it's done. >> i'm buying tesla in next week's event. i'm just a doctor, mel. >> you know what that's from my mission is simple, to make you money i'm here to level the playing field for all investors. there's always a bull market somewhere, and i promise to help you find it. "mad money" starts now hey, i'm cramer. welcome to "mad money. welcome to cramerica other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you some money. my job is not just to entertain but to educate and teach you so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc or tweet me @jimcramer. every nagt -- night i come out here and tell you what happened during the day

i do it to help you be a better do-it-yourself investor or better client. i do it with a spectacular team of people. and with the help of dozens of fabulous people responsible for all of the look and feel of the show to the research we have a team that helps me with memos to back up the research and we have a head writer that is cliff mason, my sister nan and her husband's son. my nephew. we take it for granted what we do and tonight i am going to change that. i am going to correct it tonight i want to talk to you about the show its evolution and how you can best use it or worse, misuse it. you might not be able to use it as effectively as you would

like i know this because i talk with enough people about the show and interact with enough people through e-mail and twitter now the show has evolved mightily it was an outgrowth of a radio show called "real money. which i did in conjunction of a show called the street when we started the show people were thirsting for specific investment ideas i was happy to comply. the stock market changed overtime we got hit with the great depression we had many companies, big companies particularly in the financial world destroyed by the downturn mostly because they didn't have enough money in the bank to handle the losses. it was a credit crisis

i i i am proud of the fact that if you watched me, you might have avoided the downturn and that the situation was far worse than anyone realized. i find it a tad ironic that i was the only guy saying things were falling apart and the only person in the media that was vilified for not telling people to sell that era changed it changed me and changed the show i added some language at the top of the top of the show that was meant as a manifesto i say the show is meant to educate, entertain and teach that is very important and very different from the original show a total break in a lot of ways it is not enough to give you stock ideas. we want for you to be able to understand the process and to

pick them for yourself or more important, we want you to understand the stock market enough for you to make a judgment whether you can do it yourself now, me, i love individual stocks i think they can be tremendous vehicles that can lead to great wealth our shows identification with stocks, stocks like apple, chipotle, honeywell, bristol-myers. we have tried to leave behind the so-called new ideas or hot ideas and instead to give you themes themes that i hope i can make come alive with the analogy, sports, whatever so you can do the homework on them things like living longer, through healthy eating i have written many books.

i have got to tell you, that "get rich carefully," is designed to be this new show's companion. a lot of what i talk about in the show i am cognizant that the market is hard. and you have time burdens and demands. you may be bewildered. i am not just okay with index funds, but insist that you use them put $10,000 in an ira. i would vastly prefer you to invest in index fund than mutual funds. managers move on records can

change, and pass performance is no guarantee which brings me to point number one. i am not a shill or an oil snakesman for individual stocks. i am a believer in the asset stocks i do want you to have what is known as exposure, that is a technical term, to the stock market and i try mightily to convince you that it is worth it to do so stocks have created so much wealth over time if you don't believe me, read warren's buffet golden anniversary. why do they work they represent the sum progress. you get to be along for the ride and i want you to be along for the ride in that responsible way which is most definitely owning an index fund. i like a fund that gives you a

total return and offering that is found among various fund houses. if you aren't offered one, then of course go to the s&p 500. here is my bottom line, the show has changed over time from when we pick stocks for you, to one where we educate you about stocks there is only one problem, we know you like stocks too or you wouldn't be watching. which is why when we come back, we explain why we bother to delve in individual stocks as well after we profess undying love for index funds as the way to go. larry in massachusetts. >> caller: your nightly focus sessions remind me of

roosevelt's fireside chats how quickly, and at what percentage gain do we unload a small position which has gotten out of control, high quality problem and conversely, how quickly and what percentage loss >> i like to take off my rules have evolved when you are up 50%, you take off 25 and when you are up 100%, you take off, yes, all of your initial veinvestment and you play with the house's money. if you didn't get enough in when a stock came down and moved up, you can kick that out for a trade. an investment becomes a trade when you didn't get the whole position on it greg in new york.

