune because you have honest information so here's my total it's honest stuff here's my total opportunity value okay hit me hit me on the consumer side like what your wife and daughter do it will be a bastion of realness okay as ai floods of real as ai i think they should change their name to real well we pitched steve huffman on Now, on the other side, so consumers are going to go there as a bastion of human interaction.

27:22On the other side, all the chatbots need to train on actually human-written stuff. And that's the one. And that's Reddit. And that's where they can charge their B2B side. Absolutely. So that's my total opportunity. We have Cloudflare to protect us from these guys ripping off everybody. Perplexity rips off a lot of companies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cloudflare is like the gate that prevents the AI chatbots from crawling in. Matthew, don't call me Matt. Matthew Prince. The other one Jack and I are chatting about? And look, we're biased on this because we sold a company and worked there, but with Robinhood.

27:49I mean, Jack and I look at this. You know I love Robinhood. I mean, Jack and I think of it like this. Netflix worth twice as much as Disney, right? Airbnb worth twice as much as Marriott. You have all these contexts of there being one digital disruptor who becomes at least twice as valuable as the competition. They get it right. Look at Robinhood. But they're half the value of Goldman right now. That's where we see the opportunity. Why not? You could age out of Goldman. If you're not careful, they age out. Yeah. But Robinhood is just a it's a continual funnel. And I mean, my kids, what are they going to open an account at Goldman?

28:22They're Robinhood people. So don't they can get their mortgage there. I guess, Jack, the way you're saying it, the total opportunity value. Your retirement. Your retirement account. You've got a great retirement deal. Your mortgage, your credit card. And you start offering all these things from one place. That was the only digitally native option. And yet when it went from 14 to 140, all I ever heard about was it was overvalued. But then again, I go to my kids, and that's an annuity. That's like Crest and Colgate. Like, no one's ever going to switch. If you started with Crest, you ain't switching to Colgate.

28:52You're not going to trade after Robynum. So, Robynum stock has 10xed in the last 18 months. Perfect. Are we too late? If you're on the sidelines, you want to buy Robynum. Okay, you actually come down nicely, and I think the answer is you buy. You buy. And what about in general beyond Robynum? What's your thought about when to get in the market? Like, a lot of our listeners may own stocks, or they may not. But the question is, should I wait until the stock price drops? So what we do is we buy small and we build and pyramids stuff. Because I can't, I don't want ever to say, I mean, I blew Corning.

29:21Okay. Corning is for my child trust. It was at 82. And I had gone to see them where they make this glass in Harrods, Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Yeah. And you know what I did? I bought it. And then I said, I'm going to weigh 82 to 72. Well, you know, I should have, I used too wide a scale. I should have bought some at 76. Not a bad basis. But I tell people, build up as they go down. Because if you really got a good stock, it does get cheaper. So half your money in the S &P 500 and pick five stocks. Well, if you can, sure. And I like one to be speculative. And your homework. You can't deny these people because if they want to buy Oklo, who am I to say?

29:59Like, Oklo was in 30, okay? And then it turned out that Sam, well, that's a nuclear power thing. They'll never make any money. And then, you know, but never any money on the way, 30 to 140. I'm not a jerk. I don't want to keep people off. I want them to know the risks, okay? Small form nuclear reactor, like you can put, yeah, just like a gyp. You put them up like a doghouse. Are you kidding me? I mean, it's a nuclear power plant. We can have the president and everybody who can do it. No one really is crazy about having one in the next store, okay? And they wish that they never had one. China syndrome.

30:32Right now, actually, as we're recording this, that company and others have dropped. We're experiencing a dip moment right now. Yeah. And how do you feel about dips? The big question out there being, should people be buying the dips? Okay. Or is that not enough? It's a faux concept. If you have, because remember, I'm talking about stock, because S &P, I want every month. Because you never know which month is going to be good or bad. Screw that. You've got to be just like Peter Lynch, and you've got to be just like Ken Langone. Peter Lynch was, you'll never be able to time it because you'll be out on one of the seven great days of the year.

31:04So invest your excess savings every month. So what I do— You just consistently buy the same thing as a TV. Every last day of the month is when I contribute. And I pull forward, if there's a 10 % correction, I pull forward that contribution. So I speak where, look, I'm very pro-index fund. It's just that I believe if you're watching the show, it's because you like individual stocks. So can I at least get you to do it right? I took a horse handicapping course. And it was for people who said, listen, people are going to go to the racetrack. And they're just going to lose money. At least let me teach you how to use the racing form.

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33:51No, it was a deranged pit bull. No, it was one of these mutts. And you ripped somebody's face off once because the person tried to get into our house, but it happened to be the landlord. We were the renters. So, Jim, in 2009, it's the first time you ever suggested people should buy NVIDIA. 2017, you were so convicted. I doubled down because Jensen called me out. It was a$4 stop. Jensen called me out. Tell us how you got the edge to decide to invest in NVIDIA. What are the signals that NVIDIA sent you that we can apply to others. What's the edge? Here you, this is one where it's not fair. You'd have to listen to the show.

