your basic diversification is mandatory in cramerica.f you're prepared for anything, not enough to make sure your stocks don't overlap, you need a portfolio that works in all kinds of markets, so tonight i want to explain and refine what i like to call the new diversification, how to protect your wealth and ensure you own something that works in increasingly chaotic, difficult, unforgiving, nauseating miserable market where diversified by sector alone can not be enough. the new diversification is all about owning the rights kinds of stocks. there are five different areas you need covered for maximum protection and upside. you need gold, dividend-paying stock with a high yield, growth stock and something speculative, yes, i believe in that, and something from a healthy geography. cover all five bases and you'll have a portfolio that can win in any market which, is why i'm going to explain what makes all five areas so essential, teach you how to analyze stocks by yourself, and each one, so you can fill every position with the best possible

happy holidays, cramerica. peace and prosecutes parity from all of us here at "mad money." >>> signature on the sidelines because of the uncertainty in the markets? >> thanks for turning my portfolio from mean to green. >> that's what i want to hear. >> with over 25 years experience in bull and bear markets, let coach cramer show you how to play to win. >> thanks for keeping us in the game. >> "mad money," weeknights on cnbc. >>> earnings season doesn't have to be a gatling gun for numbers. only an attempt for hedge found profit from. tonight we've shown how you can look for signs of what to do with your portfolio over the long run because the earnings reports and the subsequent conference calls, the crucial thing, look -- here's the deal, they don't have to be shoot first, ask questions later experiences. actually, the opposite. conference calls are ask questions, ask questions. and then ask some more questions. only then maybe take action. we are asking specifically about what the growth of the earnings per s

happy holidays, cramerica.nd prosperity from all of us here at "mad money." >>> welcome back to "mad money" special earnings season companion show. how not to be overwhelmed by earnings reports and put them into perspective so you can profit from them in an informed and confident way, make money at home. we just went over how i like to use the earnings reports themselves to figure out the growth rate and relate it to the earnings report to figure out whether it's too expensive or too cheap against its sector and the rest of the market. the next way i use the earnings report is equally as important in some ways because of what i call the etf-ization of the market even more than the growth rate versus the price of the stock and earnings per share. i measure the stock's earnings growth against its cohort and figure out whether, here it is, the whole cohort is worth owning or forgetting about. wow. that's right. for most of my more than three decades of investing i've accepted the fact that the sector's important w

welcome to cramerica. tonight, i'm letting you in on something big, the method to my madness. i know this show is the most crazy, random and frankly bizarre thing on television. but i also know you won't find investing advice this good anywhere else. you know that too or you wouldn't be watching. unless tonight is the night the show goes up the rail. for those of you more interested in trying to make money than watching me traipse around like a crazy man, particularly on twitter @jimcramer, keep watching. i believe you can do everything you need to do at home if you're willing to put in time and effort. investing, running your own portfolio with some buy and forget index fund, well, we're waiting for the fall safety of bond funds. something anyone can do as long as you can spend several hours a week doing homework. i'm including watching the show and research these stocks. research is so readily available. for any websites with the plain old companies which i love to check. in fact, i think actively managing your own portfolio is now essential, especially in the wake of the cr

stick with cramer. >> from our family to yours, happy holidays, cramerica.eace pros prosperity from all of us here at "mad money." [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. it's another reason more investors are saying... to the best vacation sp(all) the gulf! it doesn't matter which of our great states folks visit. mississippi, alabama, louisiana or florida, they're gonna love it. shaul, your alabama hospitality is incredible. thanks, karen. love your mississippi outdoors. i vote for your florida beaches, dawn. bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. we're having such a great year on the gulf, we've decided to put aside our rivalry. now

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you a little money. my job is not just to entertain you but to educate and teach. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. we may all be focused on the fiscal cliff. we may see the talks blowing up right in front of our eyes. even as the averages denied washington's gravitational pull, the dow gaining 60 points, s&p climbing .55%, nasdaq advancing .20%, we know when the president or the speaker of the house comes on the tube these days, the market is going to get hammered. sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. even if it is just temporary. >> sell, sell, sell. >> the only thing you need to know is the time they're going to come on. if you could just blast out of some aggressive growth stocks or sell some s&p futures when see them walk to the podium, you could probably coin money! i'm surprised the president doesn't start his talks by saying, look, look, america, i'm about to send the s&p 500 down a percent with what i say. how about the speaker? maybe he should say you bett