>> caller: i feel like we speak every day. how are you? do you think it is worth taking more risk when you are younger, and to put more money on the line and try to sneak the higher profits? >> listen to me, greg. i didn't start with much money but i took big risks because i had my whole life ahead of me. you have your whole life ahead of you, buy stocks and it goes down big, you got that paychecks coming you take that big risk that is what i want. chris in oregon. >> caller: thank you for taking my question and thank you very much for all the great advice you have given me. >> thank you so much how can i help

>> caller: my question is, i have an ira equity portfolio that i don't plan to draw on for five more years. my question is about dividends, does it matter whether you reinvest those dividends back in the stock that generated them or reinvest in the fund in general. >> any time you can reinvest dividends, do it power of compounding one of the greatest single thing that can happen to your money is the compounding of dividends our mission remains the same to make you the home gamer better investor. i'm in your corner plenty of "mad money" ahead. including how to plug into the market's biggest sources of wealth plus, it could be a huge way to win but also massive catastrophe

if not careful and i am taking your tweets. "mad money" will be back after the break. >> announcer: don't miss a second of "mad money." follow @jimcramer on twitter have a question? tweet cramer, #madtweets send jim an e-mail to madmoney@cnbc.com or give us a call at 1-800-743-cnbc miss something head to madmoney.cnbc.com.

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which could save you $400 or more a year. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. click, call, or visit a store today. we started the show explaining why we teach what we teach and why you want to own index funds to capture the profits and opportunities in stock if aggregate for those who come away saying we count stocks every night and think it is a waste of time. we are not going to win you. and we do know that you need bother watch that's fine. why do we bother to do the show other than i like to be compensated for doing something. surely i could have retired by now.

i did well in previous life, gold m goldman sachs. i will come back to that number so hold on to it but i mention it now because i am lucky enough to be able to do what i want to do at this stage of my life i am tempted to thinking maybe i should go back and be a hedge fund manager my late father thought i was much happier doing what i am doing now. he thought the show was terrific and was my biggest backer in what i was trying to accomplish here thanks, pop. so why talk about individual stocks this is a commercial product and the market is judge commercial products is worth something. second i do it because of six

stocks national video, american agro nommics, st technology, giant food heinz and gantos get you to the point where you make furors and have more of a chance to make money longer turn if you choose to invest in individual stocks as well as index funds. index funds are preferable for the vast majority of you but i know you want to buy individual stocks anyway, or you wouldn't want watch this show. when i was growing up, my father's brother knew a broker and his name was jack. i met him once he played a lot of tennis. my father worked hard. after the ward he started at gimbels selling men's slacks

he decided to strike out on his own with his brother first selling carpets and toy games and gift boxes to retailers. those who have heard my father's eulogy delivered the day after he died, know that my dad had a hard business life he started the national gift wrapping companies box, wrap, and bag whatever they sold to their customers. his customers were always going under and he was on the road quite a bit trying to find those new ones i remember endless days of discouragement my mom would tell me, go to your room before pop got home, he didn't have sales, or customers were cruel to him. i knew he was always deathly afraid he couldn't pay the bills.

so one day pop said he knew what he was going to do he was going to buy the stock of national video because pop's brother had heard from jack, the guy with the good backhand that it was the next big thing. the stock of the millennium or at least the roaring 1960s the stock went up dramatically and pop was elated he bought more and more of it because it was going higher. that was all he knew about national video he found out how it was doing by reading the five star evening bulletin which came out at the close of the market or he turned on the road and they would list a lot of closing prices on the station. and he would cheer, he encouraged me to follow it i told you how i kept the journal of stocks that i followed i didn't know any more about the companies beyond the stock but i wasn't playing with real

money and he was sure enough, after pop had put a sizeable amount of his money into national video, it started going down he didn't know what to do. so he checked in with his brother who checked in with jack and told him all was well and he should keep buying national video. which he did i am glad for two things, one that pop never borrowed money to buy national video and stocks blessedly stop at zero on the way down and pop lost everything. everything we didn't take much vacation and we didn't stay at the ritz carlton when we went away. there was an important take away that suffuses the fundament of this show. people are going to be tempted to own individual stocks one of the precepts of "mad

money" is how to invest in individual stocks if you are going to do so think of the mistakes my father made with national video he didn't know anything about it so no idea how the company was doing. how risky it was and how it could under he relied on a stockbroker friend of his brother. he was at the mercy of the movement of the stock and he only knew to continue to buy rather than cut his losses he had a tip he bought the tip up and down after doing no work and lost everything substantial chunk of his life's savings. here are the many take aways tips i like to say are for waiters. two, you must do homework. three, if you can't do homework, own an index funneled. and four, if you fear losing money, don't own stock at all.

