Confessions of a Street Addict

As a pure addiction memoir, "Confessions of a Street Addict" stands out from the pack. Other addiction memoirs such as Jerry Stahl's "Permanent Midnight" or Anthony Kiedis' "Scar Tissue" are great reading, but become annoying in their repetition as the authors make the same mistakes over and over ad nauseum. Jim Cramer on the other hand, pushed himself to the limit, hit the wall, bounced off, and simply walked away, transmogrifying himself into something else again, a successful journalist and pundit. What makes the book so compelling is honesty, Cramer is completely open about his successes and his failures, and there are a multitude of both. One of the most remarkable aspects of "Confessions" is not James J. Cramer, but his wife Karen, known on Wall St. as the "Trading Goddess" who nimbly steps in and saves their hedge fund in a few hours when they are something like a hundred million dollars in the hole. If you are looking for stock tips, then this is the wrong book, but if you are looking for life tips, or a glimpse into another type of addiction, then "Confessions of a Street Addict" is a compulsive, in-your-face slice of the modern market.

As a pure addiction memoir, "Confessions of a Street Addict" stands out from the pack. Other addiction memoirs such as Jerry Stahl's "Permanent Midnight" or Anthony Keidis' "Scar Tissue" are great reading, but become annoying in their repetition as the authors make the same mistakes over and over ad nauseum. Jim Cramer on the other hand, pushed himself to the limit, hit the wall, bounced off, and simply walked away, transmogrifying himself into something else again, a successful journalist and pundit. What makes the book so compelling is honesty, Cramer is completely open about his successes and his failures, and there are a multitude of both. One of the most remarkable aspects of "Confessions" is not James J. Cramer, but his wife Karen, known on Wall St. as the "Trading Goddess" who nimbly steps in and saves their hedge fund in a few hours when they are something like a hundred million dollars in the hole. If you are looking for stock tips, then this is the wrong book, but if you are looking for life tips, or a glimpse into another type of addiction, then "Confessions of a Street Addict" is a compulsive, in-your-face slice of the modern market.

Confessions of a Street Addict really brings to light the career of James Cramer starting off as a struggling writer to successful hedge fund manager. I liked how Cramer didn't focus on just his success. I really liked the beginning of the book that clearly showed Cramer's interest in the market, talking about the market and struggling as a writer in southern California. Cramer's story is inspiring and not sugar coated. As he eventually finds his way, he is offerred a more lucrative career path in New York and that eventually leads him to his stock market business where he meets his wife. I liked how Cramer talked about how rough it was trying to get started in the business, how to succeed and how crule the reality of it was. Cramer doesn't wave any flags for Wall Street and doesn't make it sound like it's an easy, forgiving world out there. Cramer's story about his sruggles with TheStreet.com, his hedge fund, managing people, family and the roar of trading in the 90's really comes to life in this book. I recommend this book because Cramer tells it like it is. He doesn't praise himself, he doesn't sugar coat and it was very intriguing reading.

James J. Cramer, opinionated and bellicose founder of the Street.com and hedge fund manager distills his fire-breathing personality and stock-market enthusiasm and serves it up in this riveting and compulsively readable tell-all of Cramer's life and times on Wall Street.Cramer rips through his early life as a young Pennsylvania kid fascinated with stocks, zips through his years as an undergrad and burgeoning journalist at Harvard, shoots through his days as a rookie reporter at the L.A. Herald Examiner and his nights sleeping in a battered Ford Fairmont---and by page 14, we're already knee-deep in Cramer's passion, the stock market. Cramer writes engagingly and keeps up a roaring pace, and reading his material is like being ensconced inside the guy's feverish, always calculating head. It's about as close as most will come to having a seat at a hedge-fund trading desk, and whether you're just interested in the Market or have years of experience, you'll find "Confessions" a tasty and addicting read. The writing is amazingly candid, and the most refreshing thing about "Confessions", apart from the fact that it's rippingly good fun and fine writing, is Cramer's honesty. For all his bluster and arrogance, and for all his consumptive attention to outperforming the indexes and his rivals (and for better than 13 years, his hedge fund Cramer Berkowitz did just that) Cramer is willing to accept the lion's share of the blame here. Who threw bottled water and telephones at the heads of his henchmen on bad trading days? Who pancicked and wrote a capitulatory "get out NOW!" article on TheStreet.com on October 8th, 1998, just as the worst had occurred and the markets were beginning the roaring rally that would not end until 2000? Who, surprisingly, had abolutely no clue what was going on in the company he had poured his name and his money into, and didn't have any kind of feel for the circus of the coming IPO? Cramer, Cramer, and Cramer. There are really three Jim Cramers in "Confessions": Cramer the trader, Cramer the stock-market commentator and journalist, and Cramer the dot-com businessman and New Economy darling. Guess which "Cramer" gets him in the most trouble? But let's cut to the chase: "Confessions of a Street Addict" is loads of fun and a wild perch to look out on what has been a real revolution in the financial markets; Cramer's honesty, experience, wide-ranging connections and candor make this the funniest and most introspective book on Wall Street since Mike Lewis wrote "Liar's Poker"---and hey, Lewis even has a cameo role in "Confessions", in which he's credited with coming up with the name "TheStreet" for the company that became TheStreet.com. That's just one character in a roster that looks like Who's Who of Wall Street, 1982-2003: Cramer meets up, socializes, trades and schemes with Robert Rubin, Roger Ailes, Joe "The Big Kahuna" Kernan, David "The Brain" Faber, and Mark Haynes. He crosses swords with Barron's Alan Abelson and Money's Frank La

Jim Cramer is not a saint. He is impatient, domineering, egotistical, and almost certainly there are other unflattering things you could say about him. Yet he is a true rarity in my mind because he tells you he is all of those things repeatedly in his own autobiography. He does a fantastic job of honestly outlining the major events of his life. He acknowledges the things he has done well but spends far more time detailing his excesses and failings as well as being generous in giving credit for his success to others. What makes this book so interesting is that it is neither a tearful apology nor a chest-thumping self congratulation. Cramer matter of factly details his journey to success as well as the toll it took on his personal life including his utter insensitivity in dealing with his family. The passages dealing with His wife alone are worth the price of the book. The woman is nothing short of amazing both as the "Trading Goddess" that truly lives up to her name as well as the woman who puts up with a workaholic husband that is virtually never around when she needs him.All in all, this is a fascinating book that anyone would do well to read.