welcome to cramerica. i'm just trying to save you money. my job is not just to entertain you but educate and teach. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. dow gaining four points, nasdaq slipped .06%. we can talk all we want about what's going to happen next week in terms of earnings, stocks. and we will. but this time our game plan begins oddly and strangely on a sunday. sunday when the treasury secretary of the united states of america will be on "meet the press addressing the fiscal cliff situation. as a student of secretary geithner who has studied every move i believe he will report we are going to avoid falling over the fiscal cliff and get deal. in part because the two sides aren't that far apart. they sound like they are but they may not be. both sides recognize that we will be in a recession very quickly, maybe even as soon as the second quarter. if they don't compromise. so listen to me. the tax hikes are so severe. [ audience boos ] >> the spending cuts, particularly the cuts to the military, are so draconian even some republicans who think

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make money. i'm just trying to -- without regina i'm lost. without regina i'm lost! we got some great news to report tonight. our fabulous executive producer regina had a baby girl today. we want to welcome to the world rg2. why do we say rg2? we don't know the name yet. we know she's a winner just like rg 3. we hope the mother, father, son and new baby girl are all having the time of their lives that they so richly deserve mazeltov! >>> before we answer your tweets, we have some homework to take care of. back on october 29th we had a call about in contact, a tiny $275 million cloud-based software company. software service companies. in the call center industry with the stagnate telecom business. i love having cloud applications for transforming business model, too early to buy this one right now. companies have to turn a profit. we need to see more execution on its cloud offerings. if you're looking for a cloud play, stick with salesforce.com or s.a.p. then october 30th, albert in florida asked

welcome to cramerica. my job is to entertain and educate and teach. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. we hear these ironic stories about stocks on the move. and we call them what the hecks. we do these stories when people are baffled that a stock could be going up so much. given the serious concerns that a company seems to be facing. as in what the heck is that stock doing up here? we ask, what the heck is going on with these darn averages? given that we could be falling off the fiscal cliff in less than two weeks time? first, i think there has been a change of heart in washington. the rancor seems to have cooled. perhaps as the new york times said today as the tragedy in connecticut has softened the times. maybe it takes something like this to get the congress and the president to work on things. there does seem to be a spirit of compromise now brewing. i'm not just talking about the end of the year, but any time. the president perhaps holding off raising taxes for those who make $200,000. especially when coupled about this rumored embrace about spending cuts. that could turn the fis

welcome to cramerica. i'm not here to make friends. my job is not just to teach and entertain, but to educate. so call me. all right let's be honest. if you are like me, and you are thinking this whole kit and caboodle, it is getting real on the market. it is very hard to pry off. hence today's action again. the dow is down. nasdaq giving up and paint drying. and we are go to hear from a banker later on in the show. we heard about a weakening consumer today from the owner of darden. which happens to be part of the "mad money" staff. finished down 8.9%. it yields 42%. but, that yield might not be the protection it used to be. that more than doubles the tax on dividends. we saw one of the biggest retail jugger nauts, the gap. sales have become sloppy to surrender $3.57 or 10%. although that doesn't spell the death of retailers, we go off the charts tonight. and we witnessed downward pressure in the oil sector. today is the first day when the group got any lift at all. so what do we do? is it game over for equities should i go home? no, n

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends, i want to teach you. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. i just came back from washington and i got good news and bad news. the good news, they all want to rise above. the bad news, the republicans want to rise above tax increases and the democrats want to rise above spending cuts. you can see that investors want to rise above washington. but this morning rally, the averages got pulled down when harry reid said there probably won't be a deal in time for christmas. who's calling the tune? the nasdaq climbing 1.8%. apple rallied eleven and change. i hope this mini rally is happening because people have looked over the fiscal cliff and they weren't terrified by what they saw. i hope we will get by. i hope they don't mind government intervention in their portfolios. because they are not going away. i hope that because what i heard in washington today were two sides even though i can tell them that a deal would be done and there would be no vacation without legislation, we'd be in much better shape. i have to tell you,

welcome to cramerica. i'm not here to make friends. my job is not just to teach and entertain, but to educate. so call me. all right let's be honest. if you are like me, and you are thinking this whole kit and caboodle, it is getting real on exhausting. it's getting real on the market. one, it's very hard to pry off. and today's blah action again. nasdaq giving up 1.87%. fortunately we'll hear from a real banker. later in the show. heard about a weakened consumers today from not only than darden. a particular favorite to the "mad money" stf. stock pummeled and finished down. a stable operation. it yields an astounding 4.22%. scoop it up. but, may not be the protection. it doubles the tax on dividends. can't be in there saying -- darden. one of the biggest retail juggernauts. the gap. sales have become sloppy to surrender $3.57 or 10%. although that doesn't spell the death of retailers, we go off the charts tonight. sectors are really doing -- how are they doing? we just witnessed -- relentless pressure in the oil sector. the department