34:31Okay. And I'll say this is why, because Jensen was, Jensen Wattenberg, the CEO, was beside himself, that people weren't listening. So he knows that I'm a sucker for him and for his company and for gaming. And I knew that his chips were being used in all the great car companies. I had the edge to know that Audi's built on Nvidia. The edge is your information advantage. You were interviewing the Audi executive. You mentioned NVIDIA chips had, what used to be for video games, and now we're in Audi. Yeah, but I kept saying, look, you keep saying the great technology, great technology, great technology.

35:01Who? And he goes, NVIDIA. That's an edge. That's gaming chips. So when the Audi CEO told you that his cars had NVIDIA chips, that's when you said, that's my edge. People don't know that except me. But then I share it. So then I go out. I go out, okay. and he says to me, okay, and it's a big screen like this. He goes, I want you to paint a picture. I said, I'm not an artist. He goes, no, no, just speak to it. I said, speak to who? Just speak to it. And have it make a painting. You're at NVIDIA's headquarters. I'm NVIDIA, yeah. He goes, have it make a painting. I said, well, I don't get that. He goes, well, think of an artist.

35:43And I said, I like Cezanne. He goes, okay, challenge the machine. I said, okay, I'll take a Cezanne Seascape. You ordered it like you're at McDonald's. Because remember, he's like a, you know, he's a still life guy. And NVIDIA chips made that art possible. Instant. I said, but it's not possible. He goes, we can try it. We can do any picture. Everything came up. So then he goes, okay, what do you like to, do you like plays? I said, I love Shakespeare, Henry IV, part two. He goes, okay, I'll tell you what. I'll put you in the third row center globe theater. We'll watch it. And he does it. On the screen.

36:13On this little gym. And then he says, listen, he takes me over and there's this car going. in a video. And he said, this is two million times, but I can't figure out black ice. Oh my God, this guy. So, and then we do the storm troopers where you couldn't tell which ones were real from Star Wars and which ones weren't. And I'm like, this guy is crazy. And then he takes me to the pièce de résistance. Little robot dogs trying to pick up Jell-O. And he said, you know what you do, when they get it, you got to give them a reward. Wait, these are robot dogs you gave them a treat to? Yeah, you gave them a treat to.

36:53And I said, all right, okay, stop, stop. I am going to tell everyone about this. Nothing, nobody cares, okay? Nobody cares. It goes from three to two. What year is this, by the way? That was 2016, I think. So then I go out again. And he says, okay, I want to do something really cool. So I walk in, and there's me. It's just me. He's made me. Using tokens, it's me. and he then, it says, hey, I'm Kramer. Now, I'm from Philadelphia. There's like, I don't know if you guys watch Task or Mayor, you know, Mayor of... Mayor of Easttown. Yeah, okay. Well, anyway, here's the thing. That's a terrible Philadelphia accent.

37:33Now, I've lost it to some of the British, but Jensen spent hours upon hours getting the Philadelphia accent right. Like water? Like water. Owl? Owl? Yeah, not like blue. Owl. whoo, whoo, whoo. Reedus, yes, absolutely. And he nailed me. So he made an AI clone of you that even had the object. It was better than me. It was like more me than me, okay? And then we went around and he showed me, you know, some of the latest stuff, including like a robot that brought me coffee and brought me the right coffee, for heaven's sake, you know, not the bad coffee. And he said, what, and then he said, what kind of, I've got a box that can speak 27 languages.

38:15so you can imagine Wendy's, they have a lot of different people come. And so I said, but he said, it means nothing to people. How do I get people to know about my stock? And he's a lover, not a fighter. I said, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. I'm going on my show tonight. Yeah, and so I said, you got to tune in, tune in, tune in next week, tune in next week. The dog. So I start the show by saying, okay. And then I gave you all the things you just said. And I said, but no one's listening, no one's listening. But I have a dog, and the dog's name is Everest. And he loves the name Everest.

38:50But you know what he really answers to? He answers to NVIDIA. And so I've renamed him NVIDIA. So, okay, so fast forward. I did this thing for millionaires that we created just for Jensen. Jensen wanted to meet all the millionaires. Wait, can you clarify that? So you have created millionaires. Oh, no, we did a room of millionaires from the club, people who made a million dollars. Because of your recommendation. Yes. and a policeman stops me after I did this Barnes & Noble signing and he goes, look, pulls me over. I'm still in this, I'm still in the camp, which says, okay, what did I do? What did I do?

39:23You know, and like, I'm now like 140 and I'm still asking. And he says, I'm a millionaire because of your dog. I said, what? He goes, well, you named your dog NVIDIA. And I figure only a guy who really believes would name his dog NVIDIA. Wow. NVIDIA. So I'm not really quite sure about what NVIDIA does. I said, don't tell me that. That's not so good. But I said, why are you still working? He goes, because it's my calling. But he had made a million dollars. And I was so thrilled for him. I'm really thrilled. That's amazing. People stop me all the time. And my wife, I sign these bottles for my wife, this Fosforo.

39:59And I'm full service branding here. Like, you know, I'm NASCAR. We're all for it. I'm NASCAR. So everybody brings, I always tell people, bring me your statement. Yeah. And they show me the statement. Of their game. And you should sign those NVIDIA broker statements. Oh, it's so much fun. Look, it's fun to help people make money. It's a wonderful start. The next time you've got a good stock, Big Jim, I think this ups the ante, though. I mean, you've got to get a tattoo. I think that's the next thing. Oh, I thought about that. I thought about that. I think it's a great idea. But I just am afraid.

