and we have all decided it can reverberate into any company with exposure to china. ford, coach, boeing, goldman sachs. the thing is all crises are pretty much the same in the post great recession world. there is the initial shock -- holy cow! there's problems in the chinese banks! which shouldn't be much of a shock at all. until the last 24 hours, no one was really focused on the credit equals gold number one collective trust. that's the moniker of a $500 million chinese bond that could default as soon as january 31st. hurting individuals who own it or, well, the aches and pains of china credit trust.

another thing we've got to be thinking about. >> the house of pain. >> we have endless assurances not to worry because the people's republic government has it under control. a bank possibly allowed to default there are implications that aren't instantly patched up when we have down ticks from the baltic freight index, a shipping rate, a major tell for china. and a not so hot flash merchandise index report from china last night. then hand in hand with the initial shock, there's the broad panic we had today. that panic was immediately translated into stocks via the s&p 500 futures which take everything down. all 500 names, hence the ocean of red on the screen with just a few dots of green. there is no use fighting the initial tidal wave of fear, especially considering the strongest areas of the market have been industrials, techs and banks.

these areas have become suspect because so many have ties to china. you want to buy caterpillar not knowing it's run up and there is a giant chinese component? you want to be a risky guy like that? you want to be first to come in united technology and call bottom? not for me. on the other hand, there is no reason to panic. you heard me. there is no reason to panic. in fact, you want others to panic so that you can buy your favorite stocks for much lower prices than we have had for some time now. it's always easy to say, i'm cutting and running because of china. perhaps you should think, you know what, there are real bargains being created here. while china is important to the global economy, it's not as important as the united states, which remains strong and on course for growth this year. one look at the robust existing home sales figure that came out this morning, good jobless claims numbers tell you that all you need to know is that we are doing better than they are. neither housing nor employment

here in america should be hurt by the potential collapse. it's still a potential collapse, not a foregone conclusion of anything in china. because the communists may still save the bank. if you deliver a quarter that was beautiful, the way union pacific did this morning, your stock can have a terrific move higher even in the midst of hideous action. there are no railroads that start here and go to beijing. union pacific is involved in cross commerce on the coast and given the $5.62 rally, the transports were so strong. another sign things aren't that bad. day one of the sell-off is over. let's go to day two, tomorrow's action. day two, tomorrow is when it will be too late to sell some stocks. even as others, particularly the ones that outperformed last year's 32% run for the s&p might have another tough day. tonight our job is to figure out what shouldn't have been taken

down today. what isn't impacted by china but has gotten hammered as surely as if it its chief earnings stream comes directly from beijing. i spent time on "get rich carefully" addressing the broad futures led panic should be tamed by you. i will tell you how you should handle it. my perspective can help here. as many people presume it's game over exactly when it might be game on. my suggestion for today, unless you have a specific company that reported an amazing quarter like union pacific or microsoft after the close tonight, you probably want to sit on your hands. do some homework on the stocks that were brought low by the futures, particularly the domestic banks, foods, drugs, other health care names. do a little buying, nothing big. how about unilever with a terrific quarter earlier in the week. that's a consumer packaged goods

company with a lot of business including emerging market. how about stocks that never seem to come down. mckesson was up huge today. that will be up again tomorrow probably. maybe it considers some of the charmed big pharmas like merck or bristol-myers. you got to ask yourself what does the potential collapse of a regional chinese bank have to do with the with price to earnings ratio of bristol-myers? normally i would say pick up some domestic retailers. they had some earnings difficulties of late. i don't know if they have been sufficiently baked into the market. not if you look at target or coach. same with restaurants. the staying power of mcdonald's stock if there is a more disappointing quarter is more amazing. wendy's delivered better numbers. they have no exposure to china. chewy's is up nicely again, given an excellent report yesterday morning. starbucks looks real good. i think it will be europe that's the star of the quarter. you can also pick up your

favorite bond market equivalent here. clorox and kimberly clark come to mind in a classic fight to quality. so do the master limited partnerships. the real estate investment trusts that aren't connected to retail. how about the nursing home company led by one of my bankable ceos i will talk about tomorrow. debra cafaro, or lynn energy. that juicy dividend that stacks up well against the ten year treasury. you only get a 2.77% return if you own the ten year. real gunslingers out there, you know, this is what they will do. don't get mad at them. they're nutty and they love it. they will buy netflix even though it rallied 54 points today. perhaps tesla or amazon. the cult stocks spring back first. i told you many times but it's better day three material. people always jump the gun.