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you some money.y job is not just to entertain you but i'm trying to teach and coach you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. in recent years stocks have become more hated, hated more than any time i can remember in my entire career. spans a lot of time! but you know what? i still believe anyone can turn a profit in the stock market, as long as you're willing to put in the time and the effort to keep track of what you own. i wouldn't come out here every night to try to educate you if i didn't think it was not just theoretically possible but actually feasible for the vast majority of people to succeed at managing their own money. so if that's the case, then why is investing so darn difficult? how come so many people struggle to make money in the stock market? how the heck can i believe it possible for you to beat the averages, the big benchmarks, when so many people and fund managers fail to do so? simple. you can do it but you have to do it the right way. one of the biggest obstacles to successful investing

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. my job is not just to entertain, but i'm trying to teach you, to educate. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. do we pay too much attention to apple? do we pay too much attention to the fiscal cliff at the expense of everything else? averages once again around the flat line with the dow up 15 points, nasdaq rising .530%. we talk about how the transports fare well, or how i like the new honeywell application. where you should buy the aig over the dip. it's fun for us to puzzle over the strength of hewlett packard. deckers down $3 because of the warm weather impact on uggs. is that what's behind coach today? that's what i regard as productive use of my time. but unfortunately, that's not the case for many of you and in many ways, it's not what you need to hear. in fact all those issues i just mentioned aren't even mildly important compared to the big stories we battle every day. first let's tackle the fiscal cliff. i'm beginning to hear a ton of blowback about how we talk about it way too much

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you a little money. >> i wouldn't cop out here every night to try to educate you if i didn't just think it was not just theoretically possible but actually feasible for the vast majority of people to succeed at managing their own money. so if that's the case, then why is investing so darn difficult? how many people struggle to make money in the stock market in how the heck can i believe it possible for you to beat the average, the big benchmarks when so many fund managers fail to do so? simple. you can do it but you have to do it the right way. one of the biggest obstacles to successful investing is a lack of clarity about just what investing is supposed to mean. i have seen countless people try to follow the conventional wisdom about money management, only to have their investments wiped out because the conventional wisdom is wrong. and the worst part is those people had no idea they were making a mistake. they actually thought they were being responsible. in

welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i just want to help you make some money. my job is to educate, teach and coach you so call me, 1-800-743-cnbc. so that's what it will look like if we fall off the fiscal cliff. i'm talking about how the stock market acted today, particularly near the end of the day before the closing rally, dow diving 75 points. s & p sinking .63%. nasdaq, plunging .72%. because now it's dawning on stock holders they are facing something like the debt ceiling debacle. if the armed camps in washington don't disarm and agree to talk to each other in a serious way, and not just the bluster sessions that seem to be happening daily these days, which reminds me, do you remember -- do you remember the debt ceiling nightmare last year? going to those horrendous talks last summer, everybody felt very confident that the president and congress weren't really at loggerheads. market was almost at its high. pretty good, vix low. then like now, we heard that the discord was only political posturing. the stock market

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm trying to save you money. my job is not just to entertain, but to teach. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. maybe it just doesn't matter, maybe the stock market stays buoyant because the fiscal cliff buoyant because the fiscal cliff buoyant because the fiscal cliff buoyant because the fiscal cliff buoyant because the fiscal cliff buoyant because the fiscal cliff buoyant because the fiscal cliff is not that big of an issue. maybe that's why the averages once again refuse to drop dramatically, the dow falling 60 points. despite the obvious impasse i saw firsthand when i appeared on "meet the press" with david gregory this weekend, i know i've been interpreting the market's relative success through a difficult period. success is defined by no huge hammering like we had during the debt ceiling crisis as a sign that either perhaps people didn't understand what awaits them -- no no! or that there might be a deal on the horizon to avoid the fiscal cliff, the fact that the republicans put out an offer, like their old offer

