The Stewart v Cramer Interview

8:30 am If you didn't watch the interview on the Daily Show last night, here it is. The main thing that impressed me was the fact that Jon Stewart was very informed and articulate. I am not saying that I thought Stewart was a knuckle-dragging imbecile. I have always thought he was a smart guy. What I am saying that I assumed Stewart was just like everyone else who was just pissed about losing half their 401(k) money and wanted someone to take it out on. Stewart was very well informed and well intentioned. He understood at a fairly deep level some of the manipulation that goes on in the market every single day. And he took Cramer and CNBC to task for it. Very impressive.

Cramer didn't say much. He did take some personal and group responsibility for his reporting as well as that of CBNC. I expected Cramer to be a little more aggressive in his defense of Wall Street and the reporting process. There was one interaction where Stewart questioned why CNBC does not call out a CEO when anyone with any knowledge knows that he is lying through his teeth.

I have always wondered why CNBC brings any CEO on the network. What else is a CEO going to say? Earnings are good. We are well capitalized. The future looks very bright. Growth prospects are fantastic. It is not often that we ever get any level of candor from the CEO of a big publicly traded company.

The many, many, manipulative activities behind the scenes that truly make the markets are not and never will be exposed by the news networks. The manipulative money has so much cash and so many lawyers on hand that a news network could never expose them. A news network couldn't say, "We are seeing this in the futures market, XYZ hedge fund is rumored to be trying to create a bear raid."

If anyone participating in the market doesn't think this game is rigged, they simply are not paying attention. Knowing that, there is still a TON of money to be made by the little guy. You just need to know your risk and manage it well. Remember, all it takes is one really good trade per year and preventing big losses in the rest of your portfolio to make money long term. Think about it like this:

$10k portfolio
One trade @ $1k (10% of portfolio risked) that doubles.
That $1k turns into $2k.
Do nothing else with your portfolio all year
You now have a 10% overall return in your portfolio for the year.
You beat most mutual funds, hedge funds, and the market as a whole most years.

Don't complicate things, and until nest time, stay low risk..