Jim Cramer's Getting Back to Even

I learned a lot of information that I will use. I wish he had used more charts but he explained things in a very understandable way. I bought it mainly for the 2 options chapters. That alone was worth the price of the book.

I admit I love his show but the real reason I give this book 5 stars is for the Options chapter. Every option site I have viewed made it seem so complicated, which it can be, but buying call options is as easy as it gets and for me so far very profitable.

I would buy this book regardless of what your personal opinion is of Jim Cramer. My investing and stock trading style is very different from his but I agree with him on most points in this book. In this book Cramer focuses on many risk adjusted strategies that over time will bring your portfolios back to even, if you are down the 30-50% like most investors are in the past two years. (I am a trend follower and did my homework on the fundamentals so I went to cash on January 4th, 2008). I completely agree with Cramer's advice to never buy and hold, but buy and homework. I know this is true from personal experience. Cramer also points out that if your investments drop by 50% you must have a 100% return to get back to even. If $100,000 drops by 50% to $50,000 it has to go back up 100% to get back to $100,000. This is sobering, however I would also like to point out that a compounded 12% return six times is a 100% return, this is certainly possible and this book will show you many ways to accomplish this. 1). Jim suggests buying great stocks at good prices, he advises not to chase stocks but wait for pullbacks to buy what you want at the right price. never chase a stock when it goes beyond a reasonable price. (This also explains why he loves certain stocks then a week later does not, the stock became to expensive). 2). He gives great strategies on how to use the right dividend stocks to get steady low tax returns. Dividend stocks hold value better than other stocks in huge sell offs. He shows how to choose the ones with strong steady earnings to get the ones that are accidentally high yielders and avoid the ones about to cut their dividends due to declining earnings. 3). He gives you twelve specific stocks that he believes will benefit greatly when the full economic recovery takes place. They are all very strong companies in different sectors: construction, financial, industrial, housing, and oil, etc. 4). He suggests investing in companies that will benefit from the growing world of wireless internet. He believes that the growth in this industry will be a growth story of epic proportions. 5). He gives names of regional banks with strong balance sheets, and good loan practices, that are poised for growth through takeovers and better management. Cramer has seen this before in the savings and loan disaster and recovery of the early 90's. 6). For the first time in one of his books Jim Cramer explains how to use deep in the money call options intelligently for low risk returns. 7). He urges us not to become perma-bears and miss the recovery. Things will recover and we must be invested to take advantage of it when it arrives. The book ends with twenty-five new rules for post-apocalyptic trading. Which gives some great advice including how to use secondary stock offerings to make money by buying in at the right time. Also, how to choose the right IPO to buy based on who is taking it public. At the end of the book he rails against the dangers of dou

I really like the book. Thanks Jim Cramer for the investment insight again. 1. One thing what Jim talks about is how the mutual fund play in the stock market. 2. This is important you need to buy stocks when the market is in a uptrend and a stock which is hitting the 52 weeks high is going to go higher. 3. Also investment is about gaining knowledge. 4. One other important lesson in investment is how and when to sell your stocks. 5. The most important rule as I learned from William O Neil or IBD ( Investors Business Daily) is sell a stock when it goes below 8% of your purchase price. 6. If one had followed this rule people would have conserved their hard earned capital in 2001 and 2008. 7. Jim covers in details about Visa and Apple, two powerful stocks for the next 5 years atleast. 8. Its true what he has stated stocks have produced the best return if we go back to last 8 decades. 9. But in investment one needs discipline, understanding, patience, when to buy, when to sell. Lastly I would encourage retail investors to do their own research and homework. For that along with Jim Cramer one should be a a serious reader of Investors Business Daily. In fact even Jim reads it. If you look at his recent shows he talks about arcsight, Salesforce, Apple, Visa , Flir systems they are all covered in detail in IBD. One place where Jim lost out this year in 2009 was in Chinese stocks. He kept talking about Chinese ETFs whereas the reality was when the uptrend started in March 2009, it was led by Chinese stocks like SNDA, NTES, PWRD, BIDU, ASIA, RINO. They were extensively covered in IBD. To be a successful retail one needs to be diversified in their research as well. So combine IBD with Jim's books and also the book of Jesse Livermore, Gerald O Loeb, Nicholas Darvis and one will be a winner in the long run. Investment is a long term process of learning. Good luck and best wishes.

First a caveat, Jim Cramer seriously annoys me. I rarely ever watch his show (especially after the notorious "melt-down") and less frequently read his books. However, as a college instructor and business writer, I read a lot of business books and make a point of keeping up with what is in the popular press since it tends to come up in daily questions etc...admittedly, I was also curious how well a book claiming to help people "Get back to Even" was going to do in the ratings...it's certainly a modest proposal at best and a constant reminder of financial pain at worst. Much to my surprise, Cramer actually mentions this early in the text so score one for Cramer! The book is easy to read with a purely conversational tone; those that enjoy Cramer will feel right at home while those such as myself will still manage to get through it without constant irritation like listening to him on television. There is an abundant use of examples to explain any all all technical terms no matter how simple or complex but they do not (usually) insult the readers intelligence but rather enhance the reading nicely. The author assumes the reader has minimal prior exposure and takes little for granted so even novice investors or those that have always had their portfolio managed by someone other than themselves will not need to read with references in hand. Now, as to the core of the concepts covered in the book itself. Cramer begins by presenting 8 new rules which are more or less "common sense" but well worth repeating given the typical lack of financial savvy of most "investors". I suspect most people will enjoy the statistics and rationale more than the actual "rules" themselves but it effective presents a foundation from which the rest of the book is written while acting as the typical disclaimer for all financial related books (ie, get your basics covered first). Like any investment related book, there are likely areas to agree and disagree with...but if one manages to pick up a few nuggets it is well worth the time and effort to read. This book is no exception. Cramer is Pro diversification, gold/precious metals, dividends, performing your own research and weekly updates for stocks that you select. He goes into more detail than usual in how to research these stocks, his rationale for selection criteria and examples from both sucessful and non-successful examples in his own past. For those that are well versed in reading/understanding financial statements, most of this will be rudimentary but as a person that routinely deals with people in various stages of financial literacy - there is a strong need for user-friendly information that can be applied directly to one's own portfolio. Cramer earns an "A"...he keeps the information direct, relevant and easy to understand while covering the flaws and limitations of everything from valuation to growth rates and the impact of "big money". After a fairly robust section on dividends (like a dividends 101 abbreviated