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends, i'm just trying to save you a little money. my job is not just to entertain but to coach you and teach you. so call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. it is so easy to be negative right now! >> boo! >> incredibly easy. and when the gloom lifts. >> the house of pain. >> it almost feels like a reprieve from some sort of stock market death sentence, as it did today with the dow climbing 83 points. the nasdaq declined .77% largely because of apple, more on that later. now, i am not dismissive of the negativity that see pretty much everywhere. we've got a couple of real solid reasons to feel totally downbeat. first, i can't believe we're still focusing on this washington thing. for five years we've had to keep one eye on washington, one eye on wall street. i remember whole ten-year stretches i didn't care what was happening down there. at the moment, we can barely focus on anything but washington. the whole u.s. economy, your entire portfolio is hostage to two warring

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i want to help you make a little money. my job is not just to entertain but i'm trying to teach and coach you. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. you can blame the democrats for their inability to offer any cuts to spending. you can blame the republicans for not wanting to even consider tax increases. but don't you dare blame ben bernanke for not being willing to take bold action to get this economy hiring and moving again! even if his statements about economic weakness ultimately cause the averages to stumble from some pretty lofty levels. dow ultimately declining ability 3 points, s & p inching up 4.4%. closing in positive territory. nasdaq giving up .28%. when you look at what ben when you look at what ben bernanke did today you've got to marvel. the republicans themselves refuse to get specific on spending until they see something from the white house. the elected portion of our government is not helping this economy at all. their failure to rise above politics to reach a compromise is now really starting to hurt the u.s. econo

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to save you a little money. i'm trying to coach you here. so call me at 1-8800-743-cnbc. do we worry too much? i found myself asking that question all day as the dow surged 100 points. s&p gained 1.19%. the nasdaq climbed 1.32 percent. i found myself asking because the litany of worries that i hear daily on tv and read on the web would frighten anyone out of the stock market. as we know from all the cash that's falling out of equities including probably today, that fright's having an impact, even as it clearly took a holiday into today's session. now, i am not advocating complacency, not after a beautiful day like today. that would be irresponsible. we do have a ton of things to be concerned about. why don't we do this. let's tick down the differences between what i'm hearing people worry about versus what's truly worrisome. so we get to the phony worry and the real worry. first the fiscal cliff. something very important has happened in the discussion of the cliff. and

welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends. i'm just trying to help you save some money. my job is not just to entertain you but i'm trying to educate and teach you. call me. 1-800-743-cnbc. you want to get a sense of just how important this -- i hate to even say it anymore -- fiscal cliff is? today we got an incredible employment report from the labor department. with 146,000 new jobs. i was looking for 90,000. the unemployment rate dropping to 7.7. i thought it might be 8%. and all this despite the effects of hurricane sandy. who knows how high we could have been if it weren't for that darn hurricane? yet the market barely blinked. yet the potential layoffs if we go over the cliff make these rearview numbers seem almost irrelevant to the market. hence the mixed performance of the averages today. sure, dow gained 81 points, but the s&p barely budged, edging up 29%. and the nasdaq actually declined .38%, led once again by the slip sliding away apple, which you know i like, but how many times during a particular show can i say i

hey, i'm cramer, welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica.ther people want to make friends, i'm just trying to make you a little money. my job is not just to entertain, but i'm trying to coach you about this market, educate. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. you know what? we always spend way too much time worrying, fretting about what could occur. and not nearly enough time thinking about what didn't occur. what didn't go wrong. i've pondered this positive observation all day. the dow ultimately diving 99 points, s&p giving up .76% and the nasdaq declining .33%. because, well, this might hold the key to why we have come up so far in recent weeks, didn't see it today, though, and why we may be in better shape than we realize despite today's action. yes, this stock market could do well over the next few months, even if the two sides in washington can't rise above politics and come up with a reasonable budget that has both spending cuts and tax increases as seems to be the case right now after the president's discouraging press conference, which sugge

welcome to "mad money," welcome to cramerica. other people want to make friends, i'm just trying to help you make money. my job is not just to entertain, but to teach, to coach and demand tonight. call me at 1-800-743-cnbc. memo, memo to the president and congress -- ♪ you are now screwing up this fiscal cliff stuff royally with your hard line positions and your ridiculous protestations that you can't compromise. here's why. we are close, very close right now, within our grasps, to becoming the leader of the world when it comes to technology, innovation, natural resources, and finance. you are the only thing standing in our way. you are our ball and you are our chain. we saw glimmers of it today. like today dow rallies 40 points, s&p gained .33%, nasdaq .52%. whether it's the ceos of the biggest of the big,or the smallest of the small. tonight's guest of lumber liquidators, the intransigence the mean-spirited debates, the pledge is not to raise taxes, it's costing this nation a once in a lifetime opportunity to reassert itself as