of course the nat gas stocks should spring back quickly. normally i would say the holy trinity of social, mobile and cloud. going with the biotechs and health & wellness. they were on a roll so they are up too much to pick at. especially biogen-idec. plenty of people with big gains who didn't sell today. they will most likely take profits tomorrow. these themes could be more of a day three or day four consideration. day three is good for the regionals which are terrific to date. they were brought down by the etfs that handle the financials and take everything down equally. i also like many of the special situation plays. dow chemical and maybe ebay now that they are under new activist pressures. the terrifically performing

techs like telco equipment stocks, i want them, but they have china exposure. normally you don't want to be aggressive on day three. because you don't know which ones actually have indirect exposure to china. the day four stocks will still be regarded as sales tomorrow by many of the johnny come latelies who didn't sell today. it's not too late to bolt. you might ask, why bother, why do anything at all but sell? why not let everything come down huge? here is the issue. you're being given some incredible entry points that could be erased if the chinese cut rates to fix the situation or bail out the bank that issued the bad paper. no need to rush in. today is the first day people have heard of the china credit trust or credit equals gold number one collective trust. obviously it won't be the last day. china is the second largest economy in the world. it never pays to be too sanguine in the face of any crisis. things in the united states are better than they have been in ages.

china has this habit of surprising us just when you think you're about to jump off a cliff without a net. jim in california. jim! >> caller: yes, jim. thanks for taking my call. some time ago i bought a lot of stanley black & decker thinking that as the housing market went up, so would the stock. if the housing seems to be on the mend but the stock is still languishing. what's wrong with my theory and what should i do now? >> we'll know any minute. they're about to report. one thing that upset me, that was one of the worst quarters we had. they had problems in europe, with security. they're in the penalty box. the co-manager of action alerts plus thinks it may represent an attractive buy here. i want to see the next quarter because as far as i'm concerned the last one was terrible. "mad money" will be back. >> announcer: coming up, time to

shine? from paints to solar panels, ppg industries is one of the world's best when it comes to getting things a bright finish. can the stock give your portfolio a fresh coat of green in the new year? don't miss cramer's exclusive with the ceo. later, dangerous drug. this biotech has more than doubled in the past year. but is it becoming a biohazard? cramer is sounding the alarm on one stock that could threaten to hit the reset button on your gains. is it lurking in your portfolio? plus, figuring out your 401(k)? putting off looking at your retirement account or still need to get one set up? with the market on a tear over the past year, there is no better time to take a look. cramer reveals the moves you should make now, when he opens up his playbook. all coming up on "mad money." don't miss a second of "mad money," follow @jimcramer on twitter. have a question?

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on a truly hideous day for the market it can be hard to remember that not everything is horrible. i try to accentuate the positive. for example, tuesday we learned dan lobe, the big hot shot activist investor is taking a major position in dow chemical, planning to push the company to break itself up. he wants to separate dow's chemical commodity business from the higher-margin propriety business. that's something dupont did and it's something cramer fave ppg has been doing for years and years. ppg is run by chuck bunch, one of my bankable 21, the 21 ceos i believe in to create value for shareholders like you.

