Anybody read this before?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060086513
In 1994 Cramer hired Nicholas Maier as a favor to Marty Peretz, who was close with the Maier family. Maier worked for Cramer until 1998, then left and wrote a tell-all book about his years with Cramer:
Trading with the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer’s Wall Street (New York: HarperCollins, 2002) It contained detailed description of Cramer’s manic and abusive style. For example, Maier recounted the following scene after a trader at Cramer’s firm, Mark Kantor, executed a buy order at a price one-quarter point higher than what Cramer had expected,
a total difference of $625:
“‘The broker fukked us, big time!’
“‘The eighth offering was fading when we called,’ Mark explained.
“Jim bit down on his lower lip as his hands clench into fists. He leaned forward to get closer to Mark, and started banging on the top of his monitors. The crown of his balding skull reddened as he yelled at the top of his lungs in a high-pitched whine.
“‘I told you they
fukked us!
fukked us,
fukked us,
fukkedus!’
“‘Listen to me.’ With piercing eyes Jim scanned our sober faces. ‘This is not some
fukking joke!’ he screamed, spit flying from his mouth. ‘We are at war. We are in a foxhole.’ He flung out his hands. ‘Everyone out there is the
enemy!’
“Mark nodded to show Jim that he understood. That wasn’t what Jim wanted. He started smashing his phone over and over on the desk in front of him. He lifted a monitor and heaved it like a shot put. After flying several feet, it shattered on the floor.” (
Trading with the Enemy, page 29).
Maier also described Cramer’s questionable trading ethics. One passage noted a brush with naked short selling:
Jim turns toward his head trader. “Mark, sell ten thousand Bristol Myers.”
“We never bought any Bristol Myers,” Mark replies.
“We own the calls,” Jim corrects Mark impatiently, aggravated by the delay.
“So sell it
short?” Mark asks for clarification. Mark knows that according to the SEC rule book, selling stock you don’t already own (even if you
do own the call options) must be marked and executed as a short sale.
“You are confusing me with someone who gives a shyt. Just
sell it! I
said hit the fukking bid!” :Laugh: adds Jim, not interested in wasting time over petty semantics. Skirting the “plus tick” rule in this case won’t necessarily make us a lot of extra money, but in Jim’s eyes, the rule is still an unenforceable annoyance. “And don’t
ever ask me that again!” (Trading With the Enemy, pages 70-71).
Please put a pin in this expression of Jim Cramer’s concern for this somewhat obscure “plus tick” rule. I will return to it later.
Maier also describes Jim’s cozy yet perilous relationship with analysts at brokerage firms. When one unlucky analyst forgot to call Jim before he downgraded a stock, Jim screamed into the phone:
“All I pay you
too much fukking money for is … to pick
upthe
goddamn phone and call me—call
me—before you call
anyone else.” (
Trading With the Enemy, page 86).
In Maier’s artful summary:
“Jim didn’t care whether an analyst was ultimately right in his or her opinion. He just wanted to take advantage of the closest thing to a sure bet in the stock market today: the short-term effect any commentary might have.” (Trading With the Enemy, page 86).