40:28But the only two stocks that I've said, own it, don't trade it, in my career of 20 years now, money, are Apple and NVIDIA. Like, when people say, oh, it doesn't make any money. I say, look, OK, you're right. I have Apple and NVIDIA for 20 years. I'm sorry. You know, the old days, look, people take shots at me. And look, I don't, I'm not going to say I don't mind it because I'm human.

40:49Jim Cramer: Yeah. But I do feel that I've done a good job. How about that? And I did my best. And that's all you can do. And have I had, I sold the Google to move into Broadcom. I sold Google because I listened to the Justice Department. And I said, they're going to smash it. And I'm like, I shouldn't have listened to Justice. And then the judge reverses himself. Who would have thought he reversed himself? So I listened to the government. I got it, Will. To your whole point of holding. It happens more. Yeah. So, Jim, just challenge you for a sec. Sure do. So, clearly, people can get an edge by listening to your show.

41:19Yes. Hopefully, by listening to our show, too. Yeah. But I think the status quo finance industry says you can't get an edge. That's why you should buy a diversified index one. How can people get an edge? They have to have their eyes open. They have to have their eyes open and then marry it with looking at the website, looking at the balance sheet, which I tell you how to do. because I think if you have your eyes open, you'll find something you believe in. And if the financials are okay, then you will end up making money. I really believe that. And if you go back over 100 years, you'll see that it's just been historical that that will work.

41:55Tobacco, unfortunately, is the best, the greatest performing of all time, Philip Morris. But you can see that. That's evident. People get hooked on a product. What a great thing. I didn't. But what a great product. You get hooked on it and it's legal. And I'm just going to buy that stock and it was turned out to be the greatest performer of all time. And I don't think that's hard to observe. I just think that the winners, I mean, you mentioned Airbnb. Now, I think that they're not managed as well as I'd like, but that is a great concept. We mentioned Reddit. Well, I found Reddit from my daughter, but then I got to WallStreetBets and I said, well, this is kind of cool.

42:29These are very involved people and I like that. And each one of the ones that you mentioned, I can make the case for because they have secular growth and they're run by smart people. And I just think, you know, this is what people do. They observe. And yet you want to tell them, no, you have to be in the S &P. I'm your overlord. I am telling you you're in the S &P or not. What is it? It's Soviet Russia. It's Soviet. It's the Soviet Union. Right? I think there's something so satisfying about that too. It's like your daughter's iPod moment when she asked for the second iPod color. And you're like, wait a second.

43:03That was an accelerate. That was your edge. but you didn't have to be an expert for that. No. Honestly, one of my, dude, Alex bought me Abercrombie and Fitch jeans like five years ago. That was my age. Yeah, that was your age. Yeah, millennials coming back to Abercrombie. Totally. Wait a second, because then you go into Hollister, okay, I did this at Short Hills Mall, and I said, oh my God, I'm killing this place with my age. And they had all these things that I, you know, my daughter was a suicide counselor at the time. She goes, dad, that's a really bad place because everybody, the pictures are all people looking good.

43:33But people, there are a lot of people aspire to look good, and I'm not against anybody who aspires to look good, but it's very clear that they owned that market. They owned it. But I am a TJX guy, and that's a much better deal. Yeah, much better. TJ Maxx. You bet. Oh my god. TJ Maxx, HomeGoods. My daughter's got a potato chip at HomeGoods called Folds. No, I'm not kidding. I mean, you should launch a CPG brand at this point. I think I should. They're crunchy and you can have them, and it works. Well, she's a baker. She baked and baked and bacon. I was like, you know, she went to Walmart to get the flour because she needs the cheapest flour and that's Walmart.

44:08But she always had this thing in mind and these chips and she went to the fancy food show and she was really bummed out because nobody bought it. But then HomeGoods called her and they negotiated really hard. You know, she loses like 13 cents per bag. No, just kidding. She makes money. We did, you know, that is a funny area, Jim, like just to take a little personal side tour for a sec. You launched a popcorn company, Lesser Evil. Oh my God, But I got crushed. Okay, that was with me and Gene Hackney. You have a restaurant in. That was with me and Gene Hackney. That was you and Gene Hackney. You also have got a restaurant.

44:38Yeah, I had them. Yeah, I had one in Brooklyn. Not a lot of restaurants if you sell liquor in this country. It's 1934. It's called the Tide House Rules after Prohibition. Seagram's was wiping out all the other bars because they didn't know cost. And so we had to sell Bar San Miguel, which I loved. But my wife said, well, that's because you sat at the high top, which is this. And you had Mezcal. And she had to go work her ass off serving tables. What a great deal I have, right? Well, your wife has the Mezcal brand. So what have you learned? I love companies. No one talks about entrepreneur gym.

45:09I love companies. You're an entrepreneur. I started it in. That was damn cool. Because hotels tonight, I got it filled. I used to go at the desk. I had all the keys. And then, like, this guy from Merck, he comes in, and he says, on the fourth floor, and he's got his bag. And he says, take it. And so I take his darn bag. I take it all the way up. And I got my hand out like this. And he, like, doesn't even slip me anything. Then the fifth thing, I said, I got to get out of this. So I do the technology. I find that there's this thing, surge pricing, hotels tonight. We're close enough to the Newark airport that every hour the price goes down, we are filled every single night.