i still don't know what national video does but that is for another chapter. after the break. i will trying to make you more money. >> love the show, we appreciate you out there. >> booyah. >> booyah. >> i know you hear this all the time but thank you, thank you so much. >> my best year by far and away in the market. >> thank you for looking out for the regular guys out there. >> i am trying to teach people to be better investors that's the goal here. >> great to hear your voice and know that you are there for us let's begin.

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exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars, and bistros, even pet-care services. and nobody understands your options like the advisers at a place for mom. these are local, expert advisers that will partner with you to find the perfect place and determine the right level of care, whether that's just a helping hand or full-time memory care. best of all, it's a free service. there is never any cost to you. senior living has never been better, and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. call today. a place for mom -- you know your family, we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. real special show of shows a show describing what this show is about and why i do it to begin with.

we covered i don't want you to own an individual stock before you own an -- we are using mad money only to buy stocks and the rest goes into index funds buying a stock national video ignorantly and riding it all wait and all the way down. that wouldn't happen with an index fund but we respect the right everyone has to try to invest in individual stocks. even as we recognize that even my father had diversified might have had a lot more to show for it which brings me to the second stock, american agro nommics made $153 a week and then

homicide in l.a. after winning awards for my coverage of ted bundy. so whatever little money i had went to the fidelity magellan mutual fund. i was dretermined to augment tha fund buying individual stocks where was i going to get that edge i figured why not read all the periodicals that cover stocks. i was helping to start a magazine called american lawyer a trade publication. and because of a kind sister that let me crash in her apartment in the village i saved money. and decided to use that definition of mad money to buy the stock of american

agronommics. because i read an article in "forbes magazine" and that said this orange grower was doing well i picked up ten shares of this $9 stocks. i was in the ground floor. i was in on the cheap linoleum ground floor the frost promptly wiped out the orange stock and destroyed my investment i should have given up right there. i didn't i changed my m.o what i did was give up buying a stock off an article my friend didn't know, knew that

i was struggling for extra money and those calls in the middle of recession f recession from a friend is like gold so i decided to look into sps. i promptly read everything on sps. they had everything at that library. and here is what i discovered. it wasn't much known or written about sps. and what was written was negative my first thought was to say oh well, not doing so well. bummer but then i realized hold it, my information is the most current possible i got a guy telling me they can't handle the business they have and need to handle additional shifts of labor like me i was ahead of the story now these days it is hard to get

this edge. edges do exist and we do our best to present them every night. analysis is very important but back then i had the pure play. i took everything i had. everything i saved and i made a ton of money as the sps story unfolded i decided i would look around the office for more ideas. i was writing about lawyers and mergers and acquisition. it was always about oil and gas. i thought geez, why don't i find one that hadn't been gobbled up. i took another chunk of money, and talking 300 bucks and bought that stock i don't think i waited very long at that point i was hooked i put money in my mutual fund

but anything left i bought individual stocks. and made enough for my first year of law school the research which was so scanty back then is everywhere. then subsequently got bit from berkshire hathaway companies have to have full and fair disclosure of all news or be prosecuted by the government. some would say you can't possibly game stocks as well and you might as well buy an index fund i am not against that. still though, i recognize that you can study and you can pick worth while stocks that might be doing better and can indeed augment your savings here is the

bottom line. remember american agronommics and sps. i am telling you right now, that is not good enough better to have genuine insight that nobody else has it is in the end about the odds. and any hardworking that can increase those odds in your favor is going to make it more likely than not for you to succeed which should be the exact reason why you watch this show joe in new york. >> caller: booyah, this is joe from new york. thanks for taking my call. thanks for sharing your wisdom >> i have a great staff that helps me. >> caller: if i want to diversify, by diversifying i would only be able to buy two or three shares of each company or would it be better to buy ten

shares of one of them. what is the least amount of shares you would invest. >> ten shares, well i have done many times i have done two or three shares at various times i do favor an index on your first investment nobody said investing is easy. that is why i come here every night. it requires genuine insight and time and hard work on your part. but don't worry, we'll do it together stay with cramer once there was an organism so small