his company is the king of all sorts of applications as well as specialty glass and optical products. under bunch's leadership ppg made you a fortune. the stock is only up $4 since october but it's given you a 23% return since april. it's given you a 358% gain with reinvested dividends since i first got behind it in june of 2009. ppg just reported last week and even though the company delivered an earnings beat with in line revenues, stock initially was hammered, going from $190 the day before to $182 the day the results went out, rebounding to $187. investors realized the quarter was actually pretty solid. i like the stock into any weakness. let's check in with chuck bunch to find out more about how his company is doing and where it is headed. welcome back to "mad money." >> thanks, jim. it's great to be back. thank you for the recognition. >> of course. chuck, i've got to start because

of the proximate cause of today's decline. a question on china. in your conference call you say, look, at this point our macro forecast is up 2.5%. a little strong here. obviously stronger in china today. this worry about a chinese thrift, should we take that out of the equation? >> we still feel good about china. obviously there was some chatter in the marketplace today. but our businesses are good. we had a very good fourth quarter. we are off to what we think is a good start here in the first quarter. we have the chinese new year a little earlier this year. that may have an impact here. the automotive businesses, oem and refinish, are very solid. we are looking for a good year in 2014. we came in to the end of 2013 with a lot of momentum. we still feel good about china.

>> i like your boots on the ground facts more than the rumors i heard all day today. i want to ask you about the real positives here. the first one is you really have a bead on the idea that commercial construction in this country could be making a comeback. >> yes. we see the commercial construction market from several different businesses, architectural coatings and the flat glass business. we saw some signs later in the year, in the fourth quarter, that things are improving. it's a little regional now here in north america. we're seeing the improvement in the southern u.s. and a few of the end use commercial segments like maintenance. but we think that things are beginning to turn around. we have waited for a while for this recovery to start. we think it's coming now slowly but it's coming. >> speaking of waiting for a while, i noticed that volumes in

europe, which is about a third of your sales, were flat for the first time after nine consecutive quarterly declines. you must be able to get, i would imagine, because i know you cut things back to the bone, some real earnings leverage off even just a flat sales number from europe. >> we did well in europe despite the weaker volumes over the course of last year. we had record earnings in europe. the fourth quarter was encouraging. we had no volume declines. first time. things were getting better. the automotive business in particular showed some signs of life. we're forecasting that will be slightly positive for next year. we see some of the countries like the uk and northern europe as starting to turn positive. construction markets, still awaiting a rebound, but we see recovery now in automotive and industrial, albeit very modest. >> i think people have to understand when we say there is a third of your business there, if things get good in europe, that could be gigantic for the

swing in earnings for your company. >> yes. it should help us. we have seen even the earnings improvement we got on negative volume this year. so we're poised to really take advantage of any opportunities in volume and market growth. we see a relatively moderate or no inflationary environment right now in europe on the commodity input cost side. we think we're poised to deliver if we can get some volume recovery now coming into 2014. >> some single digit price increases. the only person i know with price increases in the last quarter. i know you have a lot of cash. i didn't know there was a paying acquisition on the horizon. it was brilliant. are there things on the horizon now that you think a year from now we'll talk about as another good acquisition for ppg? >> yes, jim. we have discussions really on an ongoing basis.

we have been quite active in these dialogues for some time now. we've had cash on our balance sheet for a while. we expect another good year in 2014 in terms of cash plus the divestiture of the transitions optical business. we are in active dialogues. some of these are smaller companies, but we hope over the course of the next few quarters to realize these acquisitions, to add to our coatings and specialty portfolio. >> terrific, chuck. once again an amazing job. thank you so much for coming on "mad money." >> thank you very much, jim. >> this is another stock. it's just a bankable stock with a bankable man. ppg, stock broke down. got to take advantage of the breakdowns. you heard that china is a positive, not a negative. what happens if europe comes back? it could be huge for ppg.

stay with cramer. >> announcer: coming up, dangerous drug. this biotech has more than doubled in the past year. but is it becoming a biohazard? cramer is sounding the alarm on one stock that could threaten to hit the reset button on your gains. is it lurking in your portfolio? ♪