45:44I crushed it. I crushed it. Anything you've learned as an entrepreneur that applies to investing? Well, I don't want any competition. If there's competition, I'm in big trouble. That's why we started with Mezcal because there's really not a lot of brands. but the tequila brands are interesting now because I don't know if you saw the Don Julio numbers because of this adulteration. No. The numbers are down like 40%. Yeah. So it's kind of a given opportunity for someone who does it, who uses artisanal. You said adulteration? Yes. What's that? Well, they put caramel in it. No. You can't put anything in it.

46:17You can't like be, you gotta be pure. I see. Agave spirits are still growing. It's the only one. The browns are terrible. How about all those dumb people who bought all the barrels and they like are stuck with it? I know, for like 20 years. I mean, look, how many Manhattans can you have, right? Jim, I'm afraid I own a normal stock. I don't want to ask. Oh, no. Don't do that. I thought it was a secular stock. Oh, okay. Give me a second to describe it. It's Disney. So Disney has theme parks. In good times, people go to theme parks. In bad times, they go to the movie theater where Disney dominates.

46:48In all times, they subscribe to Disney +, Hulu, or ESPN. Why has Disney been such a bad investment the last 25 years? Okay, a couple of reasons. I just went over this with you, John, since the CFO, because I just sold it for my travel trust after owning it for three years. It has linear TV. Some people hate linear TV. Wall Street hates linear TV. It pays a fortune for those sports rights because those companies all realize that the real value is with live sports. I mean, ESPN, they pay a fortune. It needed the bundle. Things were going down. Go to Disney. It costs thousands of dollars. So we think if the economy turns down, we think that they're not going to be sold out.

47:24So, and frankly, on that last conference call, they believed that that was a good quarter. The stock was at$113. And the stock lost$7 like that. They're thinking that they're doing well. Now, I happen to like the people who run it very much. But having watched the stock of the company that I work for, Comcast, I don't do that anymore. Now it's going to be versined. I know that TV, it feels very much like radio. It feels very much like radio. So I painted a picture in my head that Disney was a secular growth. I know. What do you think? Okay, so did I. So you get it wrong. I got it wrong. That's, look, the flaw is that you can get it wrong.

48:07But if you see it change up and you realize you hear the things that$20 ,000 for a week and all that stuff, and then you realize, you know what, they are spending a fortune to make very little. And then the critical thing was when you saw Netflix and the stock didn't quit, you realized, wait a second, a pure play where they have where they have product that's made all of it. You're watching some movie from Uruguay that obviously costs like. Did you guys see Contra Take? No. Not yet. Contra Take is this movie made in Mexico. It's one of the. First of all, it's one hour and 37 minutes, which is all people will watch if they're 29.

48:45Yeah. Right. Do you know that my daughters are 31 and 35, and the first thing they ask is, Dad, how long is it? What do you mean? I don't watch anything longer than an hour and 47 minutes. Is it, well, it's two hours. No. Like, we watched the movie Warfare, which was really a great movie. That was actually the length of time of the battle. And it was an hour and 29 minutes. It's like, boom, let's watch Warfare. People watch different things. But Netflix is wise to even. Hey, how about the idea that Netflix knew that we'd all get okay with titles? I mean, with subtitles. I mean, subtitles, it was a kiss of death.

49:19It was like the umbrellas of Shoreborg. And it's like, I don't want to watch that. But now it's like, put the titles on. Yeah, put the titles on. They knew. They knew, let's have great inexpensive content. And that was the secret. So I made a mistake by buying it. No, you didn't make a mistake. They made the mistake by not keeping up with what you guys. I want to give Jack some credit. You hedged that because you also own Netflix. true yeah you know what I actually you love this I got Disney for my son in his 529 I'm sorry to show him hang on it's a good lesson that I think is going to be like dude so is hitting him let me show you I hit my son I want to show him that Toy Story which he loves so much he owns a piece of yeah okay Toy Story a piece of Disney stock this is the portion of our portfolios that are irrational yeah they're emotional there's the part to get our sons excited like my son owning Jack you know Jack and I gift each other's kids stock every year.

50:12He gave mine Nike, my son. Okay, so I think Nike right now is one of the great buys. Max, are you listening? I went to a, I didn't know about Elliot Hill, okay? I knew that the last guy was really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. That's code. It's an audio product, but it's a wink here. There's a wink. It's a wink. It's a wink. But, um, see, Elliot comes in, he's brought back, he's a 30-year veteran, okay? And I said, what I need to see, can we please have a sports guy at the helm? A guy who understands heart and soul Nike. A guy who knows Puy Fontaine. Like, you know, stop Puy. So I invite him to a game.

50:49I said, why don't we see the Cowboys-Eagles? Want to go? Yeah. And he goes, really? I said, yeah, let's go. Well, damn it. If he doesn't fly in to go see it. And I sit there and he goes, and I like to sit and watch a game. And he goes, do you mind if I sit and watch the game? I haven't been able to watch a game since I got this job. And I said, where did you go to school? is he said, what, TCU? I watched TCU and I watched the Cowboys. Well, wouldn't you know it? I'm with this guy and I'm saying, he's going to do it. He's a sports guy. It's going to take a while. That's from him and it will. But he, and I think the Daytona in China is real.