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i we worked with pg&eof to save energy because wenie. wanted to help the school. they would put these signs on the door to let the teacher know you didn't cut off the light. the teachers, they would call us the energy patrol. so they would be like, here they come, turn off your lights! those three young ladies were teaching the whole school about energy efficiency. we actually saved $50,000. and that's just one school, two semesters, three girls. together, we're building a better california. >> why we start with index funds. we have seen the wrong way to invest by examining a failed investment of my dad's and seen

the right way i bought a couple of stocks i bought before law school while at law school i traded pretty much daily using personal insight and going to the library. as well as what we called microfiche of every day filings. so what if it was a month old. we saw the beginning of indexing of individual stocks value line company that was an influential. and ultimately the s&p 500 i didn't think much when they bundled the s&p 500. the heyday for stocks was just beginning when i was in the law school

hence why i put a stock on my answeri answering machine. interest rates were about four, five times than they are now let's say it was all beginning when i started on commission in 1984 at goldman sachs, i used to get a call every day from none other than my mother who love the stock market i got her interested in stocks in the early 80s and she chose to invest the way peter lynch taught buy what you know and stay on top of it. she had been shopping at public food what i would do was something i would often tell you to do i would read up on the wall street research and marry her experience at the chain with the fundamentals of the grocery business goldman had what was known at

the time as the ax, the best analyst on the street on supermarkets and i would read what he had to say about giant i had the luxury of having a friend from the lowe's corporation. so here was the process of homework back then you like an idea through personal experience, giant food. you read up about it you match those. other analyst started getting on board. if there was terrific growth especially regional going to national growth, that would mean investors would only pay up for more than other companies in their sector which is multiple or the price to earnings multiples the pe would go

higher while giants foods had it stayed public, you could have gone to its web page, it would have everything you want, including a stock price which is available everywhere everybody has the same info, but the original insight by my mother was the starting point. you can't substitute for that. no as an aside, my late mom never lost interest in stocks. she took with cancer in 1985 and she called me every day to get her stock quote. she did it to stay alert and to stay in touch with me. i never forget how easy it is for a son or daughter, parent. >> despite all these different inputs, the process of picking

stocks can be up ended which brings me to the fifth stock in our saga. gantos anybody remember gantos? here was a women's apparel chain. i tried to get my father to buy stock in the chain but he would hear nothing of it i asked him why. he said because no one goes there. i told him that was impossible it was way too highly rated by goldman. my father said okay, let's take a trip to franklin mills, a mall outside philadelphia as my father had to go to call on merchants my father said here is what we are going to do, camp out in front of gantos and make a judgment ourselves whether anybody goes in and goes out and buys anything. we sat there for hours and hours

talking and watching and only a dozen people entered the story. i can't recall one guy, or one woman coming out with a bag. i shorted the company that monday until the whole company shorted and became liquid. now to put all of this in perspective, i am offering a way that this show can bolster the profits. i try to imagine my mother being a caller i try to figure out how i can through presenting you the giants and the gantos's so you can understand the process of good investing i want to show you it didn't reckless of picking individual stocks it all increases the odds as successful individual stock investing. so here is my bottom line, my

mom was no genius at stocks, but he had a general interest. stay with cramer imagine traveling hassle-free with your golf clubs.

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we're talking about the notion of individual investing and recognizing how i try to teach you how to analyze stocks you might pick if you have the time and inclination if you don't, you can keep

watching but invest in index funds and not individual stocks. i want you to have personal experience where you can match that experience with homework particularly research. and recognizing you must be skeptical at all times let's get to the final piece of the puzzle that eludes all of you. and make the process far more mystical than it seems let's talk about heinz when i decided to leave goldman sachs, my first stock was hieeiz it was a classic growth stock. plus a time when the japanese were nipping at our companies and the chinese was just becoming a world power, i was