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a huge portion of investing comes down to credibility. who can you trust? it's why i devoted a whole chapter of "get rich carefully" to my bankable 21, the 21 ceos i believe you can count on to create value for you, the shareholder. seven more on power lunch tomorrow. things are rarely clear cut. bulls on one side, bears on the other and you're trying to make a decision. some experts have more credibility than others. when herb greenburg, a cnbc contributor and my colleague at thestreet.com, and master of red flags. warns us about a company -- hey, i'm a little tired. you better believe i pay attention. last week, herb wrote a piece

for thestreet.com questioning the sustainability of valiant pharmaceuticals, vrx. it's a big specialty firm that last summer acquired bausch and lomb. maybe the hottest stock in the market. i never talk about it. that's my bad. this thing is up 112% over the last 12 months. the company has increased in value from $1 billion to nearly $45 billion as of today. in other words, valiant is in beast mode. the stock is blowing up. two analysts say it's a hold and only one lonely bear dares to give it an underperform rating. when herb threw the red flag

last week, he was expressing a divergent view, so for tonight's sell block we'll look at the bull case from the analysts and the informed skeptic case from ed greenberg to see who's right about valiant. the thing analysts most like about valiant is the thing that makes herb so negative. goldman came out with a bullish piece of resarch. valiant has gone from a small time player to a $44 billion company because it's made a series of acquisitions. the difference is that goldman and other bulls like the m & a strategy. they see a disciplined buyer with a fabulous track record that can pretty much keep doing what it's been doing. buy, buy, buy. but herb greenberg isn't so sanguine. to him valiant is just another roll-up. >> boo! >> a wall street term for a company that gets all of its growth from buying other businesses. doesn't have it otherwise.

this company did 60 deals in the last -- yes, 60. so far the strategy is extremely successful. herb thinks the fund will come to an end eventually with the emphasis on eventually. herb doesn't time these sorts of things. he tells you that this is the kind of story we have seen often, and it almost always ends badly. herb sees a number of cautionary signs here. not long after the current ceo took over in 2008 he said the high aspiration goal was to be one of the top 15 pharma companies by the end of 2013. at its current value they reached the goal before the deadline. that kind of makes him one of my heroes. very impressive. what worries herb is there is a new aspirational target. they want to be among the top five by the end of 2016 which would mean more than tripling the market cap over the next three years to $150 billion. that's a very ambitious goal. herb makes it clear the only way they can get near there is by

doing many more acquisitions, and possibly a big one. herb has a problem with that one. historically, endlessly gobbling up businesses in order to grow is not a great strategy. according to herb, without more acquisitions they don't have much going for them at all. that's a dangerous place for business to be. in the latest quarter, the organic growth was actually, get this, down 9%, and their guidance was at the low end of what the analysts were looking for. >> house of pleasure. >> hardly. but the stock keeps roaring higher. people are buying it not for earnings but the next big deal. this strategy is kind of like a game of hot potato. when the deals dry up you don't want to be holding the stock. in the interim, another

blockbuster acquisition would send the stock up once again. perhaps in a great deal. but deals dry up eventually. herb himself admits as long as valiant keep making smart acquisitions the stock could go higher. he lays out reasons to be cautious. first of all we are in an environment where interest rates on the rise -- today excluded. higher rates make it harder to borrow money needed to do these deals. from 2008 to 2013 where valiant's takeover strategy allowed the stock to soar is when the rates were at low levels. they used low rates to their advantage but the company from $4.9 billion up to $17 billion as of last quarter. that did worry me. now valiant is saying the next deal could be paid for with stock, which makes sense, right, given the incredible run in the share price. to herb, if they are paying for acquisitions it better get a good deal or they will dilute existing shareholders and that

will hur the share price. the problem is we are seeing more m & a in pharma. you have endo health systems run by the former president of valiant looking at these deals, one of many players out there. so the more companies looking the more they have to pay for deals. what's my view? i don't know. i'm a lot more sanguine about roll-ups in general than herb is. look at hain celestial or vf corp. they have grown for years with numerous smart acquisitions. you can see there are cases where the strategy works. i like both those stocks. vfc has strong organic growth where valiant has shrinkage. they are more than valiant. hain could be swallowed up by general mills while vf corp. is worth $25 billion. as your business becomes too big