51:24But I think Nike is the right stock right here, right now,$63.10. You know what I like about your strategy? You have these little anecdotes and that's the beginning of your edge. But that's what you do. Right. But you see, that's what you do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you do the anecdotes, and what happens is people then say, this is what I want in the book. Oh, that's interesting to me. Maybe Google is better than opening an eye. That's the seed of an idea. Yes, because you want people. This is a learning show, okay? And you do it in a way that is, I don't mean this to be incorrect, but bite-sized.

52:00See, because that's the length. Remember, Kontantake is a short movie. Anything longer than I've ever watched it. This is a generation where it's either two minutes or an hour. It's two minutes or an hour. And I think that the two minutes you have to grab people. And you'll do five two minutes in a show where I can write them down. And that's what, when I started, it was 47 minutes was acceptable. Now linear, I accept. I mean, I'm wondering. I do a 10-minute everything you need to know broadcast, streaming for club members. and I know it's more watched than a show because it's 10 minutes and I have a lightning round at the end.

52:39Does it depress me? No, it makes me change my game. You have to change your game. You know, it's interesting to hear you talk about this because, Jim, we've admired you for so long, partially because, you know, Jack and I have a daily product and we know how much goes into producing one daily show. I mean, we just pour everything into one daily show. Yes. You've got like 30 daily shows. Because you're appearing here and then you're appearing there. I want people to remember that when they were at Brown and Middlebury, How many, what was the length of a paper that you had to do? Five pages, double space.

53:09And how long did it take, were you allowed to have? Well, they told me it was due in two weeks. Okay, I have to write 7 ,000 words a day. Yeah, 7 ,000 words. And I've written, I've done the first 800, and I did it about, maybe you have to start thinking about buying the stock of an acquirer. Now that anyone's allowed to buy, Abbott's buying Exact Science. And the other day, Kimberly, right? They're buying Kenview, which I think the top problem blows over. And I think the Tylenol problems are we have to start thinking about Kimberly at 5 percent because it's down big off that. If they walk away or if there's an overbid for Kenview, you're in great shape.

53:44These are the things I'm looking for, the anomalies of because now we have all these deals because there's no they got rid of the antitrust division. Right. I mean, the pro trust. Oh, effective. They got the pro trust. Effective. You're writing this analysis. 700 words a day to prepare. 7 ,000. 7 ,000 words a day to prepare. Just to share this with our audience, you are operating at an ultimate capacity. See, I'm not looking at you. There's a Rayo's ad behind you, and that's going to produce maybe 35 cents on Campbell's. And if they put some other brands together, it's$30 and you get a 5 % yield.

54:18This is the edge. Oh, now it's Sephora. Okay, but that's it. I'm sorry, that was rude. No, no. I was rude, but I saw it. No, you're looking for clues everywhere. But I'm just curious, almost from the craft side, from like two other guys who produce a daily media side. Yeah, because you're craft. Shane Hackman used that word. It was the first time I heard it. He said, you have a great craft. Well, you do have a great craft. You produce two shows, a newsletter, an investing club. You run a bunch of businesses. What's the key to organizing a professional life like this? I mean, to not sleep. You're doing what you love.

54:43To not sleep. And do you, like, literally, like, how much sleep? I mean, I went to bed last night at 12. I had to read the NVIDIA conference call twice because it was really a tour de force. And I knew that the Bears would try to force it down. I don't give a damn. NVIDIA is great. But I got, and then I realized I got at 4 o 'clock, The dogs got on my head. So I said, I'll just get up again. And I realized I had to read TJX. I had to read. I wanted to be ready for Walmart by reading Target. And I had to read Lowe's. And that's what I do. I read. And then I process. And I don't do ChatGPT Lowe's because ChatGP is dumb as wood a lot.

55:17I mean, ChatGPT steered me wrong about the other day. Oh, my God. It can get things wrong so badly. And so what I try to do is do my own synthesis. and to do that, if you do a lot of them, then you're in good shape. I'm not Ted Williams, but what happens is I'm in shape. Yeah. And that's the craft. And what time do you wake up every morning? I get between quarter of four and four. Breakfast? No breakfast? Except for Tuesdays and Fridays. I get up at three because my trainer comes. And breakfast, no breakfast? Just a carb, a half a bagel. Gotcha. You have to have a carb. Jim, as we start to kind of wind down, you know, Nick?

55:55Oh, you guys are pressed for coming. No, no, no. We wind it up, maybe. Who is it? Oh, the big shot. Oh, you got the big shot. Okay, good. Do the opener. Was that the chief strategist of Goldman behind me? Okay. Let's hear what he has to say. Well, I think I'm worried about private credit. I think I'm very worried about Blue Owl. You know, the other cool thing about your book is we got to learn about you a little bit more. I mean, you're from a family in Philadelphia. Yeah. You end up working at Goldman Sachs. Yeah, that was a trip. Your first job after school, Jack and I were shocked by this, was covering murders.