certain we would never have asian ketchup on the picnic table. i needed to find those that i could suggest that my client buy more of those. that way i wasn't wrong so to speak and run the risk of losing a client but performance management has its own set of rules and it was learning them on the fly that really got me, well let's say down on my luck. just buying stock because you knew it was terrific didn't matter to my new investors in my fund they want a performance, often daily performance and i started my fund when the economy was just beginning to heat up. heinz was a staple with a good dividend people dump these kinds of stock with something more cyclical i watched as heinz and other best of breed company like

bristol meyers dropped and dropped for more rotation in stocks of companies. earnings that would heat up. i didn't get that if i wanted to perform daily. i realized i would have to dump my heinz and bristol meyers. to name a fewest my fund dropped by more than 10%, i would have to open the doors and let people out of their contract noticed each day my stocks sank and sank because it was filled with best of breed finally we booted all of my faves and quickly got to even. if you want to perform on a daily basis, you got to take action you can't just sit there and get

your head handed to you. this rotation game is not one that you can play at home. here is why. as that year progressed, the economy got hotter and hotter and these stocks kept getting higher and higher. and at a certain point things got too hot. and the next thing you know, the stock market crashed all of the cyclical plays were decimated. so were bristol meyer and heinz. and they snapped right back. so let's come back to the show itself i have now told you to use an index fund no matter what and buy individual stocks with mad money using it the right way and not the wrong way. how rotation can derail the best of the best. we try to explain right up top why your stocks may not be following the fortunes of the

companies underneath because of so-called rotation and then i show you as a home gamer, that you can use the flailing performers to your advantage. i do that basically through the longer pieces. bringing on executives to learn about their stories and see if they fit into what is right or what is wrong in the mad money point of view. be it after the great crash of '87, my job is to keep an eye on that prize for you what is going on at actual companies and that is your chance to get in them at reasonable prices. i augment these views. that's a way to show you how big money works by playing with an open hand. it is more of an exhibit with

e-mail it can help you understand the rotation i am proud that i have given away more than $2.3 million. i want you to understand how it works and how the mac nations of the pros intertwine. i know the show is not perfect i have made my share of mistakes i have favored companies that didn't work out. i know i have a reputation not deserved myself for being too bombastic. i am just trying to keep you informed in an entertaining way. i would have let down my mother, my father and all you home gamers years and years ago the education is what it is about. as long as you know that the bottom line is that i am doing my job and hopefully doing it right. stay with cramer

>> i know it is not easy, but i promise to keep fighting for you. >> announcer: jim cramer, leveling the playing field for all. >> the road is a tough one >> announcer: join "mad money" training camp weeknights

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hey, everybody, i get your tweets all day and try to answer as many as i can digging into your tweets right here at "mad money." writing is there a certain debt ratio. >> if you go to stay mad for life, i have a lot of rules for that you have to make sure the debt they have, the interest they have to pay isn't overwhelmed, don't overwhelm the countmpany. >> here we have at at number two. is is there any virtue i do think that owning some gold is always a good idea. you can do it through the bullion or the gld or i might

recommend a stock but those are the best ways. >> we have at brian dolan. teaching my five-year-old the value of mad money do you know what -- what is the quality. everything gets sold okay, best of breed. high quality company means it is acknowledged to be the corporate leader in its sector and if this is the best of breed in the sector, i think you will have a long-term investment. i prefer for you to wait when we get periodic moves down. that is when you pull the trigger.

@norby says, we know money never sleeps but do you? you see me tweeting. >> you know this is an industry world what i am looking for is the best shorts, not the best short sellers. what i found is the best short sellers are in the wrong stock shorting the same stocks so i look at the companies case by case. here is one, professor, so glad you are helping us thank you.

-- send to a charity and write about it while i am doing it to analyze it stick with cramer. whoooo.

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...your budget? tripadvisor now searches over... ...200 sites to find you the... ...hotel you want at the lowest price. grazi, gino! find a price that fits. tripadvisor. yourbut as you get older,thing. it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money. i'm jim cramer, and i will see you next time!

>> welcome to the shark tank, where entrepreneurs seeking an investment will face these sharks. if they hear a great idea, they'll invest their own money or fight each other for a deal. this is "shark tank." ♪ who set out to solve a problem she faced as a mom. ♪ hi. i'm ginelle. i am the owner of cool wazoo. i'm here seeking $65,000 in exchange for 25% equity in my company. when my daughter was younger,