Mad Mon(k)ey Jim Cramer

From his perhaps overly forthright explanations of how hedge fund managers distort the market to his ridiculous television ranting and raving, former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer has become something of a pop culture sensation. Unfortunately some foolhardy investors have been seduced by his resume and background and are actually following his advice rather than recognizing Cramer for what he is; an entertainer.

Earlier today I stumbled across an incredibly useful website: www.CramerWatch.org. The site tracks Jim's Lighting Round stock picks and compares his performance to "Leonard the Wonder Monkey." Leonard is an actual monkey who picks his stocks based on a coin flip. The site tracks the performance of the picks over a one month period. Believe it or not even though Leonard was never a hedge fund manager he is outperforming Jim Cramer handily (data since November 1st, 2005):

Ongoing Stats:
Jim Cramer is right 49.30% of the time.
Jim Cramer's picks average a 0.12% ROI after 30 days.

Leonard the Wonder Monkey is right 50.13% of the time.
Leonard's picks average a 0.34% ROI after 30 days.

Of course this post suffers under the weight of one fatal assumption; that is that you actually needed proof that trading based on Jim's recommendations is anything other than sheer tomfoolery.