56:32Well, I was covering Florida State, Florida A &M, but I was on the campus of Florida State. Yeah. And that's where Ted Bundy broke into Kyle Mega. So murders weren't your beat. No, and I had seen him at Big Daddy's that week. You knew because he was always hot as hell there. And yet he was wearing a fisherman's sweater.

56:55Jim Cramer: Weird. You said, wow, that guy's strange. Not that, you know, obviously he was cool looking. He was a murderous, a horrible person. But that, I then realized I had a talent for that. So I wrote the LA Herald Examiner. And I said, look, I want to be big time. I was making the same thing in LA. I was making Tallahassee. But they said, I said, listen, you want these big shots you're hiring? None of them are willing to get their hands dirty. I'm willing to get my hands dirty. So they put me on the crime beat. And I was on the front page every day, which is a chick magnet. You're allowed to say that?

57:31Yeah, we can say that. You are. We didn't ask your career advice. You made that happen, right? The president said you can say chick magnet. He's changed the rules, man. God. Well, by the way, that's not, you're there. But yes, then I went out there and I covered everybody died violently for a year of my life. I lived in my car because I got broken into. and I used to have to park at the airport because my horrible editor said, hey, maybe a plane crashes will be first on the scene. It's really hard to sleep in an airport. So boom. So then how do you end up at Goldman Sachs after being a crime beat reporter?

58:04Well, I got this. I went back. I was an American lawyer. I got there sooner if it started. American lawyer? Yeah, it's a trade publication. And I was on the beat of M &A. And I say, well, wait a second. I see every single oil company is being taken over. Let's just go buy a field bet on autos. And I started making some money. And I had this great home run of that Golf, Chevron's buying Golf. And I had this great antitrust professor when I got to law school. And he said, you spend every day you're reading the paper. I'm trying to teach. And I said, look, I'll tell you what. One day I'll come to you and I'll explain to you why I'm in your class.

58:42So years winding down. I said, Professor Rita, I got to know something. is the Justice Department could have let Standard Oil buy golf, Chevron, buy golf. And he goes, oh yeah, that's a layup. I said, I'm going to put everything I have on this. He goes, go ahead, put everything I had. And it paid for law school. Wow. You get through Harvard Law School with that. Yeah. Law school was a joke. It was. I mean, it was like, you know, again, because of Trump, I can say what I did most of the time. Yeah. But do you, I mean, so do you use anything from law school today in this? Yeah, I mean, there's things that make it rig.

59:21You did learn rigor, and I had corporate finance, and I had corporate tax. Those were the kids. But I also took law on the banana. Most of my classes were law on the banana. Is that a building on campus? No, it means stupid classes.

59:37Well, as a Philadelphia guy, the other thing we were curious about was, you know, you've talked about your great investments on this show. You've also spent a lot of time with the Philadelphia Eagles. Yes. Do you think you've gotten a return on that investment? Well, no, but I started as a vet, as a ice cream vendor at the vet. That was your first job? I said, hey, ice cream here. I got vanilla and chocolate. And that's why I learned to call people Skip and Chief and stuff. Because that's what they called me. And what I realized very quickly was at 700 level, if you paid off all the other vendors not to sell there, you could have the whole franchise.

1:00:10No way. Everybody not to come up to 700 level. And I was just waiting in line. But there was this picture. It was like a real estate play was your first entrepreneurial move. There was a picture of Steve Carlton, and he could actually finish a game in the time it takes to watch comfort hockey. One hour and 27 minutes. And if you were long ice cream in the seventh inning, you're a dead man. You're a dead man. You could never sell it. Because you have to buy the ice cream. Oh, it's a perishable, too. Yeah. Perishable. Whoa. Man, let's go there. Let's go perishable. Costco is a perishable, and that stock's that big.

1:00:45Wow. So we respect a lot of what you've done. This book was amazing. We really do recommend it. We really loved reading it. Thank you. You actually read it, which is a big, read it, which is absolutely, it puts you head and shoulders above everybody else. You know, Jim, I wanted to ask you, you know, some on Reddit. Don't you close it. I know I'm not closing it. I don't need the notes. Just a second. Let me just clean up. Some on Reddit, you know, consider you a symbol of traditional finance. Oh, I love that. Like, yeah, that's me. Yeah, I'm a rebel without a cause. I'm a rebel without a cause.

1:01:15Why? Because I wear a Brioni? Yeah. I wear a Brioni because you can sleep in a Brioni. It's great for sleeping. What do you wish people who don't like you knew about you? Or what would you say to them about your investing style? I think that they should. When this book started, book tour started, the first guy interviewed me said, why are you trading people to death? I said, well, I don't believe in trading. He said, well, why are you telling people to buy this, buy that, buy this, buy that? And I said, well, I don't do that. I think what people should realize is that I'm for buying and holding, provided that you do homework.

1:01:51And I don't think people really think of me as that, but that's what my book's about. That's me. I want you to buy and hold. And I tell you, what would it mean for the fundamentals to go bad? And that's who I am. But I would say more important, I think what I want people to think of me as a decent dad. Because I think that that's what we want to be. We want to be decent dads. Decent dad might, you know, where, by the way, and if you read Confessions of a Street Ad, I wasn't initially. I mean, I had a big hit in Alcoa when CC was coming out, and that was a mistake. I shouldn't have been trading Alcoa that day, but it was, you know, that was me.