growing via acquisition is hard. here's my bottom line. when herb greenberg throws a red flag, we never want to go against him. his track record is too good. that's why i'm telling you to ring the register on some of the valiant and stay away from the stock if you don't. i'm telling you it's just not worth the risk, as i have followed herb's work for 20 years and i never, ever want to be on oh the wrong side of one of his red flags. can i go to scott in louisiana, please? scott. >> caller: hey, boo-yah, jim. scott from west monroe, louisiana. how are you? >> i'm good. how about you? >> caller: pretty good. i got your book last week as a birthday gift from my wife. she knows how much i love following your advice. >> top ten again this week. i'm thrilled. thank you so much. >> caller: i have been following a clinical stage biotech company since it came out as an ipo in july. >> yes.

>> caller: spike on december 3rd on news of a deal with celgene and it's been climbing ever since. i have thought about allocating 1% of my portfolio to the stock as a speculative play. i wonder what you thought. >> i like the idea. when i saw celgene did the deal. i said to myself it sounds like a real good deal. that's a really good call by you. celgene is still cheap. harlan in washington, please. >> caller: yes, good afternoon, jim. >> good afternoon. >> caller: thank you very much for all the help you have given us. >> you're very kind. >> caller: cubist pharmaceuticals just recently reported 22% revenue growth, and the blockbuster status 2013 sales were over $1 billion.

how do you feel about cubist and their pipeline looking ahead? >> we like their acquisition strategy, we like their management very much. we like the fact that they are tactically against those super bugs and they have done a great job. i cannot believe from the time we had on cubist i have been watching them closely. you've got a winner in cubist. they are welcome on the show any day of the week. sure valiant has been on fire. i'm listening closely to herb greenberg on this one. i'm putting vrx in the sell block right now. understand, they do another deal, don't get mad at me. i just don't want to be on the other side of herb greenberg. stay with cramer.

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>> announcer: lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade. it is time, it is time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." rapid-fire calls, say the name of the stock, i don't know the name of the callers or the questions ahead of time, when you hear what? [ buzzer ] then the "lightning round" is over. are you ready, skee-daddy? time for the "lightning round" on cramer's "mad money." i'm going to start with barbara in new york. barbara. >> caller: hi, jim. barbara from oyster bay. >> hey, how are you? >> caller: it's a pleasure to talk with you. in the past you have been a believer of groupon. the stock has been going down. >> it had a double. they got new management in there. i have a total belief in new management. i believe their adopting of local advertising is going to work. i like yelp more than groupon. gary in virginia, please. gary. >> caller: boo-yah, jim. >> yo, what's up? >> caller: i have been in the house of pain lately with pet smart. >> the house of pain. >> caller: pardon the expression, but is it still best of breed?

should i be buying more? >> i'm concerned of a slow down in the business. i hate to tell someone to bolt after a big move down, but there is a slow down. these are high multiple stocks and you can't have that. it did get too the high versus how it's doing now. how about neil in new york? neil. >> caller: a big brooklyn boo-yah for you, jim. >> bar san miguel brooklyn boo-yah, yeah. home made mezcal. not really. what's up? >> caller: cyrus one. >> interesting data center. i'm playing with f-5. that's the one i want to be in. luca in texas. >> caller: boo-yah, jim. my question is on visa. >> my answer is buy. trent in oregon. >> caller: hey, jim. intercept pharmaceutical. >> i think the move has been

made there. we have had a gigantic run. i pass on icpt. let's go to joe in california. joe. >> caller: hey. a transplanted southwest philly boo-yah to you. >> holy cow. are you kidding? i'll give you a boo-yah. what's up? >> caller: from the incense burning headquarters of elon musk, who i voted for. he paid for my tesla with the stock of solar city. >> i'm going to play solar city. >> buy, buy, buy. >> taking advantage of the rules of trying to get more solar in homes and it's working. they have something going there. that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion of the lightning round. >> announcer: the lightning round is sponsored by td ameritrade.