1:02:26I got a call. Jim, there's a big block of Alcoa. I think it's right, and I take it. It's like, oh, okay. The day your daughter was born. And, like, you know, my wife was saying, Jim, the baby, let me finish this trade. That's not great. Or when I told an employee, because a guy said, listen, I got to go. I got to, I got to go see my kids play. And I said, Intel reports once, once, and you got to, the kid's going to be in a million plays. And these were things that told you, no, you're not a good dad. So I had to change. And the fact that I was able to is, it was, I am most grateful that I was able to, for myself, that I was able to pull out so that my kids started respecting me.

1:03:06And, you know, so I, that's the journey that I'm proud of. That is something to be proud of. And Jim, what would you say is, we like to ask all of our guests, and Jack and I like to do this with every single story too, is whip up the takeaways. What is your core final takeaway on investing for our audience of Yetis and Besties? If you're not interested in it, don't do it. Cool. People will, that's why index funds were created. And I want people to invest, but I don't want them to do it if they don't like it or interested in it. And that means the vast majority of people are not, don't want to do what I say.

1:03:44But if you do want to do what I say, I will teach you with this book. And that's what the book's about. It's about my dad buying national video off a tip, a company that made vacuum tubes for TV. And Solid State came out and he lost everything. It's about my mom who said that I got to buy a$20 stock because it's cheaper than a$50 stock. And that's what the book is about. Love that, Jim. We also should say that your book changed our thinking on certain things. Our default response to so many people would be like, buy the SPY. And like now we have a more nuanced perspective. Maybe half is the FPY.

1:04:21But the other half is what you're interested in, what you have an edge on, and what you're willing to do quarterly homework on every three months. Exactly. And it has hyperscale opportunity. Your show has information about stocks. I regard it as the best way to get started is your show because your show is compelling and interesting. So a person who thinks they're not interested in stocks can listen and say, you know what, that sounds interesting to me. And then they can go through the work. Or they say, hey, it was interesting to me and no harm, no fail. Yeah. But we need to have people like you, and we have you, who get people interested in business in a different way.

1:05:03Like you asked me about the entrepreneurs. Yeah. And I'm always happy to talk about that, but that's, knowing it doesn't make any money for people. Yeah. I mean, yes, you can buy Intuit. I mean, I realized very quickly you don't need an account, just use Intuit. You can use QuickBooks, you know, those kind of things. And therefore, that's a great reason to own Intuit. Or Ecolab, even though they didn't treat me well, they had all the cleaning supplies. You know, Cisco, it turns out to be a very regular company. But I like to observe at all times. Yeah. And most people are not observant, But they might listen to your show and say, oh, OK, I, yes, yes.

1:05:41And that yes, yes means they can go do and look at a conference call and say, you know what? Maybe I can do this. I don't want to hear it's not that hard because it is hard. Yeah. But maybe I can do this because I agree with them. I like what they said. And let me own a stock. Let me own a stock. And I cater to people who say, let me own a stock, or I think I can do this, because the returns for the ones that were so obvious. Dad, they won't let me use Google for my homework. Just a second. Buy 50 ,000 Google. Right? I mean, hey, Dad, they are taking away my Instagram. I don't know if I can handle that.

1:06:22Wait a second. Buy 50 ,000. If it's getting banned, that's a good brand. I mean, that's what it's like. They tell you these things, and you're listening. But you're not acting. We never watch ABC and B. We watch Netflix. Oh, just a second. Buy me$5 ,000. Because that's what it is. It's like you observe. Don't just observe, but then act. Act. Right. And sometimes it's bad. Like my daughter, when they changed the jack on Apple, remember that? Yeah. I talked to Tim Cook. I said, listen, you got to stop changing the jack. What an informed viewpoint you have. I said, no, my daughter said it. I said, oh, even better.

1:06:57I mean, it's like, oh, God. You know, because you realize, geez, what you said is stupid. Yeah, Tim's getting on the phone, too. He's going, guys, kids, Jack again. But one of the great things, you know, Tim watches a lot. He watches the shows that I watch. So it's, you know, he showed me the morning show when it first came out. And he was a big Narcos guy. He was a big Narcos guy. But has he watched?

1:07:18Jim Cramer: Cut the guy. No, no. And I watched it. You know, I got that one. The Netflix conference call. Remember you got to say. You're kidding. They mentioned it on the call. No. Jack, I always say, if you want the gold, don't go digging in the desert. You'll look in the conference called Transcripts. Okay, Treasure Sierra Madre is your book there. And a great movie. Treasure Sierra Madre. Treasure Sierra Madre. Treasure Sierra. Yes, that's Federalist. Well, I'm starting to get a sense. We don't know. We know. They cribbed it. Warner Brothers is about to be acquired. I'm starting to feel like Jim's next entrepreneurial venture is a movie studio.

1:07:51Is it Netflix? Or is it Comcast? Well, Comcast doesn't have, Comcast, okay, so this is a good example. Yes. Comcast has a five multiple. Is that cheap? Well, then you got to say, well, hold it. Maybe the market's making a judgment that it's not cheap. The market's saying it's a wasting asset because its multiple is so low. Once Peter Lynch, we listened to Peter Lynch, we were talking about Bethlehem Steel at my trading desk, and he said, that sells at two times earnings. That's the kiss of death. Oh, let me just bring on some context quickly. This is the power of M. This is your M word. It's the power of M.

1:08:32The multiple. This is a key tactic you use for whether to buy a stock. Right, because I really want people to understand why one stock is cheaper than another. And Bethlehem Steel was selling it two times earnings, which Peter Lynch said meant that the earnings would be nil. And the company went bankrupt two years later. It's a really good call. It's exciting. See, it's exciting. It is. I mean, look, you watch ESPN, right? And they're talking about the lineup. And they're talking about who's hurt and whether the line changes because Lane Johnson's out. I like that, too. But we're doing that. And we're not gambling.

1:09:08What we're doing is saying, look, there are these companies. Do the homework. Now, I have no problem with the anytime touchdown Dallas Goddard. I have no problem doing that for$5. But I do think that when you're investing, you want to do the index fund, and then you want to find what you're compelled by. And I think that for the most part, if people sit back and think, and they don't buy Campbell's, they buy something that's, they've been to Bloomingdale's, and they see it's gotten better. When the stock was at 10, and then they see, oh, Tony Spring, new CEO from Bloomingdale's. Oh, they're closing the bad Macy's.

1:09:48Oh, he's building more Bloomies. Wow, transformation, 12 goes to 20. Transformation. I like transformation. Hey, what did you do, man? Oh, actually, that's a little surprise for you, too, Jim. That's a bye-bye-bye. We want to hit you with some rapid fire. Yes, we do. Hit me. Hit me again. Like, you know, casino. Hey, I'm real good at cars. I went with Gina at a casino, and I sat at the end, and my greatest compliment was that he made me leave. What's the best restaurant in New York City? Best rate is, oh, Corner Store The Corner With the burgers that go through the conveyor belt? No, no The new one downtown?

1:10:26Yeah, the one downtown Oh, that's trendy Very cool Yeah, I know But I took my wife there for her unknown birthday Very cool Because when you get to a certain age, it's unknown birthday I was thinking Corner Bistro Ah, good burger Best business leader Best business leader Tim Cook Best new stock in your portfolio Yeah. Well, the last one we bought was Nike. And I like Nike. I like Corning. Thank you for gifting that one, Jack. Look, Nike is a gift stock. It's a gift stock. Yeah. On sale. Yeah. Well, I think so. It's 50 % below for where it was when it was not as good a company. They have to be cool.

1:11:06They're starting getting some cool. You go on sneaker apps. Back to cool. There's some$2 ,000 sneaks now. Yeah. We saw that jacket that impressed the puffer. Italian Olympics. Yeah. What's the best business book you've ever read? It's still one up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch, even after all this. Best show you consume that isn't a Jim Cramer show?

1:11:27I watch series. See, I don't watch, you know, the last one was Tasks that I like, but I'm a diplomat. I watch the series. I don't have a TV show. Yeah, I don't watch a TV. There's no TV shows that I watch. I only watch streaming. I don't have cable. That's fair. Seinfeld or Friends? Oh, Seinfeld still. Yeah, absolutely. You know, my wife watched Friends last week. She watched one on the airplane. It's true.

1:11:55Jim Cramer: And I said, oh, God, just turn this off. Yeah. And I put on, you know, but I was trying to get it to put on, what's the one that it's with, the guy who wrote all the Seinfelds? Oh, Curve Enthusiastic. Yeah, Curve. I said, put on Curve. And she said, no, no, this is gentle. She likes gentle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She likes Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Which is aggressive Seinfeld. Yes. Yes. And finally, if Jim Cramer were a stock, what would your three or four-letter symbol be? Okay, do you know that Goldman asked me that? You're kidding. That was an interview question. In my interview? Wait, 30 years ago?

1:12:3140 years ago, they asked me. What was your answer? I said, I'm Exxon. I'm the biggest and I'm the best. Exxon? Exxon at that point. I'm Exxon. I'm the biggest and I'm the best. Okay, but what if it was like Jim Cramer? I mean, Kramer, there was Remark Industries, which is a furniture company, and that's Kramer's called backwards. I know that. We got a Kramer right here. That is so cool. Okay. If there were a stock, I'm going to have to say that I'm NVIDIA. Well, no, no, no. I think your stock is V-U-Y-H-O-L-D. Oh, I like this. Buy, hold. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I like that. I think that's your ticker. I like that.

1:13:14And on that note, Jim, we'd love you to smash our cha-ching button. Good job, Paul. Great way to end. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Thank you for everything you do. Thank you for everything you do. You know what I think this was? Like, Jamesy, this was the best one yet. Couldn't have put it better, Jim. Thank you so much.

1:13:42Jim Cramer: Hannah, I just Venmo'd you for dinner. Obsessed. I'm literally spending it right now on the lip gloss that's been sitting in my cart. What do you mean spending it right now? You instantly spend your balance with the Venmo debit card. Stop. Say more. More exactly. The more you do with Venmo, the more you get. Like earning up to 5 % cash back with Venmo Stash. Get the Venmo debit card or check out online. Venmo stash bundle terms and exclusions apply. Max$100 per month. See terms at venmo.me slash stash terms. Venmo checkout not available at all merchants. The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A.