anybody who has a high school diploma has almost certainly taken a course in chemistry, geometry, physics probably, a host of history classes. do you know the one thing they almost never teach you in high school, let alone touch with a ten-foot pole in college? financial literacy. ♪ hallelujah >> i'm not talking about

economics here. you could be an econ major and still learn nothing about personal financial planning or retirement readiness. that's why cnbc is on a mission to educate and empower you to take control of your finances. you have to check yourmoney.cnbc.com because it has the tools you need. i want you to start doing this. that's why we are doing these segments and it's also why going forward every thursday we are running a new segment called cramer's playbook, where i teach you personal finance basics and i answer your questions, questions you could ask me on twitter, @jimcramer with the hash tag, #getaplan. i want to teach you about every aspect of managing your money to be a better investor both when it comes to retirement investing and playing with your discretionary mad money portfolio. that's part of the reason why i wrote "get rich carefully." if you are looking for a way to get your feet wet in the

homework department i talk about, do yourself a favor and listen to the starbucks conference call this evening. ceo howard schultz is always illuminating on his calls. he's a fabulous teacher. tonight's question is from @tankman12, of course. he cuts right to the heart of retirement investing when he asks, quote, should imax out my 401(k) or cut it back and do more in the stock market separate from the 401(k)? that's a really great query. it's one of the many questions we've gotten about how to manage a 401(k). if you don't know they are the main way americans save for retirement. they are offered by your employer and they are among the great tax deferred investment vehicles out there, along with individual retirement accounts or iras. a lot of experts will tell you to max out your 401(k) if you make enough to be feasible. this year the maximum contribution is $17,500. those come from the pretax income. i'm not one of the people who thinks you should max it out.

i'm not someone who will sing the praises and tell you it is the key to your financial salvation. the truth is they can be a real mixed bag, with a couple of really great features and bad ones, too. the bad features eat away at your returns year after year, sometimes through fees that are almost totally hidden from you. let me lay out the good, the bad and the ugly. then i will tell you whether it makes sense for you to contribute more money to your 401(k) or maybe you can put the cash to better use somewhere else. first the good. the best thing is it's a tax-deferred investment vehicle. pay no taxes on what you put in, and you never pay a penny of capital gains taxes on the profits made. it allows your money to compound year after year, totally tax free until you start making withdrawals. regular viewers of the show know i'm a huge believer in the power of compounding. let me give you an example.

suppse you're 30 years old and you invest $5,000 in the 401k. you're not paying taxes on that. choose your investments wisely to generate a return of maybe 7%. over the course of the next 30 years you will contribute $150,000 to your 401(k) plan. because that money compounds without capital gains taxes, by the time you're 60 that $5,000 per year pretax income you have been investing would be worth over $511,000. if you had to pay taxes on dividends and capital gains every year it would be as much as $110,000 lower. you only pay taxes on the money once when you decide to withdraw. at that point your withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. since you will likely be retired by then, most of you will pay a lower rate than if you were taxed on that money when you earned it. that's one reason to like 401(k) plans. the second reason, many but not all employers will match or partly match your 401(k) contributions. in other words, for every dollar you invest your employer may throw in, say, 50 cents up to a

certain point. that's free money. you almost never want to walk away from free money, especially when it's also untaxed. if you don't get free money from your employer it's a much less compelling option. as i said there are things about 401(k) plans that can be really bad. which is why if, again, you don't get a match from your employer, i believe it is a better idea to save for retirement via an individual retirement account or ira, which has the same tax favored status as a 401(k). you can only contribute $5,500 oh year or $6500 if you are other 50. when you change jobs you can roll the 401(k) into an ira and that's exactly what you should do. why is it the better option? first of all, 401(k) plans vary from company to company. some give you a terrific range of choices and even let you pick individual stocks. many more companies give you 401(k) plans with limited options. sometimes you only get to choose between a couple dozen different mutual funds.

for those of you who can't pick your own stocks in the 401(k) my number one rule is before you contribute money to the 401(k) plan you have to make sure it gives you the option to put cash into something that's worth investing in. i will make it real simple. if you can't pick your own stocks in a 401(k) you want a low expense index fund that mimics the s&p 500. if the 401(k) doesn't even offer that go with the self-directed ira from a full service discount broker. don't sneeze when you do it. one more negative. when you invest in a mutual fund you have to pay fees. the 401(k) administrator your company hires will charge its own fees. for all the money 401(k)s save on taxes a great deal can be clawed back by thses fees. if you look at your statement and wonder why your 401(k) holdings aren't increasing in value like you thought they should that could be the reason. here's my bottom line in retirement vesting. if there is an employer match

for your contributions, put money into the 401(k) until the match is maxed out. no reason to pass up free money. after that put any additional retirement savings in an ira. if there is no employer match or if there is a match but your 401(k) doesn't give you any options that are worth investing in, you would do better to skip it and go straight to the ira. of course we have barely scratched the surface of retirement investing tonight. if you want to learn more like whether you want a roth or ira, particular kinds of iras or what to earn within your accounts, watch every thursday right here on oh "mad money."

you can write a book about carl icahn's moves in the market lately. it's like he's the central character in so many instances that he's the symbol of the era of aggressive activism. we know as of last night his latest cause is ebay, breaking it up into plain ebay and sexy paypal. this morning we spoke to john donahue on "squawk on the street" about keeping it together. he made a compelling case for the status quo. ebay's core business helps paypay grow and vice versa. they have excellent group and he's managing the segments welch when you have low growth ebay, accelerated growth despite the

competition from the beast that is amazon and a 16% increase in paypal subscribers, what's to complain about? that's impressive. i can understand the frustration. as the stock has been static for a year. a year where paypal lookalikes such as mastercard and visa were up even as they have slower growth. mastercard with 1.2 million card holders growing at 10% traveled from 49 to 82 over that period. visa with 2.5 million card holders and 6.5% growth has gone from 152 to 228. it's important to point out ebay has a cap. it's possible paypal will be loved for rapid growth while ebay will get a higher multiple. what's holding ebay back? they have promised terrific growth and delivered only good growth. the company is perpetually viewed as a break up candidate. i suspect ebay would be in the

high 40s, down roughly 10% from where it went out. last night frankly it was over promised and under delivered. let's talk about some of the other icahn investments. icahn bought netflix which was up $55 today, back when it was trading below $60. he's accumulating. he's now got a 560% gain in 15 months we know from judge wapner's show. how did he hit it out of the park when others missed it? he simply realized the opportunity was bigger than the market cap and might still be, given great growth prospects like tesla, solar city, netflix is a concept stock and carl icahn got the concept. the analysts didn't. when will netflix stop roaring? probably when analysts capitulate. he took $60 a go in hain

celestial, recognizing the trend in healthier eating. he left it after taking a hefty gain. which leaves apple and herbalife. i wish apple bought netflix when icahn did. carl wants value to be brought out via a buy back. i want growth to accelerate from products and acquisitions. i'm agnostic when it comes to how they get the stock higher. herbalife is a stock people are in precisely because they believe in icahn. tomorrow is the anniversary of the epic showdown with wapner. people know carl icahn is in it so they dump it when a politician calls for an investigation though i don't believe that will go very far. the easy money has been made there. why focus on carl icahn?

he's the public face, the stake holder who gets long and loud in an era when corporate boards are more responsive than ever to disgruntled shareholders. even on a down day like today, we must remember there are many ways to win. one is to bank on an activist like carl icahn when he swoops in either to change or to conquer. stick with cramer.

i like to say there is always a bull market somewhere. i promise to find it for you on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. i will see you tomorrow! hey, hey, hey. how's she run? >> she runs great when she runs. >> dude, you told me it ran. >> only way we're gonna make a deal is if you get it running. now i'm putting matt to the test. i've wanted to do a gold car for a while. why don't we try it? >> here goes. i'm gonna open the door. >> whoa-ho-ho! look at that! she might be faster than the little chevy. >> what are you talking about? >> let's drag race. >> get your big boy britches on. >> tom's gonna race a car that's worth $100,000, and that's not a concern. his concern is winning. >> my name is jeff allen. i buy, fix, and flip cars. but i don't do it alone. i've got perry... meg...